Saturday at the Hut - 3/19/11

Bob on the Left, Joe on the Right
(in more ways than one).
Click to enlarge.

As many of you know, Joe K and I are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. In point of fact, I think I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum from most of the regulars at The Tobacco Hut. But Joe and I have the most fun with our rivalry. It all started several months ago when I purchased an National Public Radio shirt and wore it proudly to the shop one Saturday. Joe countered with a shirt of his own several weeks later that said "Pipe Down You Silly Liberal". Actually, he wore a homemade shirt a little earlier, one that sported a circle with a line drawn through it over the initials "NPR". Well, I finally came up with a counter to his counter, and I wore it today. I forewarned Joe, so he made sure to wear his "Silly Liberal" shirt. Thanks to Adrian for taking this picture (with Joe's camera, and thanks to Joe for actually sending me the picture!) of the two of us. Your turn Joe!


Peter G was at the store when I arrived. It was great to see him, as it's been a few weeks. He spent a week sailing around the Caribbean on a Norwegian cruise a week ago. He confirmed what my wife and I suspected after our last cruise, that a balcony room is well worth the price. We had a window only and kind of wish we had sprung for the balcony. 


Barry C and his son Chris came in. I had never met Chris before and, other than some pretty towering height, he looks a lot like Barry (poor guy!). Apparently Barry's work schedule has changed, so hopefully we'll see more of him on Saturdays now. Barry didn't have a lot of time so he got a new cigar that Lou started carrying, the Ashton Half Corona. It smelled good and Barry reported that it was a nice smoke, so by the end of the day I bought a 5-pack of them. Looking forward to trying it.


Today I enjoyed a bowlful of Dunhill 965, a rich English blend characterized by Macedonian tobacco, Latakia, and Brown Cavendish. It was my go-to blend when I first began smoking an English and I actually found this tin this past week, shoved to the back of a closet. I had feared that it had been opened and was now completely dry, but it was still vacuum sealed and tasted wonderful in the Ascorti Peppino sandblast. 


Ed B pulled up in his uncovered Jeep, obviously enjoying the beautiful weather. Besides discussing the announced retirement of Ed's boss, Sheriff Bob White, a lot of the talk was about the NCAA March Madness tournament that was on TV. Fortunately Lou kept it tuned to that instead of the golf tournament that was being held down the street at Innisbrook. 


Adrian came in and I have to say I was looking forward to his arrival as much as I had been anxious to show Joe my new shirt. See, Adrian and I had a chess game to finish from last week. We had adjourned it and Lou graciously allowed us to - rent free - keep the chessboard set up in one of his display cases. Pleasantries were exchanged and we quickly set up the table and resumed the game. I was a little concerned at first because I had a gaping hole in my king's defenses, but I found that I was able to go a piece up and finally whittled my way down to a victory.


In that game, I was playing the white pieces and Adrian the black. And it just so happened that our respective pieces matched our own, ahem, skin color. As Adrian congratulated me on my victory, Joe commented that perhaps he should change his color to white for the next game. Adrian responded quickly by rubbing his arm and saying, "I don't think it's going to come off!" We all burst out laughing and I think "race relations" are just fine at the Hut!


That next game was a bit of a nail biter, but I eventually prevailed. And so we played another game. And again I prevailed. It was now 4:30 and Adrian was eager for a final rematch. I begged off at first, not wanting to have to adjourn a game like we did last week. He insisted, saying we could get in a quick match. I finally agreed and the game was afoot.


Adrian was playing white and opened with 1.e4 (advancing the king's pawn two squares). I responded with 1... e6, the French Defense. I made an early positional misstep, but thought I was doing pretty well because I was soon up by two pawns. We were moving along at a pretty good pace and I was soon bearing down on his castled king. What I neglected were his two rooks that he had along the e-file. I went in for the kill, aiming for a back rank mate, but out of seemingly nowhere, he advanced the first rook, checking my king. I had only one move available and with no hesitation Adrian advanced the second rook, bringing the sword of checkmate upon me. I was speechless and I'm sure my jaw dropped two inches. Adrian, having suffered through a number of straight losses, jumped up and let out a victorious howl. 


Slowly shaking my head, I extended my hand to congratulate my most formidable opponent. Well played, my friend, well played.


I can't wait 'til next week!


 - Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 3/12/11

I walked into The Tobacco Hut this afternoon eager to fire up a bowl of a tobacco that I haven't had in years, Dunhill's Early Morning Pipe. The Dunhill collection of tobaccos have been off the market for a number of years. From my understanding, it was a marketing decision by Dunhill to retreat from the U.S. market, while maintaining their brand presence overseas. Some pipe smokers have publicly announced a boycott when the Dunhill tobaccos returned in November of last years, but I was excited they were back. Dunhill has always produced a premium pipe tobacco and I couldn't wait to light up a pipe full of one of their blends.


I've tried many of the Dunhill blends over the years and settled on two favorites: Early Morning Pipe and My Mixture 965. The latter is one of the first English blends I tried while working for the Tinder Box over twenty years ago and it opened up a whole new world for me as a pipe smoker. The intricacies and nuances of a fine English blend of tobacco are sometimes an acquired taste but, once obtained, bring a new appreciation to pipe smoking.


Last week I ordered a tin of Early Morning Pipe from my old manager, Mike, at the Tinder Box in Dublin, Ohio and today was its inaugural smoke. Early Morning is a light tobacco, in taste and body, with sweet Oriental tobacco blended with Bright and Red Virginias and just a hint of Latakia. I haven't smoked EMP in probably eight years but the aroma and flavor came rushing back. The vessel I was enjoying it in was a Crown Viking pipe I had bought from Lou several years ago and the combination was a winner! The tobacco burned beautifully all the way to the bottom. When I was done I tapped the underside of the bowl a couple times and out came pure white ash. No dottle or unburned bits of tobacco. A perfect smoke!


Alas, there were no hard core pipe smokers in attendance today at the Hut with which to share my revelry. The smoking pleasure was mine alone. However, my arrival was greeted with the smiling faces of Vic and Joe, and Lou, of course. The two retirees compared notes but the talk soon turned to Apple's new iPad. One of the last times Vic was in the store, Joe showed him his and I think Vic has been keen to purchase one. We talked at length about the merits of the iPad 2 versus the original one and then suddenly the two aforementioned retirees were in the middle of negotiations. I wasn't sure who started it, but by the end hands were shaken and Joe's iPad became Vic's. No money or merchandise actually exchanged hands, but the official transfer will take place in two weeks. Harkening back to September of last year when Joe sold me his iMac, it was like deja vu all over again.


In addition to being anxious to light up some Early Morning, I was also eager to peruse the new freehand pipes I knew Lou had gotten in. He said he had ordered three Crown Viking pipes and after the initial pleasantries were exchanged, I quickly glanced over to the pipe showcase. I didn't really notice anything new and then Lou informed me that, in fact, he had received three Crowns during the week and almost immediately sold two of them. 


I was incredulous! It couldn't be! I had my heart set on buying a new pipe and I just couldn't believe that two of the three would have moved that quickly. The remaining Crown, although a beautiful specimen, wasn't exactly what I had in mind, so I will have to wait until Lou orders some more. It is my fervent belief that, because of the celerity that the first two sold, he will order replacements forthwith. 


Box Ed made a brief appearance. He was looking forward to settling in for a smoke, but got called to a job. Duty calls, I'm afraid, so hopefully he'll have time next week. And apparently we have to change his nom de guerre to Pouch Ed because he no longer transports his pipe and assorted accoutrements in a cigar box, but rather a newly purchased pipe pouch. I don't know...I kind of like Box Ed. Pouch Ed doesn't have the same ring.


I was kind of thinking that I would see Adrian when I arrived at the shop, considering that last week he didn't make it in time to do battle over the chessboard. He had pledged to come early today so we could play and I must say I was disappointed to not see him. Fearful that perhaps he had turned, well, "yellow" as it were, I was heartened to see him bustling in at around 3:30. His first words were, "Set up the board!" Yes - the game was afoot!

I quickly set up the pieces while my opponent selected a cigar and lit up. Adrian began with the white pieces and chose a king's pawn opening. We both moved deliberately and thoughtfully, and we soon progressed to the point where I was employing only my long-range weapons, the bishops, Adrian had only the short-range pieces, the knights, at his disposal. It was an interesting conflict and while I was preparing an attack on his queenside, he was coming dangerously close to mounting an attack on my own queenside. Unfortunately for Adrian, he wasn't able to get his knights in to position as I had at least one of them pinned, and I finally prevailed.


Barry made a surprise visit and sat down to enjoy a cigar. It was good to see Barry after an absence of several weeks (months?) and he provided rich commentary on our chess game. Don't be a stranger, Barry!


Adrian and I began another game with about a half hour left in the day and our initial moves were made rather quickly. I played as white and opened with a Queen's Gambit, which was immediately accepted. The benefit of a Queen's Gambit Accepted is that white, while down a pawn initially, has superior position in the middle, and I did enjoy that advantage for a time. However, I soon found myself with a gaping hole in my kingside defense, after castling kingside. We had to adjourn the game as it was closing time, so the board has been safely placed - intact - in an empty spot of the front showcase. Lou was very gracious to let us use the space and his gesture is most appreciated. The game will continue next Saturday.


Until then...
 - Bob