Of the handful of us that couldn't "squiggle" out of coming into the office today about a third are sick. This means that on the one hand it's fairly quiet around here, and on the other there's a lot of sneezing, sniffling, coughing, hacking, and a whole host of other such harsh, unpleasantly corporeal cacophonies echoing off the walls of our otherwise rather sadly vacant building. Merry Christmas!

It's certainly your prerogative to wonder why we're bothering with all this today. It's Christmas Eve, and for the very few of whom might even escape for long enough to browse through our updated offering this afternoon, you're likely all too aware of the fact that very little will be shipped today and nothing will be delivered tomorrow. Which, at least for me, makes online shopping completely annoying and nearly an unreasonable thing to do. But there is a reason, dear readers. There is a very good reason to shop with us today.

Today we're proud to launch the latest masterpiece from G. L. Pease's Old London Series. Meet "Navigator", a pressed Virginia-Kentucky blend married with just a hint of rum (this might remind you of his last creation, "Sextant" which also featured a Latakia component). We usually sell the heck out of a new Pease blend, which points back to my earlier statement about today being just as good as any to shop from Smokingpipes.com.

Not to mention that we've still got plenty of new and estate pipes hitting the site. You'll find fresh work from Dunhill, Peterson, Savinelli, Luciano, Chacom, Johs, Stanwell, and Tsuge, as well as recently restored work in the Italian, American, Danish and German estate sections of the site. And for you cigar guys, we've got new sticks from VegaFina, Carlos Torano, and La Gloria Cubano worth checking out as well. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Ted Swearingen: Vice President, General Manager