It would be interesting to see the results of deep research into the effects of tobacco. As the article implies, it would probably be very surprising and positive. Yet again, the big government is always in the way. I personally think we to often consider "health benefits" more as physical and not enough of psychological or the person as a whole. Pipe smokers are happier people guaranteed. And in my personal experience, more than the health nuts I know - always worried about their health.
Excellent article motie. I wish writers/pipemen had been banging their keys and ringing the bell 40 years ago, and attempting to educate the public. The inclusion of pipes and cigars, in the war against big tobacco is insanity and pure ignorance to the facts.
Years ago I saw a cartoon which showed the smoking preferences for the players of the various forms of billiards/pool. The billiards player (not pocket billiards, but carom or three-cushion billiards) was shown as a rich man smoking a big fat cigar. The snooker player (and in those days snooker was fairly popular in the U.S,) was shown as a middle class man smoking a pipe while taking a shot. The pool player (no matter what variation of pool) as a working class man smoking a cigarette. All three classes are important to the nation and to society. Each as important as the other. But the snooker players, and pipe smokers, seem to give more thought to their actions than do cigar or cigarette smokers.
As a pipe smoker, I was interested to read the article on the “myth”
of the safety of pipes and cigars appearing in The Times (Dec. 24).
As
an educated and knowledgeable pipe smoker, I must point out that the
information in it runs contrary to numerous studies done both in the
United States and Europe. The studies done in this country were done by
the U.S. surgeon general, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins
University, and the Harvard School of Medicine, to name a few.
The
surgeon general, for instance, states in his current report that pipe
and cigar smokers do not appear to experience risk of heart disease that
is significantly higher than that experienced by nonsmokers. Other
studies have found that pipe smokers seem to even have slightly greater
longevity than nonsmokers due to the relaxation factor. And as for
cancer, the incidence of oral cancers in pipe and cigar smokers was at
one time found to be .0025% above that for nonsmokers, a figure that
still stands in the body of research.
While it is quite true that inhaled pipe smoke is dangerous, whether
or not a pipe smoker inhales to any degree is a matter of smoking
technique. Any knowledgeable pipe smoker will have a proper smoking
technique, one in which no smoke is inhaled. To say that all pipe
smokers inhale at least a little bit shows an incredible ignorance of
the practices of experienced pipe smokers as opposed to those who smoke
drugstore-quality pipes and tobaccos, the latter group making up the
majority of American pipe smokers.
The reason cigarette smokers
have such trouble switching to a pipe or cigar is because they cannot
get past the need to inhale, nor do they generally have the patience to
learn how to do it properly.
Also, if second-hand smoke from pipes
is so dangerous lung cancer would show up as a health risk to pipe
smokers since they are exposed to their own second-hand smoke as much if
not more than those around them. And yet lung cancer has been found to
be virtually non-existent in pipe smokers unless they inhale their smoke
directly.
What
impresses me about the studies cited in The Times article was that
there was no mention made of the kinds of tobaccos smoked by those
studied, along with other crucial information such as the amount they
smoked. There are a number of factors that can have an affect on whether
or not pipes are safe (the nature of cigars is such that these factors
are absent), and to do a study and simply state that pipes are in fact a
health hazard shows a complete lack of appreciation for the importance
of these factors. While things like this may make the anti-smokers
happy, they do nothing to help promote accurate information for those
who should have it, even if that information goes against what someone
may want to believe.
I urge all pipe smokers to become acquainted with all studies done so
far on pipes and health before they accept the findings stated in The
Times article. The safety of pipe smoking, far from being a myth, is a
fact established by long experience. Besides, it is my understanding
that the surgeon general and others who have studied pipes and health
have based their studies on actual research and not on myths.
Back in the Day: Pipe smoking was social and intellectual Part 1
Alonzo Kittrels
Over
the past several years, we have seen a concerted effort to curtail, if
not eliminate smoking. The Surgeon General’s 1964 report raised the
concerns regarding the dangers of smoking, yet people, young and old,
male and female, continue to smoke.
According
to Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association,
lung cancer, heart attack, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) and sudden infant death syndrome are some of the catastrophic
results of tobacco use. During my teenage years, many of my friends
smoked and some continue to smoke to today, in spite of the warnings. I
tried smoking when I was 13; it lasted just a few days as I concluded
that it made little sense. Inhaling and blowing smoke from my mouth was
silly and resulted in the objectionable smell of smoke in my clothing.
Thus, I gave it up and never tried it again.
Like
many of you, I observe people leaving their non-smoking offices or
other facilities to go outside to smoke. But, the smoking I observe
involves cigarettes. How many of you recall when pipe smoking was
popular, back in the day?
I
made a conscious effort to identify pipe smokers in my travels, as soon
as I decided on this focus for today’s column. While many pipe smokers
came to mind from the past, I could not find anyone and could not
identify anyone that I knew who smoked a pipe today. My memories of pipe
smokers go back to the ‘50s and’60s when pipe smoking was very popular.
You may have seen pictures, movies or television shows of some notable
people smoking pipes. For me, Bing Crosby immediately comes to mind.
Clarence
“Gatemouth” Brown, a blues musician was known as an avid pipe smoker.
It is reported that he often sold his own proprietary blend of pipe
tobacco. Albert Einstein was known to be a pipe smoker. Several United
States presidents such as Gerald Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert
Hoover were also avid pipe smokers. Other notables such as Clark Gable,
Cary Grant, Hugh Hefner, Burl Ives, Albert King, Douglas MacArthur,
Joseph Stalin and Mark Twain were often shown smoking pipes. These were
are all men, however, there were a handful of females that smoked pipes
in the past.
We must
also recognize that fictional characters, Popeye, Frosty the Snowman and
Santa Claus were associated with pipe smoking. In the late ‘70s, a
Newark, New Jersey school superintendent, with whom I worked, was the
last person with whom I interacted that smoked a pipe.
So,
it has been many years since I had a personal relationship with anyone
that smoked a pipe. This is quite a difference from my involvement with
pipe smokers, back in the day.
During
my young adult and college years, there were large numbers of pipe
smokers. Interestingly, many of these pipe smokers were of college age.
An article by Marcus Jones titled “Why Don’t People Smoke Pipes Any
More,” appeared in the June 19, 2014 EA Carey (Europe) Ltd newsletter
and provided some insight into pipe smoking back then and its decline
today. Jones points out that in the early part of the last century, pipe
smoking was the norm. Men viewed their pipes as part of their
haberdashery. Tobacconists would design the pipe to complement a
gentleman’s face structure and his choice of clothing. Many high-class
stores carried pipes as a distinct fashion statement and not just for
smoking pleasure.
The
1964 Surgeon General’s report referenced earlier resulted in a boom in
pipe smoking as the report claimed that pipe smokers actually lived
longer than other smokers.
My
generation turned to pipe smoking, not for this claim, but because
“brothers” thought that pipe smoking was cool. I make this point based
on conversations I have had with friends and colleagues that smoked
pipes in the past. To a person, they indicated that they turned to pipe
smoking upon entering college because pipe smokers appeared to be
intelligence and cool.
Jones’
article makes this same claim. He stated that some college students
were saying after becoming involved with pipe smoking, “Now, I am an
intellectual college lad.” Jones added, “Oh, how wonderful it must have
been for these fraternity brats, clad in cardigan sweaters and bow ties,
to stand around the piano with pipes in hand, gleefully singing their
schools theme song. While I have no image of any of my friends being in
this type of setting, I do have an appropriate and relevant statement
related to pipe smoking that comes from a piece I read some time ago
which I have paraphrased as follows, “I smoke pipes because it makes me
appear to look intelligent even if I cannot recall where I left my
automobile keys.”
Now,
think back in time to those days when smoking was permissible in bars
and clubs. Some of you recall sitting around, having a drink, bonding
with your friends, and yes, with a pipe in your mouth. In your mind,
smoking a pipe was the ultimate of being cool. But, as most of you
realize, this was not yesterday, it was back in the day.
When
writing my columns, it is not uncommon for me to turn to relatives,
friends and associates to solicit their memories, of the subject, from
their past. On some occasions, I conduct internet searches to locate
postings on the subject of interest. Such was the case for today’s
column.
A
colleague and a church member, the son of a pastor, displayed a broad
smile when I asked him if he had ever smoked a pipe. While he had not,
his smile apparently brought to mind his father whom he described as a
big pipe smoker. He shared with me that he and his brothers loved to be
around their father when he smoked his pipe as the aroma from the
tobacco was very pleasant.
While
his memory of his father’s pipe smoking was more than 40 years ago, he
quickly identified Captain Black as one of his father’s favorite smoking
tobaccos. Another friend’s memories of cigar smoking were also tied to
the aroma of the tobacco. It was his view that females loved to be
around men that smoked pipes because of the smell of the tobacco. Then
there was the friend that considered himself to be a “spediock” someone
that is cool, sophisticated and mannerly. He, too, spoke through a big
smile about how he and his other spediok friends, all males, would go
into his basement, each wearing his favorite smoking jacket and smoked
their pipes as they passed the evening away.
Another
friend asked how I could forget about my high school classmate who
smoked pipes. He was right; he was the epitome of a pipe smoker. This
was evidenced by the words he wrote in my yearbook next to his
photograph. His words were, “I am an intellectual.” These are words
describe the way most pipe smokers saw themselves, back in the day.
Here
is an educational moment relative to pipe smoking. You may recall
movies and television shows of Native Americans smoking pipes. Well,
Native Americans had pipe-smoking traditions before the arrival of
Europeans in America. They were used for ceremonial purposes.
Also,
according to Alfred Dunhill, Africans had a long tradition of pipe
smoking asserting that by 1884, the King of the Baluka tribe of the
Congo had established a hemp-smoking cult in place of fetish worship.
Extremely large gourd pipes were used. Pipes that used tobacco have a
history that spans most of recorded human history.
Also,
pipes are made from various materials such as briar, clay, ceramics,
corncob, glass, meerschaum, metal, gourd, stone, wood, bog oak and
calabash. Pipes were and continue to be made of various sizes depending
on what would be placed in the pipe. Because of the long history of
pipes and the materials that were used to make them, they have become
quite collectible.
I
have come across several thoughts regarding the decline in pipe smoking.
Some of you former pipe smokers may have abandoned its use because of
medical concerns.
Pipe
smoking requires thought, dedication and patience for loading the pipe,
lighting and tamping to produce a wonderful experience. Many former
pipe smokers simply do not have time for this. Others find it much
easier to take a quick trip to the convenience store to pick up a pack
of cigarettes.
It has
been argued that the decline in pipe smoking may be related to its lack
of appeal on the part of women. One internet post said that pipe smoking
declined as many pipe smokers were purchasing the wrong pipes; those
that were cheap and were being filled with inferior tobacco.
I wonder if there will be an increase in pipe smoking with the trend towards the use of medical marijuana
An
internet article that I read some years ago offers advice that is
relevant for today’s column. It suggested that today’s generation should
go out and purchase a pipe and some good tobacco.
While
you may lose all of your social network friends, you are likely to
improve your image; you might be perceived as having a high IQ. As this
article pointed out, you could single-handedly incite a resurgence of
pipe smoking, an experience enjoyed by our elders, back in the day.
I actually saw a pipe smoker in the wild yesterday. He was pulling in his pickup to Perkin’s as I was leaving. He was an older gentleman (I’m 58….so, you get the idea) with his wife. He was beaming a big smile while clenching his rather large bent pipe. Sadly, I was not in my Jeep, so was not smoking a pipe at the time…he will never know he was so close to an almost extinct species.
@mfresa Interesting video although I never had a concern about mouth cancer, I thought of it as a cigar smoker's problem. That video lead me to a pipe club video of LJ Peretti's in Boston, the first tobacconist I purchased from at the ripe old age of 16 or 17!
@Balisong, yes I believe oral cancers, particularly with cigars, are related to the tobacco actually contacting the skin. People who dip sometimes have the same issue on their gums or lips.
You all have to remember, though, that when someone says that whatever it is 'triples the risk of cancer' (or something to that effect), that is a tripling of probability from a control group that doesn't engage in that activity (whatever it is). That probability is already quite low, so a 'tripling' of it is still quite low When I was on the faculty at Texas Tech I was a consultant for the university medical center there, and we had several open seminars/debates about the exposition of such data to the public. Many, including myself, thought that it was deceiving the public. For instance, if there was a 0.10% chance of catching something when not engaging in a particular activity, saying "you are four times more likely" if you do amounts to only a 0.40% chance.
@mfresa I'm with ya' there! I'm an econometrician, I model data for a living and I only trust my own modeling and inference; in fact, out of probably 40 peer-reviewed publications of mine, probably 30 are remodeling a famous researcher's crappy work and displaying how the results changed, indicating their inference that a dominant paradigm was constructed from, is entirely baseless. It's always amazed me how people manipulate shit, come to a conclusion, and idiots run with it like it's gospel.
I studied mathematics and philosophy and delved into logic from both disciplines. Probability was fun and predictive, statistics was the marketing departments toy, most stories can be backed up by manipulating the data.
I'm neither an econometrician nor have I studied mathematics. However, in my younger years, I did delve into marketing as I learned about producing print publications and print advertising. This included studying how surveys work and how the results of surveys are presented.
The conclusion I came to is that statistics and surveys are easily manipulated depending on the inherent bias of the person or organization which paid for the survey and/or the statistic research.
Interestingly, since you posted that I thought I would tell you about another seminar (there are a number of them each year at the the Chicago Pipe Show) by one of our members.
His name is Dr. Fred Hanna.
Fred Hanna – Benefits of Nicotine
April 28 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Free
Professor, Doctor of Pipes, and author of the pipe book, The
Perfect Smoke, Dr. Fred Hanna will be delivering a lecture on the
benefits of nicotine. As we all know, nicotine has been vilified,
demonized, and condemned by the popular media. However, contrary to what
most of us have been led to believe, actual research findings show that
nicotine has several health benefits that are tremendously interesting.
And contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence from research that
nicotine causes cancer. It simply does not. Join us Friday night at
4:30 to gain new insights into the positive benefits that our hobby
provides.
Well Brothers I've smoked cigars, dipped Copenhagen for years and smoked a pipe since I was 20. I've fought structure fires without a mask and been to two county fairs. Let's be honest, we all know if I get cancer it will be the result of climate change.
Comments
I personally think we to often consider "health benefits" more as physical and not enough of psychological or the person as a whole. Pipe smokers are happier people guaranteed. And in my personal experience, more than the health nuts I know - always worried about their health.
Behind the ‘Myths’ About Pipe Smoking
As a pipe smoker, I was interested to read the article on the “myth” of the safety of pipes and cigars appearing in The Times (Dec. 24).
As an educated and knowledgeable pipe smoker, I must point out that the information in it runs contrary to numerous studies done both in the United States and Europe. The studies done in this country were done by the U.S. surgeon general, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and the Harvard School of Medicine, to name a few.
The surgeon general, for instance, states in his current report that pipe and cigar smokers do not appear to experience risk of heart disease that is significantly higher than that experienced by nonsmokers. Other studies have found that pipe smokers seem to even have slightly greater longevity than nonsmokers due to the relaxation factor. And as for cancer, the incidence of oral cancers in pipe and cigar smokers was at one time found to be .0025% above that for nonsmokers, a figure that still stands in the body of research.
While it is quite true that inhaled pipe smoke is dangerous, whether or not a pipe smoker inhales to any degree is a matter of smoking technique. Any knowledgeable pipe smoker will have a proper smoking technique, one in which no smoke is inhaled. To say that all pipe smokers inhale at least a little bit shows an incredible ignorance of the practices of experienced pipe smokers as opposed to those who smoke drugstore-quality pipes and tobaccos, the latter group making up the majority of American pipe smokers.
The reason cigarette smokers have such trouble switching to a pipe or cigar is because they cannot get past the need to inhale, nor do they generally have the patience to learn how to do it properly.
Also, if second-hand smoke from pipes is so dangerous lung cancer would show up as a health risk to pipe smokers since they are exposed to their own second-hand smoke as much if not more than those around them. And yet lung cancer has been found to be virtually non-existent in pipe smokers unless they inhale their smoke directly.
What impresses me about the studies cited in The Times article was that there was no mention made of the kinds of tobaccos smoked by those studied, along with other crucial information such as the amount they smoked. There are a number of factors that can have an affect on whether or not pipes are safe (the nature of cigars is such that these factors are absent), and to do a study and simply state that pipes are in fact a health hazard shows a complete lack of appreciation for the importance of these factors. While things like this may make the anti-smokers happy, they do nothing to help promote accurate information for those who should have it, even if that information goes against what someone may want to believe.
I urge all pipe smokers to become acquainted with all studies done so far on pipes and health before they accept the findings stated in The Times article. The safety of pipe smoking, far from being a myth, is a fact established by long experience. Besides, it is my understanding that the surgeon general and others who have studied pipes and health have based their studies on actual research and not on myths.
STEPHEN JOHNSON
Los Angeles
Back in the Day: Pipe smoking was social and intellectual Part 1
Over the past several years, we have seen a concerted effort to curtail, if not eliminate smoking. The Surgeon General’s 1964 report raised the concerns regarding the dangers of smoking, yet people, young and old, male and female, continue to smoke.
According to Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, lung cancer, heart attack, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and sudden infant death syndrome are some of the catastrophic results of tobacco use. During my teenage years, many of my friends smoked and some continue to smoke to today, in spite of the warnings. I tried smoking when I was 13; it lasted just a few days as I concluded that it made little sense. Inhaling and blowing smoke from my mouth was silly and resulted in the objectionable smell of smoke in my clothing. Thus, I gave it up and never tried it again.
Like many of you, I observe people leaving their non-smoking offices or other facilities to go outside to smoke. But, the smoking I observe involves cigarettes. How many of you recall when pipe smoking was popular, back in the day?
I made a conscious effort to identify pipe smokers in my travels, as soon as I decided on this focus for today’s column. While many pipe smokers came to mind from the past, I could not find anyone and could not identify anyone that I knew who smoked a pipe today. My memories of pipe smokers go back to the ‘50s and’60s when pipe smoking was very popular. You may have seen pictures, movies or television shows of some notable people smoking pipes. For me, Bing Crosby immediately comes to mind.
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, a blues musician was known as an avid pipe smoker. It is reported that he often sold his own proprietary blend of pipe tobacco. Albert Einstein was known to be a pipe smoker. Several United States presidents such as Gerald Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover were also avid pipe smokers. Other notables such as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Hugh Hefner, Burl Ives, Albert King, Douglas MacArthur, Joseph Stalin and Mark Twain were often shown smoking pipes. These were are all men, however, there were a handful of females that smoked pipes in the past.
We must also recognize that fictional characters, Popeye, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus were associated with pipe smoking. In the late ‘70s, a Newark, New Jersey school superintendent, with whom I worked, was the last person with whom I interacted that smoked a pipe.
So, it has been many years since I had a personal relationship with anyone that smoked a pipe. This is quite a difference from my involvement with pipe smokers, back in the day.
During my young adult and college years, there were large numbers of pipe smokers. Interestingly, many of these pipe smokers were of college age. An article by Marcus Jones titled “Why Don’t People Smoke Pipes Any More,” appeared in the June 19, 2014 EA Carey (Europe) Ltd newsletter and provided some insight into pipe smoking back then and its decline today. Jones points out that in the early part of the last century, pipe smoking was the norm. Men viewed their pipes as part of their haberdashery. Tobacconists would design the pipe to complement a gentleman’s face structure and his choice of clothing. Many high-class stores carried pipes as a distinct fashion statement and not just for smoking pleasure.
The 1964 Surgeon General’s report referenced earlier resulted in a boom in pipe smoking as the report claimed that pipe smokers actually lived longer than other smokers.
My generation turned to pipe smoking, not for this claim, but because “brothers” thought that pipe smoking was cool. I make this point based on conversations I have had with friends and colleagues that smoked pipes in the past. To a person, they indicated that they turned to pipe smoking upon entering college because pipe smokers appeared to be intelligence and cool.
Jones’ article makes this same claim. He stated that some college students were saying after becoming involved with pipe smoking, “Now, I am an intellectual college lad.” Jones added, “Oh, how wonderful it must have been for these fraternity brats, clad in cardigan sweaters and bow ties, to stand around the piano with pipes in hand, gleefully singing their schools theme song. While I have no image of any of my friends being in this type of setting, I do have an appropriate and relevant statement related to pipe smoking that comes from a piece I read some time ago which I have paraphrased as follows, “I smoke pipes because it makes me appear to look intelligent even if I cannot recall where I left my automobile keys.”
Now, think back in time to those days when smoking was permissible in bars and clubs. Some of you recall sitting around, having a drink, bonding with your friends, and yes, with a pipe in your mouth. In your mind, smoking a pipe was the ultimate of being cool. But, as most of you realize, this was not yesterday, it was back in the day.
When writing my columns, it is not uncommon for me to turn to relatives, friends and associates to solicit their memories, of the subject, from their past. On some occasions, I conduct internet searches to locate postings on the subject of interest. Such was the case for today’s column.
A colleague and a church member, the son of a pastor, displayed a broad smile when I asked him if he had ever smoked a pipe. While he had not, his smile apparently brought to mind his father whom he described as a big pipe smoker. He shared with me that he and his brothers loved to be around their father when he smoked his pipe as the aroma from the tobacco was very pleasant.
While his memory of his father’s pipe smoking was more than 40 years ago, he quickly identified Captain Black as one of his father’s favorite smoking tobaccos. Another friend’s memories of cigar smoking were also tied to the aroma of the tobacco. It was his view that females loved to be around men that smoked pipes because of the smell of the tobacco. Then there was the friend that considered himself to be a “spediock” someone that is cool, sophisticated and mannerly. He, too, spoke through a big smile about how he and his other spediok friends, all males, would go into his basement, each wearing his favorite smoking jacket and smoked their pipes as they passed the evening away.
Another friend asked how I could forget about my high school classmate who smoked pipes. He was right; he was the epitome of a pipe smoker. This was evidenced by the words he wrote in my yearbook next to his photograph. His words were, “I am an intellectual.” These are words describe the way most pipe smokers saw themselves, back in the day.
Here is an educational moment relative to pipe smoking. You may recall movies and television shows of Native Americans smoking pipes. Well, Native Americans had pipe-smoking traditions before the arrival of Europeans in America. They were used for ceremonial purposes.
Also, according to Alfred Dunhill, Africans had a long tradition of pipe smoking asserting that by 1884, the King of the Baluka tribe of the Congo had established a hemp-smoking cult in place of fetish worship. Extremely large gourd pipes were used. Pipes that used tobacco have a history that spans most of recorded human history.
Also, pipes are made from various materials such as briar, clay, ceramics, corncob, glass, meerschaum, metal, gourd, stone, wood, bog oak and calabash. Pipes were and continue to be made of various sizes depending on what would be placed in the pipe. Because of the long history of pipes and the materials that were used to make them, they have become quite collectible.
I have come across several thoughts regarding the decline in pipe smoking. Some of you former pipe smokers may have abandoned its use because of medical concerns.
Pipe smoking requires thought, dedication and patience for loading the pipe, lighting and tamping to produce a wonderful experience. Many former pipe smokers simply do not have time for this. Others find it much easier to take a quick trip to the convenience store to pick up a pack of cigarettes.
It has been argued that the decline in pipe smoking may be related to its lack of appeal on the part of women. One internet post said that pipe smoking declined as many pipe smokers were purchasing the wrong pipes; those that were cheap and were being filled with inferior tobacco.
I wonder if there will be an increase in pipe smoking with the trend towards the use of medical marijuana
An internet article that I read some years ago offers advice that is relevant for today’s column. It suggested that today’s generation should go out and purchase a pipe and some good tobacco.
While you may lose all of your social network friends, you are likely to improve your image; you might be perceived as having a high IQ. As this article pointed out, you could single-handedly incite a resurgence of pipe smoking, an experience enjoyed by our elders, back in the day.
An image gone up in smoke Remember pipe smokers? They are still around, but they are no match for their hip, cigar-puffing colleagues.
An older gentleman of 58? You can kiss my rather large bent.
Well, it’s all relative, and older gentleman is better than old codger or old bastard right?
By the way….get off my lawn you damn kids😂😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_AVG6muxlk
Interesting video although I never had a concern about mouth cancer, I thought of it as a cigar smoker's problem. That video lead me to a pipe club video of LJ Peretti's in Boston, the first tobacconist I purchased from at the ripe old age of 16 or 17!
I'm with ya' there! I'm an econometrician, I model data for a living and I only trust my own modeling and inference; in fact, out of probably 40 peer-reviewed publications of mine, probably 30 are remodeling a famous researcher's crappy work and displaying how the results changed, indicating their inference that a dominant paradigm was constructed from, is entirely baseless. It's always amazed me how people manipulate shit, come to a conclusion, and idiots run with it like it's gospel.
I'm neither an econometrician nor have I studied mathematics. However, in my younger years, I did delve into marketing as I learned about producing print publications and print advertising. This included studying how surveys work and how the results of surveys are presented.
The conclusion I came to is that statistics and surveys are easily manipulated depending on the inherent bias of the person or organization which paid for the survey and/or the statistic research.
Pipe Smoking Could Have Positive Benefits To The Health Of Your Body & Mind.
https://www.pipehub.com/blog/post/pipe-smoking-could-have-positive-benefits-to-the-health-of-your-body---mindFred Hanna – Benefits of Nicotine
April 28 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
FreeProfessor, Doctor of Pipes, and author of the pipe book, The Perfect Smoke, Dr. Fred Hanna will be delivering a lecture on the benefits of nicotine. As we all know, nicotine has been vilified, demonized, and condemned by the popular media. However, contrary to what most of us have been led to believe, actual research findings show that nicotine has several health benefits that are tremendously interesting. And contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence from research that nicotine causes cancer. It simply does not. Join us Friday night at 4:30 to gain new insights into the positive benefits that our hobby provides.
That's funny as shit!
Some interesting links regarding Dr. Fred Hanna
https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/meet-fred-hanna-doctor-pipes
https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/tag/fred-hanna-interview/
https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Smoke-Gourmet-Relaxation-Reflection-ebook/dp/B00GYHDWCQ
https://www.reddit.com/r/PipeTobacco/comments/4za4mq/notes_from_the_tobacco_bakery_by_fred_hanna/