February 2009

Club Info & Events

Details of the January Meeting
We started off the 2009 club year with the distribution of the 2008 Club Pipe by LePeltier. Everyone who received one was very happy with their purchase. Each pipe came in a handmade burlap sock and an instruction leaflet which explained the care and feeding of a Lepeltier clay pipe. The sock was an added bonus and a nice touch by Rosalie LePeltier who had originally told us that the pipe did not come with a sock or box. Included in the shipment of pipes was a Christmas card and a half dozen LePeliter catalogs. Whether you're a fan of clays or not, having your clubs logo on a well made, decent smoking pipe would be a great edition to any club's pipe collection. I highly recommend that other clubs consider this option for one of their upcoming pipes. You can't beat the price. For more information on having a LePeltier pipe made for your club it's best to contact LePeltier by phone. You can find their number here. If you'd like more information on the process and some helpful hints please feel free to contact us.

I'm way over due with getting this into the newsletter but as the saying goes.... "better late than never." Earlier this year we received an email from a reader named Ken who was looking for help identifying some pipes. Here's what he had to say....

Hi, my name is Ken, I have some tobacco pipes that I got from my great uncle who was in the Army in WWII and I am curious who the carvings are. Some of them are obvious like Hitler and Truman and I think one of the others in General MacArthur. Could you possibly date them and let me know who you think they are? I live in central Florida. They all have BRUYERE GARANTIE stamped on them. I also have some from the same time-line that have deer heads, horses, and elephants carved into them. Let me know what other info you might need. I will also be sending you separate e-mails with the pictures of them.

Thank you for your time, Ken

If any of our members or readers know anything about these pipes and would like to share that information with Ken you can contact him directly at knobrega(at)ainop(dot)com.
If there is an interesting story associated with these pipes that you'd like to share with us we'd be glad to post it in an upcoming newsletter.

Here are pictures of all the pipes (click for a larger version).

Remember this guy?
After sending out the January newsletter I was surprised and happy to get a response from one of our old friends. I asked him to give us an update on how life's been treating him without having the Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club to lean on for support each month. Obviously.. it's been pretty hard.

Since leaving Massachusetts we have taken several trips to Europe including Italy and a wonderful trip visiting many of the countries along the Danube to the Black Sea. We just returned from a trip to NYC with our daughter Melissa.
There are no pipe clubs in Delaware but I play golf with a pipe smoking published poet.
I miss the SHPC and my pipe collecting has diminished since our move. However, life is great in Delaware without all that snow. In mid-January we will be going down to Florida and staying a house we rented until March which is located on Manasota Key ( between the Bay and Gulf of Mexico). Please give my best regards to all the gang at the SHPC.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year
The picture above is Dante and his wife Elayne (click image for full view) during a wine tasting in Germany on their trip from Paris to Prague (a river cruise that included castles and the wine country of Germany). By the way, there are 250 varieties of sausage in Germany.

Poor guy... NO PIPE CLUBS.... don't you just feel terrible for him. Let this be a lesson to you all. Never, under any circumstances, move away from your connection to the Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club.
Great to hear from you buddy. Glad you're doing well.

Kahn's Korner
Happy thoughts abound when like minded people get together. And that's what we had this month at the Scotch and Cigar night. On January 17th, one-hundred and ten like minded cigar and pipe smoking folks got together to enjoy three of the great pleasures we share: eating, drinking and smoking, though not necessarily in that order.

At the same meeting spot that we have come to call home, the Brotherhood Association of the temple pulled off a wonderful feast of food, scotch and cigars. First, the food. Hors' d'oeuvres galore came out of the kitchen served by wonderful waitresses. (All married to members of the Brotherhood, sorry guys, they're all taken.) There were little hot dogs, and flaky pastry filled with good stuff, they also had spicy chinese style things that were really good. Then we sat down to an appetizer of melon with a strawberry. Then came the salad course, of course, to prepare us for the entrees. There was Roasted Breast of Cornish Hens with Wild Mushroom sauce, Salmon over caramelized onions and tarragon sauce and Nelson's favorite, and many others, was the Jambalaya, spice and filled with chicken and sausage. Roasted potatoes and vegetables completed the entree. Desert was, I'd have to say, a little disappointing. It was a Chocolate Ganache cake, but rather dry.

All during the hors d'oeuvres and each of the courses came the pleasure of drinking some very fine scotches. First there was the Balvenie Doublewood 12 year and the Bowmore 12 year. Balvenie is a highlands scotch while Bowmore is from the Islay region. That puts the Bowmore in line with the rather peaty scotches like Talisker and Lagavulin. Now these two bottles were put at each table for everyone to try. Glenfiddich 12 year, another highlander, was also put up on a central table for us all to enjoy. My personal favorite that night was the Bowmore, but then I lean towards the peaty side. Though if I had to choose one scotch to take to the LOST island it would be the Balvenie Doublewood. Nelson, I think, leaned toward the Glenfiddich.

And one more thing to make this the perfect evening were the cigars. Rocky Patel Edge line, Arturo Fuente, Perdomo Habano, Fonseca Vintage and J. Fuego 777, were all given to each attendee. That's five cigars, each easily an $8 dollar stick. I managed two of them during the evening, while eating, drinking and taking pictures. These fine cigars and the drawing gifts (see picture) were donated by CB Perkins on Washington St. in Canton. Prabharkar Ramaiah is the owner, and he was there, too. I had a few words with him about the lack of business we give him. I told him, we'd be open to doing more business if he carried more of what we buy. So something good may come of this. It would be nice to have a local tobacconist to go to. By the way, I managed to win a nice Xikar cutter.

Among the elite guests at the soiree were Nelson, Tim and Tony from SHPC. Even two of my compatriots from work showed up. We all rubbed elbows with the townies, including the town manager and several of the town council. A special appearance was from Jeff Beaty who some of you may remember ran Republican for State Senator against the incumbent democratic senator, you know, the one that lost to George Bush in the Presidential race in 2004? But no politics here.

At any rate, enjoy a few of the pictures I took that I included the really important people. I hope more of the SHPC gang will attend the next one. It was a blast.