Ceci est une pipe (1)
By:
May 19, 2010
One in an irregular, ongoing, and self-explanatory series of posts.
Like the bicycle, a neither-nor vehicle that’s unwelcome both on the street and the sidewalk, the pipe is a neither-nor vehicle for tobacco-smoke. To the lowbrow cigarette smoker, the pipe-smoker is a highbrow snob. To the sophisticated cigar connoisseur, the pipe-smoker is a lowbrow tobacco addict. HiLobrow endorses pipe-smoking (in moderation, naturally), on the grounds that — as Edward Bulwer-Lytton put it, “A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the source of pleasure, the companion of the wise; and the man who smokes, thinks like a philosopher and acts like a Samaritan.”