Jack Knife Redeux

I. like most of us, live in two worlds. I do so comfortably. I have written four works of theology, mostly with an old fashioned dip pen and a bottle of ink. At the same time I am wedded to my smart phone, read most books on kindle or my phone and am entirely comfortable with twitter, texting and facebook. So into which world could I fit Jack Knife Plug? I would like to say that I could whittle away a small amount of tobacco as needed to fill my pipe. But the truth is, with my hectic schedule this simply wasn't going to happen. Each time I reached for a pipe the thought of having to simultaneously reach for a knife and tease out the tobacco for a smoke was simply impossible. I always reached for something else. But dammit I wanted to smoke this tobacco. So I broke down this Sunday evening when I had a little time, and cut up the entire plug and put it back in the tin as a vaguely ribbon cut/cube cut misture and could therefore fill my pouch on Monday morning as I left the house. I don't know whether this is the ideal, but it allowed e to enjoy the tobacco and enjoy it I did. It is truly a wonderful blend. The dark fired Kentucky is just as sweet as can be and tempers the red Virginia wonderfully. This is an all day smoke that has not let me down at all. Whether I buy it again and go through the trouble of cutting it all up is still a question mark, but I am certainly enjoying it while I can.

I still have a number of tobaccos that I have been storing for awhile without opening. With the weather beginning to really turn it will soon be time to open one up and try something new. But I'm very pleased to have tried this tobacco and look forward to trying Pease's new plug tobacco that I assume will be on sale after it debuts in Chicago, where someday I hope to go for the show, but, alas, not this year.

Back to Burley

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We have a wonderful woman who cleans our house once a week. But like every cleaning person we've ever employed she has a knack for taking the strangest things from their accustomed place and moving them to place where they will never be found. Or, more likely, they will be found totally by surprise when you're not looking for it.

I'm sure I've spoken about this tobacco before, but this week when I returned home after housecleaning day I found a half-used tin of C&D's Burley flake #1 sitting in the center of my desk. I'm not sure under what mound of papers it had been buried, but there it was beckoning me to take it up again, just as I had run out of what I had been smoking (which I don't remember anymore. See below.) Which is precisely what I did. In the course of that week I finished the tin and ran over to Holt's to purchase two more. I really love this stuff. I couldn't even wait to use the internet to safe the few dollars difference. Besides, as i may have said before, I like to "pay my dues" every now and then at Holt's for the great use that I make of the smoking lounge.

In regards to the parenthesis above. The reason I don't remember what i had been smoking before the Burley Flake is that weeks have gone by since I began working on this post. Funny how life gets in the way of blogging. Not only have I been insanely busy, but my attempt to conjure Spring out of Winter solely on the basis of the calendar just didn't work. After a few days of warmth winter returned to Philadelphia and hasn't really let go of its grip yet. Today was really the first morning I could sit outside and it is far from warm. But with the sun, fifty degrees is manageable. I know that during the deep of winter I managed to sit outside and regularly enjoy a pipe even when the temperatures were below freezing. But once the feeling of the warmth of that false Spring took hold of me, I just couldn't force myself to sit outside bundled in my winter coat anymore. I took a break. Besides, in addition to the cold, we've had an inordinate amount of precipitation and that makes things impossible. In hopeful that I am back and that real Spring is truly about to begin.

Meanwhile, to the extent that I could smoke, for instance on my various rides in the car to teach etc., I have gone back to the corn cob as my everyday smoke. Not that I didn't love the Rad Davis that I had been experimenting with smoking all the time. I did and will certainly smoke it and my other high-end pipes again when the mood strikes. But for everyday carrying around I just can't beat the cobs.

Finally, a word about the Jack Knife Plug that I mentioned last time. I can't say I've given it a fair trial. I've enjoyed the two or three bowls I've smoked, but the truth is, the inconvenience of having to cut off a plug has really been an impediment. Perhaps if I were smoking regularly then at least my evening pipe would provide me the relaxed opportunity of enjoying this form of tobacco. but for the rush of life it simply doesn't work. I am considering just sitting down tonight and slicing the whole can. Probably the best idea under the circumstances.