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Episode 234: Pipe Culture - the Aristocrat and the Farmer

Welcome & Housekeeping: Jon David continues to lament on the struggles of life and how much his pipe has been an asset. Beau talks about Best of Jackson 2018, for which CSR was nominated for best local podcast. It did not win, however Beau’s Podastery podcast ‘Let’s Talk Jackson’ did win. Raleigh Pipe Expo Reception Party coming up soon on April 6, from 5-9pm at the Ramada Inn on Blue Ridge Rd. in Raleigh, NC. The Pipe & Tobacco Expo is on Saturday April 7th, 9am-4:30pm in the Holshauser Building at the NC State Fairgrounds. Texas Pipe Show Oct. 6 2018, additional info to come. Brady Muckelroy (listener) missed the Custom Cob Competition auctions, but made a huge extra donation. Next Custom Cob Competition may be on a different holiday this year, stay tuned! Jon David congratulates Peter Massey on his 100th Loyal Squire’s punchcard, which amounts to 150lbs purchased tobacco from the Country Squire. New pipe club members announced (I won’t try to butcher their names in text as well.) Addendum note: NOLA Pipe Club will be taking a day trip to the Squire on Saturday 2/24.

Topic: JD and Beau reopen the discussion on Pipe Culture, specifically looking at pipe smoking archetypes with community commentary provided by listeners, all detailed below. Additional thanks to www.reddit.com/r/pipetobacco for their contributions to this episode.

/u/SupraMario – “I'm in between both, I've got money to blow on lbs of tobacco and pipes I want...but don't (ok ok, not on the TAD part on the PAD I restrain myself). I own a farm but am a pencil pusher by day...So not poor, not super rich, own a farm, but work in an office.”

/u/LaphroaigianSlip – “The archetypes in my mind are this; one smokes a smooth red stain or black painted briar and the other smokes a humble cob. The briar has a brass or silver ash guard while the cob is unfinished and uneven at the top. The briar is either a Dublin or Billiard. The cob looks somewhere in between the style of Missouri Meerschaum's Mark Twain and The General. That is, the American farmer. The western European farmer would have a more local pipe made of briar, a small pipe with brown stain. Further east you might imagine someone farming in the hills of Greece with a simple bent Meerschaum, enjoying some Latakia with a bottle of ouzo. Further East still I in vision a Chinese farmer coming home in the evening. He sits down with his bamboo pipe. A durable piece that can last a lifetime, even be passed on generationally like a briar while having similar markings to the well worn corn cob pipe, familiar with being handled by dirty hands. It has the markings of earnest and frequent use. The central idea being that the farmer has his pipe from a more local and practical place while the aristocratic has the luxury of smoking something from another continent. The aristocrat has a clean smooth pipe, one in a rotation while the farmer's pipes each see daily use.”

Dillon Shalinder (sp?) – “When I think about the aristocrats, the rich types, I’m reminded of a neat movie called ‘Evil Under the Sun”. The normalcy of seeing a well-to-do man with a pipe allowed the villain to hide a key piece of evidence, that in fact there was a diamond in his pipe the whole movie.”

/r/Broskheim – “If we're talking straight stereotypes, the Farmer (blue collar) is the guy who has 1 pipe (probably a cob or a basket briar), and smokes one blend (probably an a drug store OTC) all day long. The Aristocrat is more the type we see on these kinds of forums. Smokes a multitude of blends from a multitude of pipes, probably once or, at most, twice a day. Probably pairs it with a beverage of some sort, and takes time out of his day to specifically enjoy the pipe.”

Brad Hoctor (@hoctorthelovedr) – “To me a white coll