Monday, August 01, 2016

THE CURMUDGEON'S FRIEND

The single man learns to take pleasure in little things. Especially when the big things no longer crop up, like passion, wild romance, roses, or just soft little hands grasping one's own big mits tightly while dozing.
Or, for that matter, the things I never did in the first place, like dance the night away at a South of Market club while getting blotto on energy drinks and flavoured vodka.

Yesterday evening I made another batch of my own pipe tobacco blend. This is the fifth variant of the recipe I started working on over a year ago, and the fourth time I've blended a batch since finalizing it.

It smells like one of those old-fashioned honest clean products that people used to smoke, before one section of the pipe smoking world went aromatic crazy, and the rest lost their minds on ever more Byzantine mixes and mine-is-better-than-yours snobbery.

It didn't have a name for a long time.

I think I'll now call it "Sorrow's End", because it makes me happy.
Not as much as sex, or a nice bowl of chocolate pudding, oh heavens yes, but nevertheless, I am quite happy with it. Being on the smoking end, it is hard for me to know the room note, but whenever I've got a good whiff it reminds me of afternoon sunlight, dustmotes dancing, open windows and gently billowing curtains, black and white photographs, and how pencils, ink, and good drawing paper, feel in the hands.

Uncomplicated, and unassuming, but very enjoyable.

It also makes me think of Teddy Bears.
Resolutely independent Teddy Bears.
With stubborn facial expressions.

It goes well with tea.













Virginia, virginia, virginia, air-cured, Turkish.
Touches of Kentucky and Perique.

Yeah, okay, that's probably a little peculiar, and you probably did not need to know that. But all rational people should have stuffed animals that they value in their lives. And the sooner you admit that to yourself, the better you will be.



TOBACCO INDEX


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where can I get a sample?

The back of the hill said...

Unfortunately that is nearly impossible. It will not be commercially available.

In the past I looked at the possibility of getting some of my blends into commercial production, but realized that that was an uphill battle, and I decided against pursuing that road.

Now, with the FDA coming down on the tobacco industry like a tonne of bricks, it is even less of an option.

Monsieur Maigret said...

Here's how the do-gooders and prohibitionists are screwing us: FDA tobacco policies impact.

It's going to be rough.

Monsieur Maigret said...

And this is another article about the FDA screwing us: Zombies in charge.

This will inevitably destroy the brick-and-mortar small business.

Monsieur Maigret said...

And, if that weren't enough to scare youo shitless, the FDA estimates the average cost at $466,563 per application.
See here: Only Reynolds and Philip Morris can afford this.

The FDA's "deeming regulations" will, in the end, prove counterproductive, as more and more people realize that breaking the law is advantageous and profitable.

The last round of prohibitionism gave us organized crime, the Kennedys, and the FBI. We're still on the fence about the desirability of any of those three.

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