Saturday at the Hut - 8/25/12

As Hurricane Isaac bears down on Florida, several of us gathered at The Tobacco Hut to have our own mini-hurricane party. In attendance were Joe K, Peter G, Scott R, Tom L, Lou, and myself. I sat down and enjoyed a bowl full of Lou's Baker Street tobacco in a Crown Viking freehand. Most excellent!

Even in the face of the Republican National Convention starting this week (although Day 1 has been cancelled due to Isaac), political talk was kept to a minimum. Until Tom arrived. But before Tom could unleash his anti-progressive diatribes, I issued him a challenge, thanks to an item Scott brought with him.

Scott, as many of you know, is our resident pocket knife expert. He blogs extensively about his passion at Pocketknivesblog.com and he often brings in new acquisitions to show off. Saturday he brought in a knife that he obtained in an eBay auction that still had the original price sticker on it. It was faded and yellowed, but clearly read "Value Stores - $1.99". We weren't sure, but we're guessing that based on the price, the knife probably came from the 1960s.

The trick knife Scott bequeathed to me.
(click to enlarge)

What I found more interesting however, was the other knife Scott brought in. Pictured at left, Scott handed it to me to examine. I struggled to open it though as there was no nail nick in which to insert my fingernail. And there wasn't enough of the blade showing to grasp it firmly. I was stymied, so Scott kindly demonstrated how to open it. It's actually a trick knife, consisting of a little pin inside that locks the blade closed. There's a special way to open it, holding the knife blade pointing upward, squeezing the blade and jerking it downward dislodges the pin, allowing the blade to open. To close it, you basically reverse the actions just described.

A little research on this knife revealed that it was made by Imperial, as Scott had told me, and the patent number on the blade indicated that it was updated by Imperial in 1954, from a previously held patents dating from 1939 and 1942. This knife also had an imprint on the blade: "You can rely on Certified". It was especially appropriate that Scott obtained this knife as he is also a promotional advertising guru extraordinaire.

Scott surprised me by actually giving me the knife! Knowing my love of magic and puzzles, he wanted me to have it. Thanks Scott - much appreciated.

When Tom arrived, I offered him $5 if he could open the knife. Tom had to borrow Scott's "cheaters" so he could even see the knife, and as he was examining it, I set forth the conditions. Five minute time limit, he had to open it by the method intended (not use pliers, or other tools to pry the blade loose), and he could not destroy the knife in the process (he had threatened to run it over with his truck). Tom tried and tried, but was unable to open it in the time limit allotted. Phew! I only had a single dollar bill on me, and I don't think Tom would have accepted a check.

Speaking of bets, Joe and I made a bet. A political bet. I mentioned that the main broadcast networks were only barely covering the RNC this coming week. I think each network was only going to be broadcasting live from the convention one hour per day in primetime. The reasoning was that modern political conventions, for both parties, were nothing more than five day long infomercials and nothing really newsworthy occurred. Joe agreed, but commented that they would be all over the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. I disagreed, saying that they would cover it in the same minimal amount as the RNC. We bet a cigar. Can't wait to enjoy my victory cigar!

Joe is planning a trip soon to visit family in Erie, PA, and I recommended he take a couple hours and visit Letchworth State Park in western NY. It's provided the inspiration behind my novel-in-progress (read about it here) and has supplied me with numerous photo-taking opportunities over the years. In fact, we're planning a trip to the area in the fall, perfectly timed for the leaves changing. Something I haven't experienced in a long time living in Florida.

BTW, congratulations to Lou for officially becoming an old fart. He turned 85 years old on Saturday. And a huge congratulations to both Lou and Dotty for celebrating their 53rd wedding anniversary this coming week.

Cheers!

Saturday at the Church - 8/11/12

I can't really give a report on what happened at The Tobacco Hut yesterday as I wasn't there. I typically don't let things like family obligations get in the way of a visit to my favorite smoke shop, but this was an important, albeit sad, one. My mother's older sister, Vivian, passed away earlier in the week and her memorial service was Saturday morning.

Actually, most of my family knows to schedule things around my weekly Hut visits but, for some reason, nobody consulted me on this one.

So there I was, at St. John's Episcopal Church in Brooksville, honoring my aunt. Few people called her Vivian, she was affectionately known as Aunt Binnie. She was born in 1918 and lived most of her life in Avon, New York. She retired to Florida in the 1980s to St. Petersburg, and moved in with my cousin in Spring Hill in the early 90s, just down the road from my mother.

As I sat in the church, I recalled the tremendous memories I had as a child of spending time with Aunt Binnie. She lived in the upstairs apartment of a duplex on Genesee St. in Avon and through her backyard I could get to some nearby train tracks. Aunt Binnie was always very generous with pennies and nickels to place on the tracks. She wisely wouldn't let me race down to the tracks when I heard the Livonia Railroad train's whistle approaching. But I could see the train from her kitchen window and once it passed, I would then race to the tracks and collect my flattened coins.

I remember one time asking her if I could place other, larger, objects on the rail, like a car battery I had seen in the ditch beside the tracks. Again, her wisdom won out and I was forbidden to place anything other than coins on the rails.

She kept a Mason jar on the windowsill in her kitchen, the collection of flattened pennies and nickels growing slowly, with the occasional quarter joining them.

Even though I wasn't able to enjoy a pipe at church (although I firmly believe that smoking a pipe during a funeral service is the perfect contemplative vehicle for reflecting on a loved one's long life), my role in the occasion was not entirely passive. I was asked, by my mother, to read a psalm to the congregation.

Let me back up just a bit. On Friday, I called Joe K to let him know that I wouldn't be at the Hut on Saturday because of this memorial service. He expressed the requisite condolences but laughed out loud when I let him know that I was to provide one of the readings at the church. As many of you know, I count myself in the 6% of Americans who "believe that no god or universal spirit exist" in the words of the 2008 Gallup poll. Anyway, Joe and I had a good laugh at the irony of it.

So, at the appropriate time in the service, I found myself walking to the dais to read Psalm 121 to the good folks who had turned out to remember Aunt Binnie, or Vivian as most of them knew her. My reading went flawlessly, no words were fumbled, and as I returned to my seat in the pew I fished a quarter out of my pocket and flicked it skyward.

My New Writing Adventure

As some of you may know, I've begun a new blog. It chronicles my efforts at writing a novel, my first. Actually I started one several years ago but let it die on the vine as I was really not happy with it. This one is different, however. I'm in a "good space" and am 100% committed to writing it. I haven't come up with a title for the book yet, so I refer to it as either my novel-in-progress or The Dresser, since a dresser plays an integral role in the story.

The title of the blog is R.W. Harrison - http://www.rwharrisonauthor.com - which is my official "authorial" name. As I explain on the blog, R.W. Harrison sounds like an author's name. I probably would have gone with Robert Harrison as my first choice, but there are already several established authors with that name. And I felt like Bob Harrison was too informal, not authoritative enough. So, after an informal poll on Facebook, the votes were counted and most people preferred R.W. Harrison, so that's what I went with.

As of this writing, I'm about 15,000 words into it, or a fifth of the way done. So why am I creating another blog when I'm not even done with it? From everything I've read, it's critical to establish a "platform" to get people interested in it, even before it's published. And I don't plan on publishing it in the traditional sense; I'm going to self-publish as an e-book (although paperback copies will be available on demand).

And why am I writing about it here on my Sweetest Smoke blog? Because this blog already has an established readership and I need to do everything I can to spread the word.

The biggest reason I'm writing about my novel-in-progress here is because one of the story's main characters is...a pipe smoker! The novel takes place just after World War II and the character, George Carmichael has just relocated from England to the fictitious town of Kingsbridge, New York, where the story is set. And naturally, since he's a pipe smoker, he's one of the good guys. Unless I throw in a twist where he's one of the rare pipe-smoking bad guys!

I haven't decided exactly what kind of pipe he'll be smoking. Will it be something like a Dunhill or will George's tastes go toward the more pedestrian? And what tobacco does he smoke? For that, I think definitely Dunhill, maybe Royal Yacht or My Mixture. I need to do some research and find out what was available back then. That's part of the fun of writing the book - doing the research to ensure the accuracy of everything.

So, slide on over to my new blog and take a look. There are currently two chapters available for download - the Prologue and Chapter One. Feedback is always welcome.

Thanks!