215. IPSD 2021 Invitation to Earn Your CPG Certificate
Last year’s IPSD on Peterson Pipe Notes was such a great success, with readers sharing some marvelous stories and their favorite pipes from across the globe, that I think we need to move it to the next level for this year’s celebration, which is just three weeks away on Saturday, February 20th. As I’ve emailed back and forth with many readers during the pandemic, one theme recurs in our conversations—how our pipes bring us the opportunity to stop and find some stability, some comfort and some time for reflection as the pandemic continues to impact everyone across the globe. When I talked to Joe M. yesterday on the phone, he told me how when he gets a new tin of tobacco his eight-year-old daughter has to be there to give it some investigative sniffs: “Raisins? A little cinnamon? Peppery? Light it up—let’s see how it smells, Daddy!” “Train up a up a child in the way she should go” (Proverbs 22.6) . . . Certified Pete Geek (from the certificate) This year’s celebration offers you the opportunity to earn your C.P.G. certificate. Think of it—just by participating you can earn the right to add C.P.G.—“Certified Pete Geek”—to the end of your name, as in “Charles Mundungus, C.P.G.”* Entertain, enlighten and edify friends and neighbors with all the rights and privileges appertaining to using this badge simply by completing the following Thought Experiment. Afterwards, I'll send a personalized certificate you can download and use for a tobacco drying paper, frame and hang on your wall or both. What a great deal, right? Read Philip Booth’s “Provisions” below, then answer these questions: What single Pete would you take with you? Why that pipe? What single tin (or jar) of tobacco would you take? With you answer, send a selfie with the Pete and tobacco you choose. If you don't want to send a photo of yourself, you can still enter by sending your answers and just the photo. Be sure to tell me how to list your name—your privacy in these strange days belongs to you. Charles Mundungus, as a ward of the state of Switzerland, doesn’t much care as he’s virtually inaccessible at the asylum *er* resort he lives. But do let me know how you'd like your name to appear. There are Pete lovers that have viewed this blog from 189 of the 195 countries recognized by the United Nations. It would be great to hear from a Pete Geek in every one of them! PROVISIONS The paperback somebody left on the plane tells what you’ll need to carry on your person: immune seeds in a shielded packet, something of value to barter, a hardener to refill your own teeth. The book suggests what weapon to take against your own kind. And the canteen of water from pipes still safe; salve for your skin; a drug, at any cost, against immediate pain. You already know you won’t want for matches; you will have thought, long since, of boots with impervious…