January 2006

Club Info & Events

With this newsletter falling smack dab in the middle of the holiday season I'll keep the info and event section brief. I hope you all had and enjoyable holiday and have great plans for the New Year.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday, January 3rd at 7:00 PM and we look forward to seeing many of you (if not all of you). Be sure to bring along your holiday pipe acquisitions for show and tell. It doesn't matter whether they were given to you or you bought them yourself, we just love checkin' out other people's pipes.
See you then.

The Hudson Valley Holiday Gathering
Like previous years Kaywoodie's main office had been reconfigured for entertaining. Holiday songs were were in the air, the buffet table was prepped and awaiting its spread, and Paul Bonaquisti, Joe Skoda and Mel Feldman had picked out their spots to display their holiday offerings. The Pocono enclave had already arrived and had begun the process of filling their corner of the room with a potpourri of tobacco aromas. For the next hour or so the room continued to fill with familiar faces. Many of these folks you only get to see once or twice a year but with each new year the bonds strengthen and friendships build.    [Full story and pics]

Pipe Smoker's Icon Tom Dunn Dies at 67
                                                                 By Nelson Pidgeon
After a year long battle with stomach cancer, an icon to pipe smokers all over the world, dies at age 67. I never met Tom Dunn, never talked to him, I never even subscribed to the Ephemeris (although I do own a few copies). But I've heard from or read the words of those who have, and in every case it has been nothing but the highest of praise, respect and admiration for this man.
Tom was the heartbeat of the pipe smoking community and kept the spirit of a declining pastime alive and well through his founding of the Universal Coterie of Pipe Smokers from which he expertly produced the well know periodical "The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris". The following is a quote from an Ebay listing for an issue of the Ephemeris:

"In November, 1964, Tom Dunn founded The Universal Coterie of Pipe Smokers (TUCOPS), which he envisioned as a pipe smokers’ club that would exist and communicate through an irregular and transitory journal that he named "The Pipe Smoker’s Ephemeris" (TPSE). Little did he realize at that time how popular TPSE would become, how many would contribute to it from all over the world, or the wealth of information that it would contain about all things pipe related."

As I've already mentioned, I never subscribed to the Ephemeris and I don't really have a good excuse for it. I planned to on many occasions hearing so many good things about it but I'd never even seen one. I had my own idea of what to expect from a personally produce magazine but I have to say that I missed the mark by a long shot. When a clubmate of mine gave me a few copies of the Ephemeris that he had finished reading, I couldn't get over the quality and professionalism of Tom's work. This small online newsletter of ours takes a fair amount of time to put out, but it's all online, no printing, binding or mailing is required. Tom's Ephemeris, which started out at mere eight pages back in 1964 has blossomed into a full fledged black and white magazine often consisting of more than one hundred pages. The Ephemeris contains stories sent in by readers from all over the globe about anything pipe related and ranging from pipe humor, anecdotes and personal stories to pipe show reports and interesting facts, history and artwork. He put it all together himself, printing, binding and mailing for whatever donation you could afford to send, but would send you send you a copy anyway if you couldn't afford one. This was part of my dilemma in subscribing. Before I saw a copy of the Ephemeris I didn't know what to expect and didn't know what type of donation to offer. After I saw a copy of the Ephemeris I never thought what I had to offer was enough and I'm sorry I procrastinated so long.
Based on the stats of this website, since his passing the most popular keyword search that lead visitors to our site has been the name "Tom Dunn," which to me is a clear indication that many people are feeling his loss. Tom will be sorely missed by the pipe smoking community and we can only hope that his work might have the opportunity to live on through some other means. Perhaps the North American Society's of Pipe Collectors quarterly newsletter "The Pipe Collector" will gain in popularity and readership and attempt to fill the empty space left by the Ephemeris.
Tom, we wish you well in the afterlife and when our day comes we look forward to giving back to you what you so selflessly gave to us.
In closing the following poem was written by Marty Shapiro of Apache Junction, Arizona on the ASP Newsgroup post in memory of Tom Dunn:

Ah Thomas, surely the angels took thee,
to sit and smoke and laugh with St. Peter,
To share stories there with Morley and Conan Doyle.
To fill your pipe from their great golden pouch,
and sit quietly, puffing before the celestial hearth,
smiling and warming thy spirit forever.

Back issues of the the Ephemeris can sometimes be found on Ebay or by visiting this website: http://www.isbn.pl/A-dunn-tom/ .

One of my recent collections are turn of the century Christmas postcards which I purchase at antique shows and sales. It's amazing just how many images of a pipe smoking Santa were available then! These are generally inexpensive with most selling for under ten dollars each (see a few examples pictured below). They were from a time long before the anti smoking lobbyists convinced the greeting card companies that an image of a round jolly old elf smoking his pipe would promote smoking to children. Good times indeed.... but don't even get me started about the poor snowmen !!! - D.J.P.

Occasionally I'm looking for a news item to help fill out this newsletter. So if you have some interesting
pipe, tobacco or smoking related news, or would like to share your knowledge on a particular
pipes and tobacco related subject, please send it along and maybe I'll use it. (Preferably by e-mail).