Bought a stumpy pearwood Mr Brog to add to the #pipe collection, but more utility than anything else. I wanted something easily pocketable that I can take with me on hikes without worrying about damage in my bag of tricks. If I lose it or break it, $30 is less of a loss than snapping a delicate $130 Peterson stem.

Contrary to many pipe enjoyers, I quite like pear's wide, soft grain. It has a nice gradient to each ring.

Hobbies being hobbies, vice or no vice, I am henceforth adding #tobaccopipes to the hashtag rotation since it's also a side hobby of mine and I'm welcome to anyone else who finds my posts under the tag to participate. I am also on pipesmokersdens.com with those dudes.
it's unhealthy and you'll die
My soul shudders to think of how unhealthy my reading and meditation habits would be without it.

The scale is level.

TRESSAILLEMENT DES CHEVAUX DE COURSE (Sylva Fischerová)

Illustration: Daniel Densborn      TRESSAILLEMENT DES CHEVAUX DE COURSE Parfois il suffit d'éteindre seulement la lampe et de rester assis dans la nuit bleue comme un tressaillement des chevaux de course. Mais si le tressaillement des chevaux de course est vert ? S'il est brun ? Ils ont dit : Est-il jaune plus que blanc ? Est-il rideau plus table que botte ? Est-il tabac plus pipe qu'allumettes ? Vraiment, questions absurdes et eux, ils se moquent. Parce qu'ils ne […]

https://arbrealettres.wordpress.com/2026/06/12/tressaillement-des-chevaux-de-course-sylva-fischerova/

I bought a #tobacco #pipe, used off of ebay. I'd been feeling a bit of a #Tolkien vibe to my reading and at some point looked up from my book about two weeks ago and was like "you know what...".

I am currently addicted to nicotine, have been for 15+ years. I started smoking right out of high school around "the wrong crowd" and I've been vaping ever since and recently transitioned to smokeless tobacco/snus and velo. My habit is currently controlled, isn't as unbearable as it used to be, even if I should quit.

and I should quit... anyone should. No one should "start", which, btw, disclaimer
: If you aren't currently biologically addicted to nicotine, stop right here, take inventory of yourself. This is a small blog, an opinion from one man, one misguided, weak human being. Do not take anything here as a suggestion. Good? Good. Do not consider me influential. I am not. Do not take my words as suggestions. They are not.

Ok, continue with this "examination" into the mismanaged life of a drug-addict, which you (obviously) are not, and will continue to not be by the time this is over.

Won't you?

wipes forehead I'm watching you! Don't you dare open ebay.

Alright...

It's mellow, enjoyable, calming, surprisingly cheap and you'd never want to do it constantly anyway. There's an entire process to it that makes it a full-on, attentive experience and it isn't something you'd want to do whilst preoccupied with other things.

How it differs
If pipe smoking is "smoking", it's about... 70% incense, and 30%... actually "smoking".

I'd say that yes, technically a pipe was "smoked", but only in the sense that a fire was lit and I enjoyed it tangentially, not in the same sense that I lit a joint and attempted to injest every bit of it lest I waste the $120 worth of bud wrapped up into it. Pipe smoking is less interested in the ingestion of (insert drug) and more interested in the...

_...ingestion of_

_V I B E S._ ~ Cello plays ~

Am I advocating that anyone young or old out there goes and buys a tobacco pipe and reads some Lord of the Rings by a tree outside?

Y-yes, actually. That sounds lovely. Can we bring a dog and some picnic supplies? Some watermelon. It is summer, after-all.

-Wait a minute, NO. That's not how this goes! You aren't supposed to want to do this! Stop smiling! Do NOT go and get addicted to nicotine because some lonely millenial is adventuring into fantasy novels and has decided that full-bore immersion would be neat. This is a sad tale of woe!

If you are my age, and you've made your mistakes, and you want to chill, yeah, come with me, fellow graybeard. To the mountain! Grab your churchwarden and staff. We leave at dawn.