Peterson Plato

  It’s almost funny, me wanting to forget the Everything That Happened, when that was exactly where I was still stuck. Maybe the only way to get unstuck was to remember. --Allie Millington, Olivetti (2024) First, this is not about FOMO—“fear of missing out”—and neither is it about PPAD—“Peterson Pipe Acquisition Disorder.”  So if you feel your heart palpitate, your blood pressure rise, or your fingers begin scrolling to retail sites for pipes of days past, get up.  Get up, pour yourself another cup of coffe (a.m.), a nice cold beer (p.m.), but by all means pack your best contemplative Pete and light up. This morning is just about remembering.  Remembering is something the West has largely forgotten how to do, maybe because of technology, maybe because of the terrors of the still-too-recent 20th century. It’s sometimes a traumatic thing and sometimes a very sweet responsibility. When it’s a sweet thing without any trace of remorse it goes under another name: gratitude. If you’re a bird-watcher or a leaf-peeper or engage in thousands of other flow activities, you know that it’s often enough and more than enough to see or hear something: a great BugEye Sprite at the car show, a Robin Redbreast in Ireland, or (as in our case this morning) a great Peterson that we may never own and even may not want to own. Just seeing and admiring is sometimes enough. It's the attitude of gratitude. When I first began to think about K& P’s 2024 pipes, I thought there hadn’t been many new releases. I was seriously mistaken. I. St. Patrick’s Day 2024 (January 16th). See Post #380 This release took most of us by surprise and certainly those who loved it really loved it. It’s a System, which I’m sure a lot of folks overlooked when they saw the green acrylic ferrule.  Just a few minutes ago I was looking at a 307 ebony SPD System and wondering whether January is too late or too early to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  Opinion? Looking back from the distance of a few months now, I really do like the ebony and the chestnut smooth.   II. Shannon Air System (April 1st). See Post #391 The Shannon Air System was one of those experimental projects that come along every ten or twenty years in Peterson history. It sold out on the first day—as so often happens with these high grade special releases. The triangular shanks brought to mind similar pipes by Lorenzi back in the late 1970s and early 1980s which I’ve always adored, and the sheer beefiness is beyond belief. The engineering principal is one not far distant from Charles Peterson’s own, seen in the so-called “reverse” calabashes of about 10-15 years ago, but wedded to the bolder muscular aesthetic of Peterson’s house style. If you didn’t get one, drop a line to K&P’s Federica Bruno or Glenn Whelan and add your name to the petition—it may be we’ll see another release next year if we all…