10. The Father’s Day 2014 Pipes
Gifting or being gifted a pipe is an interesting subject, one that comes to mind with the fairly recent release of the Peterson Father’s Day 2014 pipes. My nephew, still an undergraduate, sent me an almost-new Peterson 05 Ebony Calabash a few months back, saying that he’d never smoke it again. A former girlfriend had given it to him and it didn’t seem right, somehow, to smoke it in the presence of his current flame. So he wanted to donate it to me to be used in the cause of the Peterson book, as we’re always buying new and estate pipes and Peterson ephemera. My wife, like the spouses and significant others of so many long-time pipemen, is very reluctant these days to give me a pipe unless I pick it out myself. I suppose most of us have similar stories to tell, but in a way it’s a shame, because if it can be properly managed, there’s nothing quite so nice either for the giver or the receiver. 606 Saddle, Obverse On Father’s Day last month I sent my Dad (now in his 80s) an Amazon gift card, that all-pupose palliative for gift-givers who are a little uncertain what might be received with genuine enthusiasm. He’s become a great reader over the past twenty years, so I knew it would come in useful. When he and my Mom came for a visit a few weeks later, he asked if he could borrow a pipe, as he’d not brought his. 606 Saddle, Reverse As we were looking at my pipes, I told him I was surprised he’d started smoking again. He’d stopped because of some sinus problems a few years ago, but mostly because his doctor—like mine—made such a huge deal about it. (I won’t get on my soapbox here about how there’s next to no negative medical evidence concerning moderate pipe-smoking [1-2 bowls a day] without inhaling.) So my Dad’s got this new thing—“The Six Match Rule,” he calls it. He can smoke his pipe until he’s used up six matches, then he stops for the day. Anyway, as he was picking out a pipe, I thought of the recent Father’s Day pipes Conor Palmer at Peterson had sent to review here on the blog, and decided I’d make a late Father’s Day gift of one of them. It took him awhile to decide, which made it even more fun for me. You may have noticed this year’s Father’s Day pipes were slow getting to the U.S., not even appearing until just at Father’s Day on June 15th. There was a bit of a mix-up with the distributor, apparently, which slowed things down, but you can find them now at most of the U.S. e-tailers. The bowls are graded “Plain,” which is Peterson’s bread-and-butter, middle-of-the-road grade from which Standard Systems and Arans, among other lines, are culled. You can expect some tiny fills—I couldn’t actually find any on the 606 pictured here, although I’m sure there are some.…