Undated Halloween postcard

Pipe Smoker (fictional): Kisuke Urahara

I will try to avoid an inordinate amount of detail in this post.  If I say anything that you don't understand, check the Bleach wiki (linked below) to read about it.

Kisuke Urahara is a fictonal character from the manga/anime series Bleach.  In the past, he was a captain of one of the Soul Reaper squads and lived in the Soul Society, however, due to breaking some Soul Reaper laws, he was exiled to the world of the living where he now lives disguised as a normal human.

He appears to be an eccentric owner of a small odds-and-ends convenience-type store with a prediliction for selling candy.  However, the shop is actually a front for his sometimes supplying Soul Reapers in the world of the living with what we would consider to be "supernatural" devices to aid them in their jobs or in their lives while spending time in the world of the living.

He appears as a tall human male with disheveled blonde hair that hangs in front of his face.  He wears a coat that somewhat resembles a Soul Reaper captain's haori (or kimono).  He also wears a white and green striped hat with a brim that always casts his eyes into shadow.  He rarely removes it.  He also often carries a hand fan, which he sometimes teasingly uses to cover his mouth.  He seems to do this to make himself appear to be smiling and saying something jokingly when in fact he's quite serious.

In spite of being exiled to appearing as a normal human, he still retains all of his quite considerable powers.  He commonly uses a walking cane, although he doesn't need it.  In fact, his cane is his zanpakuto (his sword) in a concealed form.  He behaves in a manner that many times seems frivolous and sarcastic, however his behavior is only to conceal that he knows much more than it seems, in fact much more than many of the other Soul Reapers, and that he is an extremely dangerous opponent in combat, and is one of the fastest of all the Soul Reapers.  Besides his sword-fighting ability, he is also a master of kido--the use of spiritual power in combat, which would look like some kind of "magical" combat ability to humans.

He has a brilliant intelligence as befits him, since he was the founder and first president of the Soul Reaper Research and Development Institute before his exile, and is responsible for many inventions which are still used by various other Soul Reapers.  It was some of his inventions that got him into trouble, and the misuse of one invention in particular (misuse by another Soul Reaper captain) that is at the center of the entire over-arching saga of Bleach.  He was also instrumental in the training of the story's main protagonist, Ichigo Kurusaki, and Ichigo's transformation into a truly powerful substitute Soul Reaper.

At times of rare relaxation, he can sometimes be seen smoking a pipe of the Japanese kiseru design.

See also:   Kūkaku Shiba.

Pipe smoker quick fix: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein with Leó Szilárd in 1939.  From 24 Extraordinary Photos of the Making of the Atomic Bomb at buzzfeed.

The sun tester (1940)

From Modern Mechanix.

Pipe Smoker: Robert Thegerström

Robert Thegerström was a Swedish artist who lived from 1857-1919.  Above is his "Self Portrait With Pipe" from 1874.  Below is a photo of him from 1907.

link:  Robert Thegerström at Nordic Thoughts

"A quiet smoke at last"

Vintage postcard, 1908.

"Discarded Vices"

Still-life tintype, late 1800s.

"Ghostly Gourds" by Norman Rockwell

Pipe smoker quick fix: Samuel Clemens with Helen Keller

Once again, a quick photo of Samuel Clemens with pipe.

And Helen Keller.

Future Dictates of Fashion

Future Dictates of Fashion, The Strand Magazine, 1893.  From The Retro Future Convention.

Giacomo Ceruiti: Portrait of a Smoking Man in Oriental Habit

By Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (1698-1767).

Wikipedia:   Giacomo Ceruti

Pipe smoker quick fix: Samuel Clemens

Another photo of Samuel Clemens with a calabash to add to the collection.

Paja Jovanović - Albanian Resting

Link:  Paja Jovanović at Muddy Colors

Paja Jovanović - Two Guards in Front of a Gate

Link:  Paja Jovanović at Muddy Colors

Frederic McCubbin - "The Pioneers"

I first saw this as a very small, low res reproduction, but the position of his hand immediately made me think he was holding a pipe.  For a super-high-res version in which the pipe is clearly visible, go here.  Found at the old Ear-Trumpet.

Wikipedia:  Frederick McCubbin

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier - "The Guide"

The Guide casually puffs a Tyrolean.  Found at My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning.

Wikipedia:  Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier

Unemployed lumber worker, 1939

Found at TwistedSifter.

The Virginia Company - "Tobacco's But An Indian Weed"

I was sent on an unexpected journey through YouTube today by my friend Brer, who posted the lyrics to an old song called Nottingham Ale.  Wishing to actually hear it, I looked it up on YouTube and found that a helpful user over there had uploaded almost the entire discography of a band called The Virginia Company.  It was hard to find much about them.  Their albums are listed at Amazon but only as collectibles, and they seem to have no internet presence at all--a hard thing to believe these days.

Anyway, I was delighted to see that they have recorded "Tobacco's But An Indian Weed."  I mentioned this song quite some time ago here, in a post about Burl Ives.  So here it is.

The Animated Alan Watts

Open Culture has The Zen Wisdom of Alan Watts Animated by Creators of South Park.  I covered Alan Watts as a featured pipe smoker before here.

Blog tip: The Tobacco Pipe Artistory

My friend Brer from PowerOfBabel recently sent me a couple of pipe pix by email.  This is one of them.  I looked it up to see if I could find where he had found it, and came across an excellent pipe blog.

The world of antique pipes is a fascinating place full of surprising materials, shapes, styles, sizes and configurations and, depending on where the pipes were produced, can be encountered in a broad range of embellishments and accents in precious and semi-precious stones, silver and gold filigree, amber, ivory, horn, bone, and tortoiseshell.

Pipe Artistory covers a wide range of pipe & tobacco lore from history, with lots and lots of pictures. I recommend it.

Macro shot: Don't Tread On Me (hybrid blend)

This is a blend that I have C&D mix up for me occasionally.  It uses their house blend Gray Ghost, which is a mixture of maduro and Virginia.  I have had it mixed at different ratios, but my preferred blend is 5/8 Gray Ghost to 3/8 Perique.  I call it Don't Tread On Me.  Here's a faux tin label that I made up for it once (the Blogonomicon is one of my other blogs).

New tobacco order has arrived

The last time I ordered tobacco from Cornell & Diehl, I got a pound of Mountain Camp.  This was one of my favorites back in the olden days, and is a cousin of my absolute favorite Bayou Night, because it contains all the same varieties but with the ratios of Latakia and Perique reversed.

I have been smoking the Mountain Camp almost exclusively lately in order to use it up, and have finally come to the end of it.  I don't think I'll order it again.  It seems I have just lost my liking for strong Latakia blends.

A couple of days ago I received a new order which I will detail in a future post soon, but for now I will just say that I am thoroughly enjoying a custom blend that I had C&D whip up for me which is heavy on the Perique.  I'll be posting a couple of macro shots of the fresh leaves that have just arrived soon and detailing once again the custom blend that I'm enjoying tonight.

I also have to look forward to some thorough reaming and cleaning to get the Latakia out of several pipes.  I don't hate it or anything like that, I just prefer it now in smaller ratios so that it doesn't dominate.  Happy puffing!

Boating, with pipe

A father and sons out boating on the lake at the German resort of Wannsee near Berlin, 1925.  Via Mental Floss.

Quite possibly the birth of a meme

The "ridiculously photogenic sea captain" from Tastefully Offensive.

Pipe Smoker (fictional): Professor Richard Impossible

Richard Impossible is a super-scientist and inventive genius; and a fictional character from the animated series The Venture Brothers (on Cartoon Network).  For those who don't watch this show, I think a little explanation may be in order.  The main protagonists are the characters Doctor Thaddeus Venture, his sons Hank and Dean, and their bodyguard Brock Sampson.  They are based on and to some extent are parodies of the Quest family from the old animated series Jonny Quest.  Various other animated characters appear in either parodized or "actual" form now and then.  For example, the whole Quest family:  Jonny, Hadji, Dr. Quest and Race Bannon have all appeared at one time or another, as did their arch-nemesis Dr. Zin.

So...back to Professor Impossible.  In addition to his qualities already mentioned, at one time there was a freak accident in his laboratory which gave him the super-power of super-stretchiness.  Unfortunately, it also afflicted his wife Sally with invisible skin--but only her skin--which she can't always control; Sally's mentally handicapped cousin Ned with 3-inch thick skin, making him look like a living callous; and her brother Cody with the horrific malady of bursting into flame whenever he is exposed to the atmosphere, which renders him unable to do anything but scream and convulse in pain.  Professor Impossible built a special capsule which Cody can lie in that prevents him from burning; however he is condemned to live in this capsule for his entire life.

So you should see by now that Professor Impossible and his family are parodies of the Fantastic Four.  Impossible himself is extremely dominating and controlling; he doesn't even want Sally to leave her room when the Ventures came to visit him.  Above is a photo of him in his special "super-hero" costume.  He is almost always seen either holding or actually smoking a pipe.  In his early days, he appeared to prefer something similar to a bent billiard.

Eventually Sally grew tired of always being controlled by him, and realizing that she would always come in second to scientific research, she left him.  The breakup of his marriage sent him into a spiral of depression and excessive drinking.  He attempted suicide twice, but was comically prevented from killing himself by his own super-stretchy abilities.

One more bit of expository explanation.  In the Venture world, there is an organization called The Guild of Calamitous Intent.  It is an organization of villains who are bound by very strict rules of behavior in how they deal with their arch-enemies.  One particular arch-villain, another super-scientist called The Phantom Limb (a freak accident gave him invisible limbs with which he is also able to deliver electric shocks by touch) broke the rules and was thrown into a Guild prison.  He escaped, and began forming his own group which he called The Revenge Society, and which would not be constricted by any polite rules of engagement.  He contacted Professor Impossible and convinced him to join the Society to get revenge on those who had wronged him (namely, Dr. Venture, who he blamed for his failed marriage).

At this point, he changed his name to Professor Incorrigible and became a super-scientist arch-villain.

Although he is still a pipe smoker, he now prefers a pipe made of something other than briar, perhaps meerschaum or--who knows, maybe bone?--shaped like a skull.

The Venture Brothers is still an ongoing story, so we have yet to see what will become of Professor Incorrigible.

Vintage Ad: Tuxedo pipe tobacco (1924)

Click for a larger version.

Vintage Ad: Prince Albert (1949)

"The national joy smoke."  Huh.

Tinder Box brochure, early 1990s

Here are scans of a Tinder Box brochure from the early 90s.  At that time, there was one store at a mall in my area.  Neither the store nor the mall are there anymore.  I don't know if they still have the same brochure these days, but I thought it might be of interest.  Click on the pictures for larger versions.

Pipe Smoker: D. H. Snyder

Dudley Hiram Snyder (1833 - 1921)

Although not famous enough to warrant a Wikipedia page, D.H. Snyder was fairly well-known in his time.  Born in Mississippi, he eventually made his way to central Texas where he engaged in various activities to make a living, starting out by hauling cedar logs (cedar is still widely used for fence posts because of their natural bug- and rot-resisting qualities).  Taking his profits to Missouri, he bought wagons and hauled apples and other such items back to Texas to sell.  He invested his earnings from this into a herd of Spanish ponies which he drove to Missouri and traded for draft horses.  (The "Spanish ponies," or wild mustangs that had been broken for riding, were very popular for use in cattle driving).

He earned a reputation as a "safe man," or someone who could be relied upon, and this got him a job driving cattle to supply Confederate troops with beef during the Civil War.

Snyder eventually became a very wealthy cattle rancher.  His place in Texas history is honored by the above portrait, which hangs on a wall of the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas among numerous other prominent cattle ranchers of the 1800s and early 1900s.  He passed away in Georgetown, Texas in 1921.

Link:  FindAGrave.com (where you can see a stately photo of an elderly D.H. Snyder without a pipe)

When men smoked pipes and wore hats: Unidentified pipe smoker

A home-made pipe?  Maybe.  It looks pretty rough.

Pipe smoker quick fix: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

 

Another photo of Clemens with pipe that I just found in my collection. Must have missed it before.

Vintage Ad: The Champ Hat (1945)

Ad from 1945 for the "Champ" hat.

Raymond Chandler on editors

Editorial Manners 101:  Raymond Chandler Tells The Atlantic Off at brainpickings.org.

When men smoked pipes and wore hats: Taking a break

Unidentified, date unknown.

Pipe smoker quick fix: Albert Einstein

A couple more pix of Einstein with pipe to add to the others I've already posted.

More on Albert Einstein:

I have the same problem with my socks
Albert Einstein:  pipe-smoking party reptile
Pipe Smoker:  Albert Einstein

Some museum pipes

Today my family and I visited the Witte Museum in San Antonio, and on our tour through the section on Texas history, I made sure to keep an eye out for pipes.

Click all pictures for larger versions.  I was only using my phone camera, so the details aren't sharp, but here is an example of a Native American pipe and if you enlarge it you can read the texts at the upper left.  Not clear in the picture here, but above the pipe are examples of "cane cigarettes," or let's say "cigarette-shaped" sections of cane which were used for smoking, sort of like a straight pipe with no bowl.  One of them was found still packed with juniper leaves, which were apparently used for smoking.  At the lower right is a "tobacco" pouch, the pouch made from prickly pear pads and still holding a large quantity of juniper.

There was also a section on German settlers in early Texas, which is of particular interest to me because those are the people I came from.  Here is a Tyrolean-style pipe brought to Texas by an unidentified German emigrant around 1850.

And another German pipe, this one belonging to Heinrich Steves, who came to Texas with his family in 1849.

Pipe Smoker (fictional): George Jetson

Jane! Get me off this crazy thing!

George Jetson is a fictional character from the animated series The Jetsons, pictured here (left to right) with his daughter Judy, his wife Jane, his son Elroy, and his dog Astro.  As you can see, Astro is somewhat anthropomorphic and is even able to speak in a sort of heavily dog-accented English, which leads me to believe that Astro must be a distant descendent of Scooby Doo.  Not pictured is their robotic housekeeper, Rosie.  But back to George.

George and his family live on an indeterminately future Earth, in a towering space needle type of house.  The ground below is almost never seen, and all humans who live in George's time live in such high towers so they can escape the lower altitude smog, and use various sorts of flying vehicles to travel between buildings.  [One theory is that the Flintstones and the Jetsons actually live in the same time--the Flintstones and their ilk being much more primitive "ground dwellers" while the Jetsons and their kind are more socially upward humans who, in a manner of speaking, left them behind.]

George Jetson works as a digital index operator for a company called Spacely's Space Sprockets, the "sprocket" being some form of undetermined futuristic technology that allows humans of George's world to live as they do.  George's job is extremely stressful--at one point he complained of having to work for one hour, two days a week.  His job consists almost entirely of repeatedly pushing a button on his work computer, called RUDI (for Referential Universal Digital Indexer).  He is frequently fired and then re-hired by his tyrannical boss, Cosmo Spacely.

But George is a good-hearted soul who loves his family and is loyal to his employer, and on rare occasions, he is able to relax and enjoy the company of his family and his dog, and even smoke a pipe.

Links:
George Jetson Wikipedia
The Jetsons Wikipedia
The Jetsons imdb.com

Pipe smoker quick fix: Raymond Chandler

I've already covered Raymond Chandler more thoroughly, and included some his writings and quotations, but here are a couple more photos of him with pipe (and cat) from my collection.

More on Raymond Chandler:

Pipe Smoker:  Raymond Chandler
Pipes in Literature:  Thoughtful when you are not thinking
Two kinds of truth
Raymond Chandler on writing

Vintage Ad: Bond Street (date unknown)

Another creepy vintage ad from Bond Street.  Date unknown, but probably from the 1940s like all the other such ads I have seen.  This one depicts what I imagine is a scene from an obscure failed television pilot called "Uncle Rufus is a Pipe-Smoking Bear."

Vintage Ad: Golden Sceptre Smoking Tobacco (1892)

Pipe lore: lunting

lunting:  the act of walking and smoking a pipe

via Obsolete Word of the Day

from The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1876, John MacTaggart)

Dog smoking pipe woodcut

By Taninaka Yasunori (1897 - 1946).  Via a man with a past.