Traveling Again

I'll be off to Los Angeles for a few days, carrying a few pipes and a pouch. Hopefully, there will be times and places to get a pipeful in, but it is tough these days on the road. Last trip I stopped at the famous Gus's Tobaccos to check out the wares, but it is unlikely I'll have that kind of time. Meanwhile...this week's features:

Pipe Of The Week;

One of my favorites, this shape that I call a squashed bulldog by Manuel Shaabi who was profiled a couple of years ago in Pipes and Tobacco magazine shown below. Shaabi is a Lebanese wood carver/sculptor who came to Germany in 1979 because of the war in his country. After a number of different vocational strategies, all built around his love of wood and his skill, he trained in the famous Pipe Dan factory. Then he went out on his own and creates some of the most intriguing pipes around. This one is simple as compared to his very ornately carved specimens. If you want to see some really interesting pipes check out his web site: here.









Tobacco Bar

After a week off from blogging (you noticed!) I decided to try a new tobacco for the tobacco bar and picked up a tin of Corneel&Diehl's Sunday Picnic. It is a Virginia-Periqu blend with a healthy dose of Izmir tobacco from Turkey. Virginia-Perique blends are my favorites and I'm always looking for variations on the theme. Despite being very happy with Louisian Red these days as my regular VA-P blend, this one is quite different, quite interesting and very inviting.