July/August 2008

Club Info & Events

Although it's old news now I couldn't put out this newsletter without congratulating the Boston Celtics on their first world championship victory in twenty two years. Rumor has it that back in the summer 86, after their last championship the Celtic's mascot Lucky, who we all know is a pipe smoker, was no longer able to get his favorite tobacco and had been searching all these years to find a suitable replacement. Obviously he, and the Celtics found the perfect blend. Way to go guys.

SHPC Third Annual Swap & Sell
The clear winner at this year's swap and sell was our newest and most junior member Derek. He purchased all of the items Dock brought in (except one) for one extremely reasonable lump sum. In a matter of a couple of minutes Derek went from owning a weeks worth of pipes to almost a month's worth along with a Sherlock Holmes cabinet and couple of nice racks to store them all in. To make it even more interesting he took it all home on the back of his motorcycle.
The only piece he didn't get from Dock was a brass pipe stand I bought in the shape of a flying bird that just happens to double perfectly as a cigar ashtray.

This is a Pipe: Dr.Grabow
By Thomas Martin

I recently started "collecting" Dr. Grabows and was fortunate to find a couple other true collectors who are passionate and knowledgeable. They were gracious enough to include me in their emails and freely shared their knowledge with me. Sharing stories, pictures, and passion for these pipes is what the new Dr. Grabow Collector's Forum is all about. If other pipe forums are overwhelming for you, you might appreciate its focus and limited membership. Of course, you need to have an appreciation for the only American drugstore pipe still available in drugstores! Dr. Grabow themselves (International Pipes & Accessories) don't yet have a website but have promised me drgrabow.net is coming soon. .....

Kahn's Korner
Here we are, another month gone and a new one in. Time flies. Changes have happened around the SHPC that have in some ways been monumental. Who would have ever thought that Steve Gutz would have liquidated a huge part of his collection of pipes and tobacciana, including books and humidors? Nelson has already touched on this subject so I won't repeat it, but as president I couldn't fail to mention it. Steve, as my friend, I know how much it hurts. You wanted to find a good home for your many pipes; you wanted to make sure they were going to people who will appreciate them. My friend, I feel for you. I'm pleased to say all that I bought from you is in a place you can come and visit. So I look forward to future visits from you. You'll be able to hold them and share the memories with me. But before you all feel too bad for Steve, he kept at least a couple hundred for himself.

There have been some other changes, too. Governor Patrick has raised taxes and fees since coming into office in January. The one I want to mention to you is the new $1/pack cigarette tax put in by the Taxachusettes legislature. Ostensibly, this was to help slow the growth of the sale of tobacco products, and supplement the cost of medical coverage for smokers, not covered by insurance. What in reality it has done is increase the growth of smuggling from our northern cousin New Hampshire? I was in NH the week before last, and watched as a man with a closed pickup truck (Mass plates, though I didn't get the number.) loaded up on cases of cigarettes. There weren't so many that I think he was profiteering, more likely, he was making a run for a bunch of friends who gave him the money to buy for them, while he was up there. The reason I say that is because there were only three or four different brands, and I only saw about 6 cases. But there is more to it than cigarette taxes. My wife bought a several cartons while up there. She paid less for the cigarettes and less for the tax. All together she saved $90, more than enough to justify the gas. While I was up there, I thought to myself, 'Hey, while I'm up here, why not buy the new TV? How about the new monitor? Prices are about equal and I don't pay sales tax. I spoke to a couple of people at the party I went to. They were planning to do exactly that. These folks don't live on the border of NH. They live in Boston, Hingham, Wellesley, and other towns. Their thoughts were to wait until they were buying X amount of goods, that justified the drive considering gas prices, driving up and saving the tax money. So congrats, Mass legislature. You're driving people out of the state to save money, increasing the amount of CO2 in the air from the extra driving, turning people to a black market and one more thing, forcing the small convenience stores to lay off workers because their sales are going to NH.