Lab Arranging and Class Prep
I am devoting today to really trying to get ahead of the game and getting my lab reorganization accomplished and also perhaps get many things ready for Fall.... so that I can relax more completely for the next little while.
I had not talked about my running this week, with all the chatter I have had rattling in my head about the trip to Atlanta. So, for things I missed regarding running:
- I did accomplish the required 55 miles for last week (on Friday, no-less). I actually ran 55.7 miles (~90 km).
- Monday of this week, I ran 13.1 miles (~21 km).... a half marathon.
- Tuesday of this week, I ran 13.1 miles (~21 km)
- Today, I ran 13.1 miles (~21km)
I found a really nice copy of Barnett's "The Rat: A Study in Behavior" used on-line. My own copy is dog-eared, coffee-stained (from one especially large, tragic spill that warped even the spine) and even has a number of burn holes from errant sparks and small embers that had fallen from my pipe whilst I was reading it numerous times over the years. My copy of this classic tome is literally falling to shreds, so a cleaner, more intact copy will help the lab out. Even though the work in this book is roughly 60 years old, it is a very valuable beginner text for my students to read to gain a broad understanding before they delve into the more modern tests/approaches that they *think* they understand, but really do not until they better understand in at least a basic way, research history.
I admit I am feeling rather pipe and pipe tobacco focused today. I am even able to state that I have again a pretty damn strong urge to smoke my pipe. It is still so odd to me that a) the desire to smoke my pipes and pipe tobaccos ebbs and flows with no readily discernible pattern, b) that the desires for smoking a pipe do not linearly decrease like a predictable downward slope on a graph, and c) how discouraging it felt in Atlanta. I was sure that a MAJOR, SOUTHERN CITY, in the heart of tobacco country, would have had at least ONE viable, old-school tobacco shop that had pipes and pipe tobaccos and seating area to indulge in a bowl.
I have not heard anything back from my friend who goes by "Unknown" yet on whether he has received and sampled the "Peter's Pleasure" pipe tobacco. I hope he has had the opportunity and if so he would describe the experience.
PipeTobacco
4 Comments:
The "Peter's Pleasure" was fine, but probably more a triumph of marketing than of blend. If you like Captain Black, I suspect you would like this, which I might describe as a lighter and fruitier take on Captain Black Original, or as a nuttier take on Captain Black Gold. But while I enjoyed it, and will finish what I purchased, it isn't THAT special other than its nice room note. I hate to write that, Professor, as I don't want to do ANYTHING that might discourage you from returning to your pipes. But I am sure that you can find any number of more interesting blends at SmokingPipes.com .
I concur with you that “Peter’s Pleasure” sounds uninspiring. Not to say that there is anything wrong with either Captain Black blend you mentioned…. both are “adequate” blends in my opinion. I was hoping for “Peter’s Pleasure” to be shockingly intriguing and robust. It’s description suggested to me that possibility, yet (as you suggest) it appears to be only marketing hype.
I often do scour through smoking pipes.com…. in some ways it is akin to an electronic “Willy-Wonka” type magical candy store.
PipeTobacco
the desires for smoking a pipe do not linearly decrease like a predictable downward slope on a graph
Do you have any friends or acquaintances who put their pipes down 20 or 30 years ago? Have they shared their experiences with you? I don't think I have heard any former pipe smoker tell me that his desires for a pipe have undergone a "predictable downward slope." What you are feeling now, Professor, is what I assume you will feel for the rest of your life. There are many cigarette smokers, glad to be escaping a nicotine addiction, whose desire not to smoke outweighs any desire for cigarettes. But it seems that pipe smokers are a different breed -- most often entranced by the whole ritual of pipe smoking, for whom a pipe is far, far more than a mere nicotine ingestion device.
Which makes things hard for people like you, it seems, for whom pipe smoking was as much a shared bond of fellowship as it was a treasured private ritual. If in your private ritual you could recapture the memories of shared fellowship, perhaps returning to your pipes would be an unfettered joy. But if all it would do is remind you of your aloneness as a pipe smoker, I can imagine your dilemma.
Pat, your last paragraph is especially insightful. Unfortunately, I am not sure how it would be for me.
Your first paragraph has a lot of food for thought for me as well. Yet, I know of no one (at least alive) who gave up the pipe for a considerable time to speak with.
PipeTobacco
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