Monday 24 December 2012

Pipe Smoking - a gentle hobby

THE JOYS OF PIPE SMOKING


Smoking is these days frowned upon and I gave up cigarettes some time ago but I do think that a person should be allowed to smoke if that's their choice. I still enjoy the odd cigar but one thing I will never give up is my beloved pipe. I started pipe smoking about a year and a bit ago, after snuffing out the fags, and consider it more of a hobby than a habit.

It's also better for you than cigarettes, since most of the time the smoker does not inhale. And there's few pleasures as good as a glass of full bodied red wine, a good book and a pipe.

(Pictured - Tolkien enjoying his pipe)

There is a definate art to pipe smoking and nothing helps me concentrate more when I'm writing than having a pipe hanging from my lips. I always used to be self conscious when puffing since it always seemed only the really old smoked pipes but these days the hobby, perhaps as a result of the draconian smoking laws is seeing something of a comeback.

There is an interesting pipe smoking podcast here THE OLD TOBY

So please don't demonise us pipe smokers - after all we are in good company.

Abbott, John (Actor)
Adams, John (President of U.S., Statesman)
Anderson, Sparky (sports figure)
Armstrong, Neil (Astronaut)
Atkins, Chet (Entertainer)
Aykroyd, Dan (Entertainer)
Bach, Johann S. (Composer)
Bacon, Sir Francis (Intellectual, Scholar)
Baldwin, Stanley (English Prime Minister, Statesman)
Barrie, Sir James M. (Writer)
Barth, Karl (Theologian)
Baudelaire, Charles (Poet)
Bell, Alexander Graham (Inventer)
Bellamy, Ralph (Actor)
Benchley, Robert (Humorist, Writer)
Benn, Tony (English Political Leader)
Benhard, Prince of the Netherlands
Bildt, Carl (Swedish Prime Minister)
Bismarck, Prince Otto Eduard Leoplold von (German statesman)
Blucher, Gen. Gebhard von (Prussian military leader)
Bohr, Neils (Physicist)
Braxton, Anthony (Composer, Musician)
Brera, Gianni (Italian sports journalist)
Brett, Jeremy (Actor)
Bruce, Nigel (Actor)
Brynner, Yul (Actor)
Burns, Arthur (Economist, Chair of U.S. Fed. Reserve)
Byrd, Richard E. (Explorer)
Byron (George Gordon, Lord Byron; Poet)
Cannell, Stephen J. (Writer; television creator, producer, and host)
Carlson, Chet (inventor of Xerography)
Carter, Ron (Musician)
Casals, Pablo (cellist, conductor)
Cerf, Bennett (Humorist)
Chancellor, John (U.S. news broadcaster)
Chandler, Raymond (Writer)
Chapman, Graham (English entertainer, member of Monty Python)
Cheever, John (Writer)
Chenault, Claire (founder of Flying Tigers, WWII General)
Chomsky, Noam (Linguist, Political Activist)
Clemens, Samuel (Mark Twain; writer)
Conrad, Paul (Cartoonist)
Conrad, William (Actor)
Corbiere, Tristan (Poet)
Cosby, William "Bill", Jr. (Entertainer)
Crane, Stephen (Writer)
Crocket, Davy (U.S. Congressman, frontiersman)
Cronkite, Walter (TV Journalist)
Cronyn, Hume (Actor)
Crosby, Bing (Singer, Actor)
Cushing, Peter (Actor)
Dannay, Frederic (one-half of Ellery Queen; Writer)
Darwin, Charles (Biologist)
Davis, Angela (Political activist, academic)
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (Writer)
Duchamp, Marcel (Artist)
Dulles, Allen (Diplomat, Head of CIA)
Dunn, Donald "Duck" (Musician)
Dupine, A.A.L. (George Sand; writer)
Earp, Wyatt (U.S. Frontier figure)
Eckstine, Billy (Singer)
Edward VII, King of England (Prince Albert of Wales)Einstein, Albert (Physicist, Mathematician)
Eisenhower, Dwight (Military leader, President of U.S.)
Ellison, Harlan (Writer)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (Poet)
Euler, Leonard (Mathematician)
Farber, Myron (Writer, Journalist)
Faulkner, William (Writer)
Feiffer, Jules (Cartoonist, Humorist)
Fenwick, Millicent (US Congress Member, Stateswoman)
Fitzgerald, Barry (Actor)
Fitzgerald, Ray (Sports writer)
Foote, Shelby (Writer)
Ford, Gerald (U.S. President, Statesman)
Ford, John (Film director)
Fox, Richard (Actor)
Franks, Dr. Robert, Lord (English Diplomat)
Frederick I, King of Prussia
Frederick, King of Denmark
Frederick-Wilhelm I, King of Prussia
Freud, Sigmund (Psychaitrist)
Fugard, Athol (Playwright)
Gable, Clark (Actor)
Galway, James (Flutist)
Garbo, Greta (Actress)
Gardner, John (Writer)
Geisel, Theodor Seuss ("Dr. Seuss"; Writer, Cartoonist, Animator)
Gershwin, Ira (Lyricist)
Godfrey, Arthur (Broadcaster)
Gould, Morton (Composer)
Graham, Kenneth (Writer)
Granger, Stewart (Actor)
Grant, Cary (Actor)
Grant, Ulysses S. (U.S. President, Military Leader)
Gross, Michael (Actor)
Hackett, Buddy (Entertainer)
Hackett, Joan (Actress)
Hanke, Steven (Economist, writer)
Harriot, James (Writer, Vet)
Harrison, William H. (U.S. President)
Hefner, Hugh (Publisher)
Heinsohn, Tommy (Sports Figure)
Hemingway, Ernest (Writer)
Hockney, David (Artist)
Hoffer, Eric (Writer)
Holtz, Lou (U.S. Football Coach)
Hoover, Herbert (President of U.S., Statesman, Academic)
Hubble, Edwin P. (Astronomer)
Huxley, Thomas Henry (Scientist, Writer)
Jackson, Andrew (President of U.S., Statesman)
Jackson, Mrs Andrew (First Lady of U.S.)
Jammes, Francis (Poet)
Jerome, Jerome K. (Writer)
Joyce, James (Writer)
Jung, Carl Gustav (Psychologist)
Karloff, Boris (Actor)
Kaye, Danny (Entertainer)
Kern, Jerome (Composer)
Kinnock, Neil (English Political Leader)
Kipling, Rudyard (Writer)
Klavan, Gene (Critic)
Kleber, Jean Baptiste (French military leader)
Kohl, Helmut (Chancellor of W. Germany)
Korda, Michael (Writer)
Kramer, Hilton (Writer)
Kruger, S.J. Paulus ("Oom Paul"; President of South Africa)LaGuardia, Fiorella (Mayor of New York, Statesman)
LaSalle (Military leader)
Leakey, Richard (Anthropologist)
Lederman, Leon (physicist)
Lemmon, Jack (Actor)
Letterman, David (Entertainer)
Lewis, C.S. (Writer)
Lewis, Jerry Lee (Singer, Musician)
Lewis, Sinclair (Writer)
MacArthur, Gen. Douglas (Military leader)
MacKenzie, Sir Compton (Writer)
MacMurray, Fred (Actor)
Malle, Louis (Film Director)
Mancini, Henry (Composer)
Mandel, Marvin (Gov. of Maryland)
Manet, Edouard (artist)
Mankiewicz, Joseph (Film Director)
Marney, Carlyle (Baptist Minister, Scholar)
Martin, Billy (Sports figure)
Martin Jack (Western writer and actor)
Marx, Julius Arthur "Groucho" (comedian)
Masterson, William B. "Bat" (Frontier lawman, journalist)
Maugham, Somerset (Writer)
McBride, James (Film Director)
McDowell, Malcolm (Actor)
McRaney, Gerald (Actor)
Melville, Herman (Writer)
Mencken, H.L. (Journalist, Writer, Humorist)
Miller, Arthur (playwright)
Milne, A.A. (Writer)
Mingus, Charles (Musician, Composer)
Moliere, Jean Baptiste (Playwright)
Mondrian, Piet (Artist)
Morley, Christopher (Writer)
Murat (Military leader)
Naipaul,V.S. (novelist)
Newton, Sir Isaac (Physicist, Mathematician)
O'Brien, Pat (Actor)
O'Brien, Pat (TV sportscaster)
Oppenheimer, Robert (Physicist)
Oudinot (Military leader)
Pampadour, Marquise de (French Aristocrat)
Papandreou, Andreas (Greek Statesman)
Parker, Jameson (Actor)
Parks, Gordon (Photographer, Film Director, Writer)
Patton, Gen. George S., Jr. (Military leader)
Pershing, Gen. John "Blackjack" (Military leader)
Pertini, Sandro (Italian President)
Piaget, Jean (Behaviorist, Scientist)
Poindexter, Adm. John F. (Military leader, Iran-Contra figure)
Porsche, Ferdinand (Automobile designer)Powell, William (Actor)
Priestley, J.B (Writer)
Pritchett, V.S. (Writer)
Quayle, Anthony (Actor)
Rathbone, Basil (Actor)
Reagan, Ronald (U.S. President, Statesman, Actor)
Reston, James (Journalist)
Richardson, Sir Ralph (Actor)
Robinson, Edward G. (Actor)
Rockwell, Norman (Artist)
Roosevelt, Franklin (U.S. President, Statesman)
Rose, David (Composer)
Rosten, Leo (Writer)
Russell, Bertrand (Philosopher)
Ruth, George Herman "Babe" (Sports figure)
Ryan, Buddy (Sports figure)
Sabin, Albert (Scientist)
Sadat, Anwar (Egyptian President, Statesman)
Salk, Jonas (Scientist)
Sand, George (see Dupine, AAL)
Sandburg, Carl (Poet, writer)
Sarowiwa, Ken (Nigerian author)
Sartre, Jean-Paul (Philosopher)
Scalia, Antonin (U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Scholar)
Schaefer, Jack (Writer)
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. (Historian)
Schlesinger, James (U.S. Defense Secretary)
Schnellenberger , Howard (U.S. Football Coach)
Schwarzenegger, Arnold (Actor)
Schweitzer, Albert (Missionary, Doctor)
Scott, Randell Falcon (English South Pole Explorer)
Seuss, Dr. (See Geisel, Theodor)
Sequoia (developed Cherokee alphabet)
Shackelford, Ted (Actor)
Shaw, Irwin (Writer)
Shirer, William (Writer, journalist)
Sikking, James (Actor)
Simenon, Georges (Writer)
Simon, Norton (Philanthropist, businessman)
Simon, William (Writer, politician)
Spelling, Aaron (Television Producer)
Stalin, Joseph (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; Dictator, Mass Murderer)
Stallone, Sylvester (Actor)
Stein, Gertrude (Intellectual)
Stevens, George (Film Director)
Stevenson, Coke (Gov. of Texas)
Tati, Jacques (Actor)
Taurog, Norman (Film Director)
Taylor, Mrs. Zachary (First Lady of U.S.)
Tennyson (Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Poet)
Thurber, James (Cartoonist, humorist)
Tolkien, J.R.R. (Writer)
Tracy, Spencer (Actor)
Trudeau, Pierre (Canadian Prime Minister, Statesman)
Twain, Mark (see Clemens, Samuel)
Van Buren, Martin (U.S. President)
Van Gogh, Vincent (Artist)
Victoria, Queen of England
Villa, Bob (Television "how-to" personality)
Walesa, Lech (Polish Statesman)
Wallace, Irving (Writer)
Waters, Frank (Writer)
Waugh, Evelyn (Writer)
Welles, Orson (Film Director, Actor)
Weston, Edward (photographer)
Whitmore, James (Actor)
Wilson, Harold, Lord (English Prime Minister, Statesman)
Wodehouse, P.G. (Writer)
Yermakov, Nicholas (Writer)
Young, John (Astronaut)
Young, Robert (Actor)

4 comments:

Neil A. Waring said...

Don't smoke but love the smell of a good pipe tobacco

Albie The Good said...

Gald to know you're a "brother of the briar." I love to relax with my pipe about twice a month or so.

Great list, too. A bunch of my heroes are on there, which is cool. I would add a few names to the list:

FRANK FRAZETTA, American artist
ROBERT SERVICE, Canadian poet
JIM KJELGAARD, U.S. Wildlife fiction author

I posted a poem by Service called "The Pipe Smoker" on my own blog which can be read here:

http://albiethegood.blogspot.com/2012/09/poetry-break-9-pipe-smoker-by-robert-w.html

PEACE

Larry Wells said...

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Elizabeth J. Neal said...

It's also better for you than cigarettes, since most of the time the smoker does not inhale. And there's few pleasures as good as a glass of full bodied red wine, a good book and a pipe. how does a percolator bong work

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