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!

Saturday at the Hut - 7/14/12

We had a full house at The Tobacco Hut today, so let's jump right in with the roll call. In addition to Lou and myself, we had Joe K, Don W, Arnie, Vic and his cousin Russ, Bryan, and Aaron. The jokes were as thick as the smoke and we all got a lesson in grammar too. More on that later.

This will be Don's last Saturday for awhile as he begins training for his new job (congrats and good luck to Don). Fellow pilot Arnie was in town as well, so to celebrate he and Don both tried an Opus X for the first time. Vic and I and others warned them that it can be a strong smoke, but they both threw caution to the wind and lit up. Within about ten minutes Don had to let his go out as he was feeling a bit light-headed. He decided to smoke it at a much slower pace. Arnie was fine with it until the last third or so when little beads of sweat started to break out on his forehead. They both agreed that the Opus does not live up to its reputation as a top shelf cigar and that they would never smoke another. We did tell them that Tom L occasionally brings some aged Opus cigars that he's stored for the last dozen years or so and that they are completely different from a fresh, out-of-the-box specimen.

Russ T wins the award for traveling the farthest for a cigar. He's down visiting from Rochester, NY although he had some difficulties in departing from the airport a week ago. Russ was evidently under the impression that he could just arrive at the airport without a ticket or boarding pass and get right on the plane. The ticket agent had different ideas, so he had to delay his trip by a day. Seriously, Russ had purchased the ticket six weeks ago but when he got to the airport they had no record of him in their system. Russ, maybe you were supposed to fly out of Buffalo...

Readers of this space will recall the last blog posting from June 16 where Aaron recounted his romantic tale of him and his friend attending the critically acclaimed movie, "Brokeback Mountain" when it came out a few years ago. Speaking of "coming out", Aaron announced that he - no, no. I'm only kidding. Anyway, since there were some folks in attendance today that didn't hear the original story, we persuaded Aaron to give us his impressions of the movie, with full animation, of course. I passed around the Photoshop image I had prepared of Aaron living his dream of actually being in the movie, to everyone's enjoyment.

It was around that time that the typically sophisticated level of discourse took a downward turn. Russ ingratiated himself to us by telling some extremely distasteful jokes. I, for one, was deeply offended. Of course, you couldn't tell that because I was howling with laughter. There was one about three missionaries being faced with Yanye or Death, but since this blog's wide readership(!) reaches many women and children, I won't go into the full joke here.

So what's this about a grammar lesson? Oh yes, let me explain. One of the regulars at the Hut, Paul O (not to be confused with Scott R's brother-in-law, Paul V), had a very public hissy-fit on Facebook over a comment I left on one of his posts. Rather than explain it all, I submit the evidence from this past Monday and let my gentle readers come to their own conclusions:

Paul O wins the "I Can Dish It Out But Can't Take It" Award for 2012
(Click to enlarge)

Yes, you read that correctly, Mr. O gave me a thorough thrashing (and his wife even got in the act) over six words that I left for him. Not only did he "unfriend" me on Facebook (oh, the horrors), he even removed himself from The Tobacco Hutters. One can only hope that this means he has removed himself from the Tobacco Hut as well. I am quite sure that his "wit" will not be missed. Moving on...

Had a great day at the Hut with so many folks in attendance. 'Til next time!

Saturday at the Hut - 6/16/12

We had a nice crowd at The Tobacco Hut today - I'm glad I got there when I did, as there was only one good chair left. Peter G and Don W were already there, but I sat in my usual chair so all was right with the world. Later Bob B came in, as well as Aaron C, Joe K, and Paul O.

I was smoking my Neerup pipe, one of two that I own, and a bowl of Erik Nording's Hunter's Blend, a very nice combination. Aaron showed Lou his collection of cigar bands and, get this, Lou gave him a book specifically for saving cigar bands and making notes in. That's right, Lou gave away something. Now, he admitted that at the height of the cigar craze back in the 90s he sold dozens of them and that was the last one and he had marked it down several times, but still! Um Lou, there's probably a pipe or two that you've had in stock for a long time...just sayin'.

Snack alert! We are officially out of the peanut butter pretzels. I'll try and get my mother to buy some more for us, but don't know how soon she's going to Sam's Club. So if someone is headed there, feel free to buy a bag.

Congratulations to
Scott R on the publication
of his book!
(Click to enlarge)

Hey, a shout out to our own Scott R, who published his latest book on Amazon this week! I'm a little proud of it myself as he asked me to edit and proofread it, and design the cover. He's written a small volume aimed at would-be writers who are having trouble overcoming the inertia of not writing. Scott outlines some good tips on how to get started on writing. Highly recommended if you have that budding author inside of you! Check it out on Amazon here! And once you get that book written, let me know if you need any editing services or a cover designed!

By the way, a welcome to The Tobacco Hutters' newest member, Bob B! When I got home his application for membership was waiting in my inbox. That makes 26 members which I think is pretty good for a forum that isn't open to the public. I'd like to keep it that way - making it by invitation only - but I would like to see a bit more participation from folks. I pledge to be more active on it, especially as I curtail my blog postings, but I don't want to be talking in a vacuum.

Good luck to Don W as he was telling us about an interview he had with an airline company in Houston this past week. Hope you get good news soon, Don!

And a quick bon voyage to Peter. He's heading to the wild northwest for an Alaskan cruise next week. Have fun, Peter! Post pics to the Hutters!

OK, now to the highlight of the day. Don persuaded his friend Aaron to tell the "Brokeback Mountain" story and, with great reluctance, he did. Apparently when the film first came out several years ago a friend of his - Adam, I think - asked if he wanted to go to the movies. Sure, Aaron replied, what do you want to see. Adam answered that he'd like to see the new film, "Brokeback Mountain". Aaron hadn't heard anything about it, so Adam described it in very general terms: Two guys, the great outdoors, etc. without going into the plot at all.

Once in the theater, Aaron noticed that all the moviegoers were men; not a woman to be seen. Hmm, that's strange, he thought, but no matter. He and Adam sat down, observing the "Man Rule" in theaters: an empty seat between them. He then noticed that nobody else was observing said rule and were sitting next to each other. Aaron still didn't think too much of it and was just looking forward to seeing a rugged, outdoorsy kind of movie.

So he settled in with his popcorn and soda (Aaron, did you share a tub of popcorn with Adam or did you each have your own?) and began watching. About halfway into the movie the two lead characters, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, take a little walk in the woods and, as Aaron tells it, they spend an inordinate amount of time in the woods.

Later, in the penultimate scene of the movie, one of the characters decides to share a tent with the other and Aaron witnesses an apparently very graphic scene of man love. As this is a family blog, I won't repeat some of the more lurid descriptions that Aaron used in describing the carnal proceedings.

We, of course, were in stitches hearing him tell the story, especially when he finally realized what his friend had talked him into seeing. In describing his climax - I mean, in describing the climax of the movie - Aaron proved himself a master pantomimist, displaying every grind and thrust he had witnessed. Again, we were falling over ourselves laughing. When we had calmed down, I began thinking how I can best memorialize Aaron's tale. When I got home, I fired up Photoshop and found a picture I had of Aaron taken a few months ago.

It's been said that pictures are worth a thousand words, so after I've now wasted a couple hundred, I present to you the never-before-seen movie poster of "Brokeback Mountain" starring none other than Aaron C:

With just a little Photoshop magic, Aaron isn't
just watching his favorite movie, he's starring in it!
(Click to enlarge)

Thanks for being a good sport about the "revised" movie poster, Aaron!

I had planned on skipping this week's blog to work on some of the other writing projects I have in the hopper, but I couldn't let this go!

See everyone on the Hutters!

Saturday at the Hut - 6/9/12

It's been a few weeks since I've made a blog posting, and I'll explain at the end why I've been AWOL from the blog and what my plans are. In the meantime, today at The Tobacco Hut we had a decent assemblage of the regulars: Peter G, Aaron C, Paul O, Joe K, Tom L, Lou and myself. Not everyone at once though - attendance was spread over several hours.

Aaron told us about his recent trip to Key West and the cigars he picked up there. He's got a great picture of the Ashton VSG, his go-to cigar, with blue skies and palm trees in the background. Hopefully he'll post it to the Tobacco Hutters site. You are a member of the Tobacco Hutters, right? If not, just click on the link and join up! I'll explain why it's important to do so at the end of the blog today.

I announced some bad news about NPR today. Joe and Tom immediately thought that they were going off the air or merging with Fox News or something equally calamitous. No, the Car Talk guys are retiring. Tom and Ray, aka Click & Clack, are hanging up the microphone after 25 years on the air. Someone asked why, and Tom immediately responded with, "Low ratings?". Sorry Tom, Car Talk is the most popular program on NPR, and can be heard locally on Saturdays at 10am on WUSF 89.7 FM.

Joe said that he made a donation to NPR. I got excited that he'd finally seen the light, but I should have known better. He said he sent them a check made out for $0 and he didn't sign it. Thanks Joe - your support is much appreciated. See how quickly I order those business cards for you!

Shortly after Tom arrived, he made a TV programming request. After three hours of watching the endless loop of Bay News 9 news, I was ready for any change. Tom wanted to see the Canadian Grand Prix qualifying which was coming on at either 12:30 or 1:00 on the Speed Channel. Unfortunately, Lou's cable package doesn't include the Speed Channel, at least he didn't think so.

Tom made it his mission to re-program the TV to try and tune in Speed. First he consulted the 2004 channel guide under the TV, then tried to just scan for all available channels. For awhile the TV was locked on a Christian broadcasting station, then all we could get was Telemundo or Jewelry Television. Finally, I consulted the Brighthouse website and determined that although the Speed Channel was included in Lou's package, a converter box was required to tune in.

Lou then tuned to the Golf Channel and Paul and I promptly fell asleep. Even Lou was bored with what was being proffered as entertainment; it was some sort of Golf Channel series that made no sense whatsoever. So back to channel surfing we went. We finally settled on Olympic men's gymnastic preliminary trials, which actually wasn't half bad.

Paul kept rooting for someone to fall on their face and he finally got his wish when the lead gymnast missed his grip in his high bar routine. All of us were actually quite impressed with their athleticism and muscles. Tom especially seemed drawn to a couple of them. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I left a little early as I had a couple stops to make and then it was off to Carrabba's for dinner with Paula. When I left it was just Peter and Lou, so not sure if anyone else made it in late.

So, what's up with my absence from the blog? Well, I started this blog in late 2008 - my first post was December 21, 2008. And after three and a half years of writing almost-weekly blog posts, I'm feeling a little burnt out. This is my 130th blog post and, although it may not show it, it takes time to put these together each week. I'm simply not feeling the passion for reporting the goings-on at the Hut week in and week out.

I still love spending my Saturdays at the Hut each week (as much as Paula loves having me out of the house for the afternoon) and I've made some great friendships over the years, and have no plans to quit going. I just can't continue to write a regular recap of what happened each week.

I do have a passion for writing and I'm actually exploring some other writing projects. For instance, I write a marketing blog focused on small businesses called Bullseye Marketing Tips. It's gotten decent traffic but, unfortunately, I've neglected it and want to build it back up again. In fact, I've started writing a book that is based on the blog. It expands greatly the marketing principles and tips that I've begun to explore in the blog.

There are a couple other book ideas floating around in my head that I'm anxious to get started on. I've already got a title for one of them: Saturdays with Lou. I envision it as kind of a memoir of Hut happenings over the years. I've got a lot of the material already written, on this very blog. In my mind, it just needs to be expanded to a narrative form. I'll probably have to fictionalize everything, from names and location to the type of shop, just to avoid a lawsuit from you guys or a demand for a cut of the royalties. Yeah, maybe I'll just rethink that whole idea.

Anyway, that's why it's important to join - and participate in - the Tobacco Hutters. I won't be writing in this space as much as I have been and the way to keep up with what's going on is to visit the Hutters group regularly. It's also vitally important, if it's to succeed, for folks to participate.

I want to sincerely thank the people who have contributed status updates, photos, forum and blog posts to the Hutters. I need to get better about participating myself, and pledge to be more active on it. My hope is that rather than writing this blog, which is a "top down" form of you reading my endless drivel, that we can have full, "round-table" types of discussions on the Hutters.

I'm not abandoning this blog - in fact I have some ideas for how it should evolve in the future. But instead, let's move over to the Hutters and have some great back-and-forths and debates. Talk about whatever you want to. See you there!

Saturday at the Hut - 5/12/12

We had quite a full house at The Tobacco Hut today. I thought I was getting there early enough to get a chair but alas, no. Fortunately Aaron was kind enough to give up his comfy club chair for the fold-up one he brought with him. Thank you, Aaron, for respecting your elders.

While I puffed on my Ascorti Peppino pipe filled with Tinder Box Reserve 1928 I tallied up the roll call (see how I slipped in what I was smoking today?): Lou, Joe K, Don W, Paul O, Aaron C, Peter G, Tom L, Vic, Blake, Tony, and myself.

Nice to see Vic making the trip up from Bradenton. It looks like we might see some more of him as he's squirreled his nuts away for the summer. Vic also recounted a story from a recent conversation with Mike G. Many of us probably remember Mike's old pick up truck...well, he's had it for sale in Tennessee for awhile and finally sold it to a young lady up there. Well, apparently, the night she actually took possession of the vehicle, just several hours later, it broke down on her.

If yer in need of a good car or truck that'll git
ya a mile or two down the road, call Mike!

Mike had to go and push it off to the side of the road, I guess, but rather than declaring simply, "Let the buyer beware", Mike went the extra mile and offered to refund the woman's money. Good on you Mike for doing the right thing! In honor of your integrity, I've created the logo above for your next company if you should decide to open a car dealership...

Today the topics revolved, strangely enough, around birds. Aaron told a story, complete with pantomime, of two seagulls engaged in coitus on a street light. Aaron's hip gyrations, arm flapping and gull-like squawking presented quite the entertaining vision.

Joe remarked that in his younger days he often went to the beach with his parrot on his shoulder and attracted flocks of ladies (pun intended). After bragging about his exploits for a time, Vic commented to me quietly that I should inform Joe that that wasn't exactly Christian behavior. So I started to say something, but before I did, Joe reminded me that he had just fixed my mother's computer which I had taken delivery of not an hour before. He also implied that the wizardry he employs to repair the computers can also be used to disable them, so I kept my mouth shut. Vic said I wussed out, but I prefer to think that I merely took the high road and adopted the very Christian principle of "judge not, lest ye be judged."

Vic helping Don ease his big rig
safely out of the parking spot
(click to enlarge)

Don cashed out and said goodbye, and we were then all treated to his driving prowess as he backed out of his spot, pulled forward a little, backed up, came forward again, backed up again, pulled up, back and forth, back and forth. It was all quite dizzying, but he finally managed to clear his parking spot, with a little help from Vic. For some unknown reason, he did a U-turn behind the building and drove past giving us all the "one-finger salute". I think some bikers in the barber shop noticed and we may not be seeing Don for awhile.

Blake made a rare Saturday appearance and met some of the guys for the first time. Tom was especially glad to meet a fellow pipe smoker. Paul feigned boredom with the whole topic of pipe smoking, but sure asked a lot of questions about it, as did Tom. I think they are both considering coming over to the right side of tobacco, but for some reason want to keep it on the DL. As Blake was leaving, Vic offered him a cigar from his recent purchases, in a last ditch effort to switch teams. As magnanimous as the gesture was, I don't think Blake will abandon his true calling as a pipe smoker. And, Vic, where was my cigar? Don't you want me on your team?

Other topics included some sports talk between Peter and Tom, and some politics/current events, but nothing too intense. I do like having Vic around as he and I are on the same page on a lot of issues, so I don't have to hold the Progressive flag by myself. Finally, Vic regaled us with tales from his days as a correctional officer in the New York State Prison system.

Have a good week everyone!