AT COCK CROW

The problem with other people taking a bath early in the morning before heading off to work is that they make wet sounds. Which, through the magic of subconscious associations, will make other people wish to pee. Damned well impossible when the wet sounds are ongoing and the room with all the water devices is fully occupied. Splash splash splash.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. Be clean, little fairy, be clean!
Yeah no please don't scoop the water into a bucket.
I know there's a drought going on.
Just leave it there.

So I went out to smoke a pipe, cognizant of the tree next to the bus stop where all the drunks urinate late at night. The bus stop was fully occupied. Office workers. Little old Chinese ladies. A sleeping street person. Kiddies going to school.


A fine red Virginia pipe tobacco mixture compounded by Cornell & Diehl in South Carolina tastes exceptionally good when your bladder is fit to burst. Jeremy Reeves, the skilled master blender at C & D, probably had precisely that in mind when he invented it.
.
The dude hosing down the pavement outside the night club wasn't helping.
Resolutely walk in the other direction.
Dammit.

Somewhere I have a few tins of Exhausted Rooster, a C & D pressed blend that Craig Tarler put out for the Chicago Pipe Show fourteen years ago. I have never felt a need to attend that or any other pipe events, although when I was working at Drucquers in Berkeley I enjoyed the pipe show that Robert Rex organized at Fort Mason. But I was there professionally.

Afterwards I was sad that my collection at that time did not have the stellar pieces I saw that weekend from other aficionadoes. Which I could not afford.

My collection has grown a bit since then. I'm perfectly happy with what I now have, and don't really need to see yours. Unless you wish to show off how well you've restored that recent acquisition (I can appreciate your skill and your pleasure in a job well done), or you wish to disquisition on how that pipe / those pipes perfectly exemplify the shapes that you obsess about. Obsessions, I can dig. I've got a few of those myself.


Exhausted Rooster is a fine blend. Bold, and not an all day smoke. The fire-cured Burley seems to dominate, the flue-cured leaf plays a supporting role, the Perique is noticeable.
Imagine something that Charles Rattray could have made if he were jazzed on coffee.
Might open a tin soon. Might not.


Later today I'll head over to Chinatown for some jook and yautiu at the cheap place. An early lunch or late breakfast. Followed by another pipefull on one of the quieter streets.
Must pee before I leave the house. It's very important.

TOBACCO INDEX


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