Another photo with no explanation

This is another photo I found with no explanation.  If anyone has information on what this vehicle is, please leave a comment.  Otherwise...well, here it is.

It looks to me like something Mr. Bean would probably run over.

Pipe Smoker (legendary): Nicolas Chauvin

Did Nicolas Chauvin really exist?  Probably not, it seems.  Allegedly a French soldier during the Napoleonic era, his extreme nationalistic fervor was just cause for the creation of the word chauvinism, which in its original sense meant an extreme, possibly irrational patriotism similar to jingoism.  And which later on, in some languages (such as English), came to describe a denigrating and prejudicial attitude toward women.

In any case, someone, somewhere, created what may well be the most ridiculous-looking portrait of a pipe smoker, ever.

link

Vintage Ad: Daniel Webster pipe tobacco, Christmas 1944

Santa smokes a pipe #51

From the January 1956 cover of Galaxy magazine.

Vintage Ad: Edgeworth, Christmas 1942

click to enlarge

I'll be posting a few Christmas-specific vintage ads during the next few weeks.

Vintage Ad: Prince Albert (1961)

When men smoked pipes and wore hardhats.

Vintage Ad: Bond Street (1944)

Another weird Bond Street ad featuring a pipe-smoking animal and a terrible pun.  The little woman appears to me be contemplating which would be worse in her home:  the smell of a pipe or any of the other possible smells that a Hereford bull can produce at whim.

Pipe Smoker: Nat "King" Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles (1919 - 1965)

"I'm not playing for other musicians. We're trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We'll keep him happy."

Nathaniel Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama. His family moved to Chicago when he was still young. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother was the church organist, who first began teaching him music. He grew up heavily influenced by, and participating in, both the world of gospel music and the jazz-heavy atmosphere of early-20th-century Chicago.

Although primarily remembered today as a vocalist, he also played piano and guitar. His music effortlessly spanned several genres: jazz, swing, pop and blues.

Unfortunately, Cole was also a heavy cigarette smoker.  He died of lung cancer in 1965.

Steampunk pipe smoker #2

click to enlarge

via My Ear-Trumpet

Pipe, not pipe #2

undated but probably "vintage" ad (click to enlarge)

I have seen other versions of the pipe gun in books. This was not a unique idea.  However, I would dispute that a single-shot, short-barreled, awkward to handle .25 caliber pistol could be described as "formidable."  Furthermore, having experienced shooting a .22 derringer, I would hazard a bet that if this pistol is fired as shown, recoil would make it jump right out of the shooter's hand.

Tolkien lighting his pipe

I saw this documentary a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately, at that time I had no way to capture it for future reference.  I wish this clip began about a minute earlier so it would show how carefully he set himself up for the initial lighting.  He carefully places the match in his right fingers, strikes it, then tucks the matchbox in among the fingers of his left hand.  This seemed an awkward ritual to me, and I wondered:  why didn't he just put the matchbox down?

I thought about it, and I decided a plausible theory was that this was a habit he developed during World War I.  He spent time in combat in France, and there probably wasn't a good place to put a matchbox down in the trenches.  Another thing that strikes me is how me makes that first match count.  Does it look like he's going to need a second light?  I must admit that when I use matches--as I always do when I'm home--it can easily take me three matches to get the thing going.  Possibly another holdover from an earlier time when matches were a semi-precious commodity and he had to make sure every one counted.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact title, I think it may have been the one called A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien.  At the time, it was airing on the Ovation cable channel.  So keep an eye out for it, and if you get lucky enough to find it, you might get to see a more complete version of his pipe-lighting ritual.

Pipe Smoker: Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) 

"If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I'm still waiting, it's all been to seduce women, basically."

There is much that has been said of Sartre, so I'm not going to bother with any details here because you can easily read it elsewhere.  He was born, and spent most of his life, in Paris, France.  He was an--or perhaps, the--existentialist philosopher.  He was also a novelist and playwright.  And it's just about impossible to find a photo of him without a pipe in his mouth.  Above we see a rather worried-looking Jean-Paul (but then, he was almost always worried-looking) smoking something in the Canadian family.

And here is a somewhat more relaxed-appearing Jean-Paul with another straight pipe, apparently giving Simone de Beauvoir a...shooting lesson?  Keep your eyes open, Simone.  You're holding it by the safe end; it won't hurt you.

Issues

Let's get some pictures

Since I can't upload animated gifs to Blogger, I'll just give you the link to this animated gif from the movie Airplane! at My Ear Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning.

And as long as you're going there anyway, you might want to check out this ad for Hendrick's Gin.  (Not a pipe ad, but an ad with a pipe in it.)

Pipe Smoker: Percival Harrison Fawcett

Lt. Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett (1867 - 1925?)

"Civilization has a relatively precarious hold upon us and there is an undoubted attraction in a life of absolute freedom once it has been tasted. The 'call of the wild' is in the blood of many of us and find its safety valve in nature."

Percy Fawcett was born in Torquay, Devon, England.  He served in the Royal Artillery beginning in 1886 and in 1901 joined the Royal Geographic Society to study surveying and mapmaking.  In 1906, at the urging of the president of the RGS, he began exploring South America.  He found the terrain to be dangerous, the native wildlife to be dangerous, the weather to be dangerous, and the native people to be...dangerous.

In 1925 he began what would be his final expedition into the Brazilian wilderness, accompanied by his eldest son, Jack.  On May 29th of that year he sent a message back to his wife that they were about to enter unexplored territory, and that "you need have no fear of failure."  He was never heard from nor seen again.  Over the years, several expeditions were sent out to try and find him, but all failed.

As recently as 1996, another expedition was formed to try and find any clues as to what had become of him.  The expedition encountered hostile indigenous people who detained them for several days and confiscated thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

Percy Fawcett's ultimate fate remains unknown to this day.

links:
Percy Fawcett at the Virtual Exploration Society
Percy Fawcett at Wikipedia

Vintage Ad: Bond Street, 1941

And here have yet another entry in our creepy Bond Street guy ads.  Someone is missing, and someone is wanted.  I'm not sure who is who, but I don't trust the guy with pipe who apparently goes around whiffing wives.

Lt. George Armstrong Custer and Union troops (colorized)

In 1862.

Pipe lore: shot with his own pipe

December 30 of 1913

Isaac Bishop of Eagle township in Ohio was loading his clay pipe with tobacco after a very fine meal that his wife had prepared. Now the lights were kind of dim and he was reclining in his chair and he didn't notice that not only did he load tobacco, but he also loaded a 32 caliber cartridge into his pipe. He then brought the match to the pipe and of course the bullet went off and went through his cheek. He ended up with a scar on his left cheek for the rest of his life.

That must have been a fairly capacious pipe. The .32 ACP and .32 S&W are both nearly an inch long, and the old .32 rimfire is over an inch long.  In any case, I think we can safely draw the conclusion from this that one should not store one's ammunition and pipe tobacco together.

Heard on The Useless Information Podcast.

Pipe lore: "a pipe or two"

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.’

—Jerome K. Jerome, from Three Men in a Boat (1889)

Guy Fawkes effigies

With pipe.  Found here.

Macro shot: 1792 Flake

Click to enlarge.

Pipe lore: "the chimney of perpetual hospitality"

THE MARRIAGE OF THE ARTS

On Sunday, the 26I of August 1621, a comedy, entitled Technogamia, or the Marriage of the Arts, written by Barton Holiday, M. A., of Christ’s Church, Oxford, was performed by students of the same college, before James I at Woodstock. As a typical specimen of the allegorical piece of the olden time, this drama is not unworthy of notice. The dramatis personæ; consist of Polites, a magistrate; Physica, and her daughter Astronomia; Ethicus, with his wife Economa; Geographicus, a traveller, with his servant Phantastes; Logicus, and his servant Phlegmaticus; Grammaticus, a schoolmaster, and his usher Choler; Poeta, and his servant Melancholia; Medicus, and his servant Sanguis; Historia; Rhetorica; Geometres; Arithmetica; Musica; Causidicus; Magus, and his wife Astrologia; Physiognomus and Cheiromantes, two cheating gipsies. All these are attired in goodly and appropriate fashion. Astronomia, for instance, wearing ‘white gloves and pumps, an azure gown, and a mantle seeded with stars; on her head a tiara, bearing on the front the seven stars, and behind stars promiscuously; on the right side, the sun; on the left, the moon.’ Astronomia is the brilliant heroine of the play--the heaven to which Geographicus aspires to travel, of which Geometres endeavours to take the measure, in which Poeta desires to repose. On the other hand, Arithmetica has a more natural passion for Geometres, and Historia anxiously wishes to be united to Poeta. Grammaticus, in an amorous mood, solicits Rhetorica, whose flowers bloom only for Logicus.

These conflicting attachments cause great confusion in the commonwealth of learning; each of the enamoured personages endeavouring to obtain the object of his or her affections. Polites assists Geographicus; Magus employs his occult art in favour of Geometres; while the Nine Muses, as in duty bound, assist Poeta. Polites can with difficulty keep the peace. The gipsies, Physiognomus and Cheiromantes, pick Poeta’s pocket, but find nothing therein but a copy of Anacreon and a manuscript translation of Horace. Physiognomus is appropriately branded on the face, that all men may know him to be a rogue; and Cheiromantes receives the same punishment on the hand; and the two, with Magus and Astrologia, who had attempted to strangle Astronomia, are justly banished the commonwealth of the Sciences. Then Geographicus, discharging his servant Phantastes, marries Astronomia; Grammaticus espouses Rhetorica; Melancholia obtains the hand of Musica, and takes Phantastes into his service; Logicus, old and heartless, being left without a mate, becomes an assistant to Polites; and thus peace and harmony is restored among the Sciences. There is considerable ingenuity displayed in the invention of this plot, the dialogue is witty, and the professors of the sciences represented are humorously satirised.

One would have supposed, that the pedantic spirit of James would have been delighted with this production, but such was not the case. Anthony h Wood tells us that the king ‘offered several times to withdraw, but being persuaded by some of those that were near him to have patience till it were ended, lest the young men should be discouraged, [he] adventured it, though much against his will.’ And the Cambridge students, pleased that the Oxford drama did not interest the king, produced the following epigram:

‘At Christ-church marriage, played before the king, Lest these learned mates should want an offering, The king, himself, did offer--What, I pray? He offered twice or thrice to go away.’

It is not difficult to perceive what it was that displeased the king. Phlegmaticus was dressed ‘in a pale russet suit, on the hack whereof was represented one filling a pipe of tobacco, his hat beset round about with tobacco-pipes, with a can of drink hanging at his girdle.’ He entered, exclaiming: ‘Fore Jove, most meteorological tobacco! Pure Indian! not a jot sophisticated; a tobacco-pipe is the chimney of perpetual hospitality. Fore Jove, most metropolitan tobacco.’ And then, rather unphlegmatically, he broke out into the following song:

Tobacco’s a Musician,
And in a pipe delighteth;
It descends in a close,
Through the organs of the nose,
With a relish that inviteth.
This makes me sing, So ho, so ho, boys,
Ho, boys, sound I loudly;
Earth ne’er did breed
Such a jovial weed,
Whereof to boast so proudly.

Tobacco is a Lawyer,
His pipes do love long cases;
When our brains it enters,
Our feet do make indentures;
While we seal with stamping paces,
This makes me sing, &c.

Tobacco’s a Physician,
Good both for sound and sickly;
‘Tis a hot perfume,
That expels cold rheum,
And makes it flow down quickly.
This makes me sing, &c.

Tobacco is a Traveller,
Come from the Indies hither;
It passed sea and land,
Ere it came to my hand,
And ‘scaped the wind and weather,
This makes me sing, &c.

Tobacco is a Critic,
That still old paper turneth,
Whose labour and care,
Is as smoke in the air,
That ascends from a rag when it burneth.
This makes me sing, &c.

Tobacco’s an Ignis-fatuus,
A fat and fiery vapour,
That leads men about,
Till the fire be out,
Consuming like a taper.
This makes me sing, &c.

Tobacco is a Whiffler,
And cries huff snuff with fury,
His pipe’s his club and link,
He’s the wiser that does drink;
Thus armed I fear not a fury.
This makes me sing, So ho, so ho, boys,
Ho, boys, sound I loudly;
Earth ne’er did breed
Such a jovial weed,
Whereof to boast so proudly.

The royal author of the Counterblast to Tobacco must have felt himself insulted by such a song. Ben Jenson was wiser, when, in his Gipsies’ Meta-morphosis, he abused ‘the devil’s own weed,’ in language totally unpresentable at the present day; and the delighted monarch ordered the filthy, slangy, low play, to be performed three several times in his kingly presence.

From Chamber's Book of Days.  Thanks to Brer via email.

House of Westminster cherrywood

For previous posts about this pipe, see here and here. I picked this up today with its new stem. As I had said before, the old stem was in very bad shape and I had never attempted to smoke it; I just cleaned it up nice and took it to the shop for a replacement stem.  So here are some photos I took of it just now.  Click on them for larger versions.

UPDATE:  While I was at the shop, I picked up a tin of 1792 Flake as well, and used it to try out the new pipe.  Very nice.  The big bulk of wood in this pipe makes it smoke quite cool, and it has a low enough center of gravity that I can still grip it in my teeth without using a hand for long enough to type effectively.  This pipe will be one of my regulars.

Cowboys

Date unknown, but I think it's safe to call it late 1800s.

Steampunk pipe smoker #1

By MonkeyHeartless at deviantart.  When women smoked pipes and wore goggles.

Russian peasant with pipe, dated 1911

From My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning, which you should probably subscribe to, in my opinion.

Picnicing at Indooroopilly

via LJMcK at flickr.

I once got a search hit on this blog for the search string "when men smoked pipes and wore hats." So I'm going to create a new category for photos such as this, if I find any more in the future. Exact date unknown.

Pipe quote: C.S. Lewis

“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”

--C.S. Lewis

Miskatonic U

I think I have already established on this blog that I am also a fan of H.P. Lovecraft.  Therefore, I thought it important to point out a new webcomic called Miskatonic U.  It is so new that you can easily catch up on the archives if you wish.

I mention this because the story's main protagonist is a new student at Miskatonic, and he has just met his belching, pipe-smoking room mate.

"The Wickedest Man in the World"

If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger has two photos of Aleister Crowley, young and old, both with pipe, at The Wickedest Man in the World.

The comic art of B.K. Taylor

The Appletons from May 1980 National Lampoon.

Pipe quote: William Makepeace Thackeray

“The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.”

--William Makepeace Thackeray

"Lashing new ratlines in the rigging"

Lashing on new ratlines in the rigging

Aboard the Frances and Marion, a Portuguese trawler. Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1942.

Photography by John Collier Jr.

Bayou Night macro shot

I haven't mentioned it on this blog yet, but I recently got a halfway-decent digital camera, so I'm not restricted to relying on lousy cell phone photos anymore.  Here's a macro shot of some Bayou Night.  I hope to post more such photos in the future.  I cropped this one just a little to keep the container out of the photo, so it isn't perfectly proportioned for a computer desktop, but it's very close.  If anyone wants to save this for personal use as their desktop wallpaper, feel free.

This is the only photo I've taken so far on the topic of pipes & tobacco, but if any readers wish to follow my flickr photostream, just click the link to go there.  My new blog that focuses solely on my attempts at photography is With Camera Eye.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Feathertop" comic

Go here to read.  What does it have to do with pipe smoking?  Read and see!

Let Me Smoke My Pipe

From Mr.B the Gentleman Rhymer.

Albert Einstein: pipe-smoking party reptile

Although I've already covered Einstein as a "featured pipe smoker," I felt compelled to add this photo, which I came across just yesterday.

A smoke-filled backroom

With a couple of women corncob pipe smokers.

link

Pictures of the Bertram

I've been wanting to take some photos of the Bertram for some time now, and I finally got around to buying a decent digital camera, so here they are. I've mentioned this pipe before, and posted some old "before & after" photos when I was refurbishing it, but I never posted any photos of it with its new stem.  You can see that I've smoked it a few times--it has some lip marks which I should clean off, I guess.

For more info about this pipe, just click on "Bertram" under the labels in the sidebar.

Two kinds of truth

This quote doesn't have anything to do with pipe smoking, but it's from one of my favorite pipe-smoking authors, Raymond Chandler.

There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.

--- Raymond Chandler, ”Great Thought” (19 February 1938), published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on film, 1928

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on film!  In this 10-minute filmed interview from 1928 he discusses Sherlock Holmes and spritualism.

No, no pipes in this film.  But, he was a pipe smoker, and as is my wont I occasionally post items Holmesian interest because it's my blog.

And on a personal note, oh how I would love to have such a clip of H.P. Lovecraft, just to hear what his voice sounded like.

Samuel Seymour

Here's a film clip of the old TV show "I've Got a Secret," with 96-year-old Samuel Seymour. A very interesting clip that also has a pipe connection.

Like a Sir

Found at verydemotivational.com.

Vintage Ad: Genuine French Briar Pipes

From an old Sears catalog, date unknown.

Via Voice of the Monkey.

Pipe, not pipe #1

click to enlarge

When is a pipe not a pipe?  When it's a cigar holder.  Here we have a nattily-dressed late 19th century young man, complete with top hat, smoking his cigar in something that looks somewhat pipe-like.

Honestly, in my opinion, he doesn't pull it off.  If he was thirty years older, maybe, but as is, I can't help but think that this is the 1890s version of the modern douchebag.

From My Ear Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning via Brer.

Happy New Year!

Although I don't do much to observe this time that was arbitrarily appointed as the beginning of the year (in some cultures--personally I think the year should end/begin with the Winter Solstice), I hope the coming year brings you much pipe-smoking pleasure.

Graphic found at Laughing Squid.

Santa takes a break

From ca. 1900.  Via Victorianon.

Featured Pipe Smoker: Captain Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott (1868 - 1912)

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.

These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.

Robert Falcon Scott was a Royal Navy officer who made two expeditions into Antarctica. During the last one, he reached the South Pole, but he and his four companions died while trying to return. Their bodies were discovered several months later, and left buried beneath a cairn of snow.

The above photo was taken during that expedition in 1911.

Link:  Captain Scott's final letter revealed for the first time

J.C. Leyendecker: Thanksgiving

Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874 - 1951)

Illustrator famous for his magazine covers, especially for The Saturday Evening Post.  His style was an enormous influence on Norman Rockwell.  This piece was used for the cover of American Weekly of July 24, 1946,  and shows the artist painting a portrait of a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast while smoking a pipe and preparing his own meager meal of sausages cooked over a small cast-iron stove.

Thanks to PowerOfBabel.

More news about the movie "Barquero"

I briefly mentioned Barquero once before.  The new news about it is that if you're a subscriber to Netflix's streaming service, it is now available for streaming!  If you're a fan of westerns, or Lee Van Cleef movies, or pipe smoking, or especially a western starring Lee Van Cleef who does a lot of pipe smoking, you should see it.

Ia R'lyeh pipe smoke ftaghn!

Great Cthulhu takes a break from driving artists and poets insane. I don't know how he manages to light a pipe under the ocean, but I suppose if he can get his fireplace to burn, then the pipe isn't much more difficult.

via Lovecraft eZine

Blending

Here's what I've thrown together to smoke for the time being:

1 part Latakia
2 parts burley
4 parts Virginia
4 parts Perique

Nice, but I think I'll increase the latakia.

UPDATE: I changed my mind. The leaves are beginning to meld now and the latakia has asserted itself just a little. I'll have to give it a few more days before I make a decision on this blend.

Today's work

Today I made a trip to the only tobacconist in the city (that I know of): The Humidor on San Pedro Ave. I have run out of all my favorite bulk tobaccos and I don't wish to smoke too much of my "good stuff" all at once, so I bought some various bulk leaves to whip up some of my own concoctions.

I bought 2 ounces each of Virginia and Perique and 1 ounce each of burley and Latakia. Before leaving their parking lot, I whipped up a quick pipeful of Perique mixed with C&D's Gray Ghost for the drive home. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and it was a good, long smoke. I have smoked Perique straight before, and enjoyed it, although it isn't something I want to do too often. However--and I should preface this with in my experience--straight Perique is difficult to burn. It works much better with a little something extra to more or less serve as an accelerant. The Gray Ghost is on the dry side and worked very well.

I also purchased a bunch of bristle pipe cleaners and a small container of Zippo lighting fluid. This stuff is hard to come by around here. I used to be able to buy it just about anywhere, but now no one stocks anything but butane. I think I might get a butane lighter eventually but I want to make sure I get a really good one that will last a long time, so I'll have to start researching that.

Upon arriving home, I mixed another very small sample with some of all four leaves and am enjoying it right now. Later on I will mix bigger samples and allow them to meld for a while before smoking. Right now it's just nice to have some decent bulk tobacco again.

And finally, I dropped off a pipe that needs a stem replacement. It is a pipe that I rescued from an estate lot and have never smoked because the stem was so badly damaged, but when I get it back I'll be sure and write something about it--after I've had chance to smoke it.

The end of an experiment

Some years ago I put up several batches of tobacco in vaccum-sealed bags, and eventually smoked all except one which somehow got pushed to the back of the cabinet and I overlooked it. Later I rediscovered it and decided it would be a good candidate to test long-term tobacco storage in vaccum sealed bags. So I put it back and decided to wait.

I did this because although I asked in different online forums about it, I got only replies such as, "I don't think it will work because..." or "it might not work because..." or "sounds like a good idea! let me know how it goes..." No one ever gave me an unequivocal yea or nay on the subject.

So let me now tell you, after 4 years and 3 months of storage: It does not work. So if you're thinking about this method for long-term storage, forget it. You will only waste your tobacco.

The tobacco in question was 2 ounces of C&D's Bayou Morning. Upon slitting open the bag, the tobacco had hardened into a near rock-like chunk. Small pieces could be chipped off which immediately fell apart into a nearly dust-like powder.

And that's that.

Featured Pipe Smoker: Lord Nibbler of Eternium (fictional)

Lord Nibbler of the planet Eternium is a fictional character from the animated series Futurama. He is a member of a very cute and adorable race with voracious appetites who are extremely long-lived (having lifespans of thousands of years).

"Nibbler" is only the cutely ironic nickname that his human companions have given him, ironic because he is capable of swallowing animals whole that are several times his own size. His real name is never given, because as he once said, "in the time it would take to pronounce one letter of my true name, a trillion cosmoses would flare into existence and sink into eternal night."

Throughout most of the series he appeared to be a semi-intelligent being who made simple animal sounds of chattering or warbling, would purr like a cat when his fur was stroked, and had a litter box for pooping. His feces are made of dark matter, "each pound of which weighs over ten thousand pounds," and was originally able to power space ship engines, although later on dark matter was rendered inert and could no longer be used as such. It is unknown if Nibbler is actually not potty-trained or if he simply prefers pooping in his diapers.

Later in the series, he revealed himself to be the extremely hyper-intelligent alien that he is, and when he desires to do so, can communicate with his human companions in a very deep, booming and well-modulated voice.

It was Nibbler who had the main protagonist, Philip J. Fry, cryogenically frozen so that he would be present in the 31st century because Fry was the only being in the universe capable of defeating a race of hyper-intelligent brains who were going to destroy the universe.

His race is called the Nibblonians by his human companions, and he and his kind also refer to themselves as such for the sake of convenience. The Nibblonians are the oldest race in the universe; at the time of the Big Bang they were already 17 years old.

In the episode from which these screen captures were taken, Nibbler discovers that the cats of Earth are actually a race of intelligent aliens who are going to destroy the Earth in order to save their own planet. He and his human companions succeed in foiling the cats' plan, although after they save the Earth they discover that the planet now rotates opposite from its original rotation, meaning that the sun would be rising in the west. This, they decide, is "close enough."

In the last picture above we see that Nibbler's pipe allows him to retain a quiet dignity even while having his diaper changed.

Vintage Ad (1942): Bond Street

Here we have a man enjoying his pipe, only to be accosted by what I assume is a rabid werewolf. Knowing that his life is about to end, the man cranes his head backward, exposing his throat in the vain hope that it will bring about his death as swiftly and painlessly as possible.

Bond Street does it again.

The game explained

From Gin Rummy, 1949. Illustration by Arthur Ferrier. Via Vintage Scans.

Attention!

I just noticed that my old blogroll has vanished due to changes at Bloglines, which I no longer use and my account is no longer active. So if you have a pipe blog and would like it listed here, please leave a comment. I'll have to rebuild the blogroll from scratch.

Thanks!

Vintage Ad (1946): Bond Street/Revelation

I have a sub-sub-hobby. Main hobby: pipe smoking. Sub-hobby: vintage pipe ads. Sub-sub-hobby: vintage ads featuring creepy Bond Street guys.

Bond Street seemed to have a knack for disturbing imagery in their ads. This guy isn't nearly as creepy as the official Creepy Bond Street Guy, but it's still pretty creepy.