IPSD 2024

Before he could ask, she smiled and whispered, “Mackenzie, we all have things we value enough to collect, don’t we?” —Sarayu, in Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack (91) Here we are at the 17th annual International Pipe Smoking Day--or as we like to think of it, the International Peterson Smoking Day. Chuck Stanion has a short history over at SPC's Daily Reader if you're new to the day, and while his rosy prophecy regarding the future of the day has yet to come to pass, it is only a matter of time before the world catches a glimpse of its own sorry-looking, stressed-out self in the mirror and realizes it's time to cease and desist.  As Pete Geeks, it's our bounden duty by word and deed to bring healing to the world with our favorite Pete and tobacco as we settle into a comfortable chair  and practice the pipe of peace. This year's PPN theme is La Belle et la Bête, that is, "Beauty and the Beast," taken from the 1740 French fairy tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve but having long ago entered into the lingua franca of fable and received a pretty decent send-up by Disney over 30 years ago now in a ground-breaking animated version.  Pete Geeks from across the globe--Greece, Sweden, China, Britain, Denmark, the United States and elsewhere have answered the call today to bring forth from their rotations both “Beauty” and “Beast" in which to offer up the "Soverane Herb" (W. A. Penn) in salutation of the world's finest smoking pipes and the Fellowship of the Briar.   Cheyen Lloyd, CPG. The beast of a pipe would have to be a 1902 hallmarked House Pipe, in a pinch it could be easily wielded as a club.  A 1980 hallmarked Meerschaum, almost too beautiful to smoke… almost!   Lance Dahl, CPG. My beauty pipe is my Peterson 1898 O1 w/ Rose gold band. This is one of those pipes that should be displayed at Peterson someday. The beast is my 1899 one-off shape, it's a huge pipe the bowl is 3” tall, Chamber depth is 2.35”, Chamber diameter is 1.1”, wall thickness at the top of the bowl is .43”. The stem is 7” long from where the bone chimney screws into the stem. It has two of the infamous Maltese crosses stamped below the Peterson Patent lines.  Sláinte!   Shimshon Cook, CPG (Talmudic Scholar). Tractate Shalom Beis Daf Alef, Amud Bet Beauty is smooth, sturdy and voluminous. Beasty is slightly stacked, sandblasted and works well with Syrian leaf. Rav Balat HaBeit says “If the room note is strong and if the weather is nice, then Beasty. If the room note is light and the weather is not nice then Beauty.” Rebbetizn Ishti says “If strong, then Beauty.” Rav Shalom HaTzaddik says “if Shalom Beis is the ikar and the weather is nice, then Beauty or Beasty it makes no difference. If Ishti is with, that opinion supersedes all other opinions regardless of the…