A SECRET VICE

Sometimes you overlook the little things. Like quick convenience coffee crystals, bag tea, mainlining harsh chemicals straight into your rapidly collapsing veins (mmm, that subtle sting of drain cleaning solution!), or what grampa out in the woodshed next to the compost heap is smoking because your Nan won't let him puff anywhere in the house, and not even close to the dirt road or driveway, lest the old ladies from her church good works group might see him there and get the wrong impression.
This farmstead is a house of sin, forsooth!
With a pervert out front.
And tobacco.

Well, it could also be marijuana, they grow a lot of that in the hinterland, even the good bahbul-thumpin' folk, but they never use it themselves, heaven forfend.


An old-time blend like Carter Hall. Named after the Virginia estate of Lt. Col. Nathaniel Burwell (1750–1814). It's very scenic.

CARTER HALL

Fair quality Burley and Virginia tobaccos, scant top-note, manufactured by John Middleton Incorporated.
Shpritzed with Bourbon and chocolate.

Please remember that I do not smoke drugstore blends, but if I was stuck on the road to Podunk behind a slow-moving bigwheel, I would likely stop at the nearest liquor store and pick up a pack, along with an easily graspable bottle of whiskey for the road ahead.

This is rather good stuff. Not bad.

Slightly grassy, a faint whiff of chocolate which accentuates the Burley, and a mild alcoholic fragrance. Goes well with strong coffee as a first smoke of the day. Other than that, it's lighter and smoother than many over-the-counter blends, and the tobaccos used are good. There is a creaminess, a nuttiness. It isn't a complex tobacco mixture.
But it's a very decent sort.
Pleasant.

Suitable to old codgers.



"You know, son, sometimes you just have to get up and walk around a bit, to get the creases and wrinkles in your behind from sitting too long in that cane chair out on the veranda unfolded and the circulatives going again. 'Course, you might have to pee too. Comes with old age. That's what your mom's rosebushes are for, they thrive on that. It adds acid to the soil, giving it a pH of 6.5 to 6.8 which is best for the absorption of nutrients.
Are you alright, son? You look a little peaked. Don't worry, roses and behind wrinkles are "natural". They're green!"

In the interest of total transparency, I do not have a veranda.
And the cane chair is upstairs in the teevee room.
It's actually rattan, from Pier 1.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================