We're Invisible

[Anonymous]

Using fleabay as a measuring device, in the last three years, pipeoes have increased in numbers to the point where we're a collective vacuum cleaner. Anything at all worthwhile there is competitive -- sometimes absurdly so, with people bidding used stuff up way past new list prices.

Granted, some of this may reflect the economy, with people switching over to "estates" for budget reasons. But you'd expect a falling off in volume and price levels if that were the case ; instead, increases in both have been the norm.

Maybe the "necessity" of having at least 50 pipes is part of it, but that's always been the case.

Ordinarily, reporting on trends is a big deal in the media (hey - they have to replace actual news with something). Yet, to the them, we're invisible.

If smoking tobacco weren't so unspeakably evil, we'd be hip !.

:face:

 

[PipeBrew]

Silly dreams of "coolness," Yak. We all know that we're evil, dirty smokers that should be shunned like lepers. We're expanding, but like a plague.

 

[Winslow]

I have been buying on E-Bay for about 8 years,mainly pipes.I love a bargain,but it's harder nowadays than it was in the past.If pipes were on the way out the market would surely reflect that and it doesn't.

Winslow

 

[Doc Manhattan]

I'm glad the demand for pipes is growing in any sector; I just wish that some of that internet demand would translate to the material world.

Part of it is the Vice Squad, driving us into the private sphere and taxing the B&Ms to death. But I can walk Manhattan Island top-to-tail on a weekday (as I often have, dodging the subway fare), or sit in the park, and never see another Brother or Sister on the streets. No pipes to be found in those "smokers' exile" spots in front of the fifty-storey offices. Why do the streets of this busy city not look at least a little like those busy pages of ebay? Are we really so private, or in such diaspora? Going for a walk with a smoke, I'm somehow both invisible and incredibly conspicuous.

The media can't report on what it can't see--they're barely covering the stuff they can see and hear every day.

(That said, the good Lord defend us from pipes becoming a full-blown media "trend". If you think ebay is crowded now, just wait till every hipster with a trust fund can bid up gorgeous pipes that'll end up in a sock drawer after they cease to be cool.)

 

[Justpipes]

Regardles of what the libs and their media cohorts try to deceive people into believing the smoking/tobacco industry is bigger than it has ever been. It ain't going away. The libs have just created the opportunity for foreign markets to boost their economy while taking away from ours. Just like everything else. And they know what's best for us, most expecially the children...........yeah right!!!!!!!!!! :evil:

Oh, I forgot, the down swing in the American economy and the upswing in the global market is all GW Bush's fault! :evil:

 

[puros_bran]

I'm very tempted to remove that post JP.....I won't, but one of the other mods probably will.... This is the Round Table not the Rubber Room.



Doc M, in that city even if ya had 1,000,000 pipers they'd still be less common than men in pink shirts.



We are a growing bunch, but for the most part its lateral movement. From Cigs and Cigars to Pipes. I don't think the heyday of every other guy being a piper is coming back, but the growth in the 20/30 somethings group is encouraging.

About once or twice a week I see a Trucker with a Pipe. The odds of every trucking piper I cross paths wih actually having a pipe out is miniscule so I figure for every one I see I have probably passed 4-5 others... Its encouraging.

 

[Winslow]

Most little kids have never seen anyone smoke a pipe.I was at the zoo last year
with my wife,I brought an eagle claw meer along loaded with a nice aromatic.As I sat on a bench and puffed away small children pointed at me and said things to their parents,I imagine "Ma,that man's on fire!"and such.As they passed by one woman took a deep breath and told her kid to hold her breath and they ran past me like I was a rotting roadkill.I almost wet my pants it was so funny.I suppose the zoo will be the next place to ban smoking,thank God for nasal snuff.

Winslow

 

[puros_bran]

That's pretty funny in a sad way.....

'Hold your lungs full of all the crap that's floating around to avoid .00001ppm pipe smoke you might otherwise get child'


Bet she'd freak out to know yo can train a chimp to do hard labor with cigs....


Then again maybe that aint funny... I drive a truck to support the pipe.... That's a 'Holy Crap' moment, I'm maybe as smart as a chimp.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm glad the demand for pipes is growing in any sector; I just wish that some of that internet demand would translate to the material world.

Part of it is the Vice Squad, driving us into the private sphere and taxing the B&Ms to death. But I can walk Manhattan Island top-to-tail on a weekday (as I often have, dodging the subway fare), or sit in the park, and never see another Brother or Sister on the streets. No pipes to be found in those "smokers' exile" spots in front of the fifty-storey offices. Why do the streets of this busy city not look at least a little like those busy pages of ebay? Are we really so private, or in such diaspora? Going for a walk with a smoke, I'm somehow both invisible and incredibly conspicuous.

I believe that pipes are a rare sight these days, but not necessarily pipe smokers. Let’s face it; a pipe is not the most convenient way of enjoying tobacco. I like to smoke a pipe while walking through a park or around the neighborhood but rarely, if ever, take one to work. The key here is that pipe smokers don't really "need" a smoke the way a cigarette smoker does. I used to take my pipe when we would go out to eat or go to a ball game but things like that are pretty much outlawed here anymore.

I suppose it all boils down to why should I go and stand outside in a "smoking area" when I can easily wait until I get home where the whole place is designated smoking.
ipe:

 

[Doc Manhattan]

"There are a million pink shirts in the naked city..." (Don't knock the pink, pb--it's one of my alma mater's colors, and I wear it proudly.)

Highstump & pb, well met. The invisible pipe smoker is indeed also a function of the rushrushrush of the world. I'd just be getting a good second light on my pipe as my buddies were finishing their cigarettes. I'd rather smoke while I work, but Big Brother was watching (literally--I was teaching high school, security cameras everywhere!) The pipe-friendly workplace was probably the real last stand of the iconic, visible smoker.

Good wireless internet and affordable laptop computing have created some progress on that front, in a way. Last summer, I had my "office" on my lap, my pipe in my teeth, and my feet dangling in the lake. That's what I call real TCB! (If only we could move everyone's office to the woods for a few weeks--it'd be fine for the smokers, and good for everyone's soul.)

 

[Anonymous]

It's indicative, to me, of the broad shift in media mentality over the last 30 or so years from descriptive to perscriptive. Movie and TV producers used to study the subjects they were portraying, to get the little details about the lives of similar people in similar places convincingly right.

Now all imagery is blatant propaganda. Iconic. They apparently figure that if they portray life the way they want it to be, reality will follow suit. So nobody smokes, every woman is a corporate executive (or heads the detective branch of the police force) (at age twenty-three), and every social gathering prominently showcases minority inclusion.

Then they all sneak off and screw each other.

They're depicting themselves -- not us.

:face: