July 2004

Important Club News!

Independence Day My Ass!
Gentleman (and lady), it is with great sadness, anger and frustration that I make this announcement. Last week Don Powers received a call from the Holiday Inn informing him that due to the new workplace smoking law which will go into effect on July 5th, 2004, we will no longer be able to smoke at our meetings (if we choose to continue having them there). First of all, I would like apologize to everyone for giving them false hopes that our club meetings were safe. I asked 2 different people that we deal with at the Holiday Inn and they both reassured me that the new law would not effect us. Obviously they did not realize how unfair the law would actually be.
The day after talking to Don I spent a good amount of time reading the law for a loop hole but it looks like they have this one wrapped up pretty tight. Here are a few things I got from the language of the law.

If we were a fraternal organization running under the "lodge system" (KofC, Elks,etc) we'd be ahead of the game but would still need a legal place to hold meetings.
I don't believe we can even hold meetings at a VFW, Elks, etc. unless our club falls under the same exemption category as those clubs do.
Tobacco shops and tobacco bars seem to be the most logical solution at this particular point.

I propose that we still have our July meeting at the Holiday Inn (smoke free unfortunately) to discuss this issue and any options members may have. I'm also open to continuing our monthly meetings there until a solution, or lack of one has been determined.
It may also be a good idea to bring your pipes and a lawn chair to sit outside of the Holiday Inn to (peacefully) smoke a pipe in unity and to show others that we will not be put down by this discriminatory law.

The saddest part of it all, the part that really makes it difficult to take, is that our group was hurting no one. We always behaved ourselves (except for Sid), and both the restaurant and our waiter (Carl) made good money. We cannot let this law be our demise!
Don, Rick and I have already been looking around and we may have a couple possibilities to talk about and we need your input. I know we can find a way around this but we all need to work together.

So I urge all of you who care about this club to come to the July meeting and participate in a solution and to help decide what we should do in the mean time. Besides... I already bought the tobacco for the raffle and I don't think you want me to smoke it all.

The SHPC Pipe Smoker of the Year Award
In light of the recent news effecting our club's ability to continue meeting as a pipe club should, I think the election process for the Pipe Smoker of the Year should be postponned until further notice. However another vote was taken at the last meeting and the guidelines for the award process drawn up. The following is what took place at the last meeting:
The voting process for the Pipe Smoker of the Year Award was discussed further at the June meeting. Another vote was taken based on the results of a poll that was given to regularly attending members prior to the meeting. The result of this new vote was to have the first SHPC Pipe Smoker of the Year chosen by secret ballot with the votes also tallied in secret by 2 members. If one member receives more votes than any other member, that member will become the SHPC Pipe Smoker of the Year. In the event of a tie, there will be a run off vote the following month. Should another tie occur, the club President or designee will draw one name as the winner. The winner will receiver his/her award at the Club's 15th Anniversary meeting in September. Read the complete guidelines here.

A Visit from Watch City Cigar
Last month's meeting provided yet another outstanding event with a nice turnout. These are the perks of coming to our monthly meetings and it's events like these that keep the meetings fresh and help strengthen the pipe smoking community as a whole. Ernie Quinitiliani from Watch City Cigar came well stocked with a nice variety of pipes including Radice, Tsuge, Caminetto, Nording and Mastro De Paja just to name a few. In addition to these great pipes, Ernie also brought with him some of McLellands latest Frog Morton blend for sampling and purchase. It's called "Over the Pond" and seemed to be very popular at our table. Our own Kenny Kasperian also opened up couple of G&H blends, Ennerdale and Scotch Flake, both of which I found to be very likable. Ernie was a very interesting guest and kept our table entertained at dinner with his quick wit and no nonsense demeanor and shared with us some of his experiences while working in the field of pipes, cigars, and tobacco. He was also one of our most generous guests bearing gifts including a variety of his Watch City Tobacco blends and raffling off a very nice wooden pipe stand, a tin of tobacco and one of the Nording Silver Series Canadian pipes. To add a little icing to the cake Larry Hines from the House of Windsor tobacco donated a display of their retro blends including Barking Dog, Model, Country Doctor and Revelation. I had the opportunity to sample a couple of these blends and was pleasantly surprised with the result and look forward to sampling a couple more.
So whether you go to Watch City or Watch City comes to you the result is the same.... an excellent value with exceptional service. Be sure to stop by the next time you're in the Framingham area or visit them on the web at http://www.watchcitycigar.com .

Custom Made Pipes by Michael Parks    by Dock J. Perry
Michael Parks is a young pipe maker from Ontario Canada. He burst on the scene a few years ago with his avant garde briar sculptures. He uses the finest materials in his work such as aged Grecian briar and the highest quality acrylics for his stems. Being an avid outdoors man, Michael infuses his love of nature in every one of his pipes. His classic "Trouter" line of briars includes hand tied fishing flies set in acrylic and shank extensions of deer antler or bone. His website www.parkpipes.com has a range of briars available for immediate sale, however Michael strongly encourages custom work. If you can dream it he can craft it for you. He'll even send you a sketch upon request of what your finished pipe will look like. Park's pipes run from around $150.00 to $900.00 or more. His custom orders generally take a few months to complete. I've had Michael make two for me so far. The first was a very modern oom paul shape with paneled sides and an incredible shimmering gold stem. The second was a larger take on his now famous "trouter" pipe. It's a huge piece of wood which he carved with a dremel drill. It sports hand tied flies in the tenon extension and an incredible blue acrylic stem.
Michael Parks is a gentleman in the highest order. It's an absolute pleasure corresponding with him. His passion for the craft of pipe carving sets him apart from those who "merely make pipes to pay the bills". Michael's currently working on custom tampers to match the pipe's he's made for me. I'm sure they'll match the high quality which his name has come to represent.

Let People Know You're a Pipe Smoker
Help our cause by letting people know you are a pipe smoker and proud of it. Promote our club, encourage pipe smoking and denounce the anti-tobacco movement by displaying one of these bumper stickers on your car or wherever you think it will do the most good. I have a few more I'm working on but rather than hold off until they're all done I think it's best to get them out there now. Stickers are $5.00 each and all proceeds will be used to support the club's best interests. Hat's are $14 and there are about 7 left.

Click images to enlarge

I hope to have the ability to purchase these bumper stickers online in the near future but until then if you would like to purchase some please email me at shpcbostonNOSPAM@yahoo.com.
                                (take out the NOSPAM)

I'm always looking for new items for this Newsletter. If you have an interesting article, or would like to share
your knowledge on a particular pipes and tobacco related subject, please send it along (preferably by e-mail).