Articles by Chuck Stanion | Smokingpipes Daily Reader

James Thurber: Celebrated Humorist and Sometimes Pipe Smoker

March 11, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

4 Comments

Widely considered the foremost humorist of the 20th century, James Thurber (1894-1961) often portrayed bemused protagonists clumsily navigating the complexity of modern life through incomprehension, fantasy, and defeated acceptance. Thurber's writings and drawings encapsulate those odd but universal feelings of being out of phase with the rest of humanity, and his ... Read More

Rich Esserman: Big Pipe Guy

February 25, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

22 Comments

The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris was a journal of vast pipe experiences submitted for publication by collectors and pipe enthusiasts around the globe. Tom Dunn founded The Universal Coterie of Pipe Smokers in 1964 as a means of exchanging information about pipes across the entire world. Most of his issues in the first decades were hand-cranked on a mimeograph machine, and Tom typed the contents on his manual typewriter. ... Read More

Herbert Hoover: Pipe Smoker... and Perhaps Worst President in History

February 18, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

16 Comments

The 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover is popularly remembered as one of the worst presidents in history. That reputation, however, is somewhat undeserved and partially the result of political propaganda advanced by the opposing party and Franklin Roosevelt, who ran against him in 1932 and despite his New Deal being no more effective in resolving the economic downturn than his predecessor. That's not to say it's entirely undeserved. Hoover made mistakes. ... Read More

Carl Gustav Jung: Pipe-Smoking Founder of Analytical Psychology

February 11, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

22 Comments

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were great friends for about five years, from 1907 to 1912. Both were brilliant, and their psychoanalytic work and theories coincided. They fished together, they lectured together, they explored the Arctic on an expedition together, they spent three months touring the U.S. together. Freud ... Read More

Herman Melville's Literary Pipes

February 4, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

25 Comments

Moby-Dick; (1851), the most famous tale of whaling and the high seas ever written, was a commercial disaster. Its author, Herman Melville, made about $1,200 from the 3,200 total copies sold in his lifetime. It was a critical and popular failure, and readers didn't know what to make of its complex themes and erratic point of view. Like Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Emily ... Read More

Folklore: An Unsurpassed Virginia Blend Pressed into 16oz Bricks

January 28, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

30 Comments

The word folklore conjures images of griffins and faeries, mermaids, basilisks, and other mysterious denizens of our imaginations. Folklore is a concept that reaches into our misty, enchanted past and sharpens the shadowy confines of our subconscious. It rekindles stories passed through generations, stories that instruct and remind, advise and inspire. ... Read More

Edisto Joins the Low Country Lineup

January 21, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

9 Comments

Edisto is a pure Red Virginia Flake, refined in nuance and flavor, now added to the exclusive blends of Low Country Pipe and Cigar, Smokingpipes' brick-and-mortar tobacconist in Little River, SC. It's a shop to experience when visiting the Myrtle Beach area. Spacious and comfortable, it's a relaxing environment for having a cigar or pipe while lounging on the extraordinarily comfortable ... Read More

Gonzo Pipe Smoker: Hunter S. Thompson

January 14, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

18 Comments

Hunter S. Thompson was, it could be easily argued, the most talented, unique, and original journalist of the 20th century. The founder of Gonzo journalism, which is a blend of fiction, autobiography, and subjective reporting, his public persona became larger than life and a caricature of himself as he was fictionalized in films and in the famous Doonesbury cartoons, to the extent that ... Read More

Estate Pipes: Three Tales of Doom and Deliverance

January 7, 2022 by Chuck Stanion

6 Comments

Our intrepid staff know no limitations in their quest for the estate pipes that you love to see on our website, as demonstrated by three recent adventures from our files. ... Read More

The Pipe That Saved Christmas

December 24, 2021 by Chuck Stanion

22 Comments

When you're nine years old, Christmas is the main event, the holiday that every kid anticipates. Magic permeates the atmosphere; it's the culmination of a year of school and chores, homework and play, and Christmas vacation is a wide vista of possibility. My friends and I willed Christmas to be closer, but it always seemed absurdly distant. ... Read More

Chuck Stanion

James Thurber: Celebrated Humorist and Sometimes Pipe Smoker

Rich Esserman: Big Pipe Guy

Herbert Hoover: Pipe Smoker... and Perhaps Worst President in History

Carl Gustav Jung: Pipe-Smoking Founder of Analytical Psychology

Herman Melville's Literary Pipes

Folklore: An Unsurpassed Virginia Blend Pressed into 16oz Bricks

Edisto Joins the Low Country Lineup

Gonzo Pipe Smoker: Hunter S. Thompson

Estate Pipes: Three Tales of Doom and Deliverance

The Pipe That Saved Christmas

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