If you can believe Rex Stout, who lived through those times, he has Archie Goodwin tell Nero Wolfe (in the early Fifties, I think) that "a new typewriter costs a hundred dollars." A portable would have been cheaper. But $75, say, in 1941 was a good chunk of change.
The Codger Cabin
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
Old school Morgan Bones pipes.
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
Tried Half & Half for the first time today.
Wow! I really like this blend. I will be stocking the cellar with a significant amount of this stuff.
Wow! I really like this blend. I will be stocking the cellar with a significant amount of this stuff.
Of all the codger/burley blends I've tried (which is not that many) since I came back to the pipe in January, Half & Half is the one that yields the best aroma and flavor. It and Sir Walter Regular are the two I've re-ordered -- which means I've smoked them the most. (I like the pouch colors too.)
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
Every so often, something truly special lit up the old codgers’ coffee tables. Today’s look back treats us to one such example.
Here’s a magnificent pipe advertisement, both for its time, and for history. Ten pipe-smoking, young American aviators in a group photo, just seven weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Every so often, something truly special lit up the old codgers’ coffee tables. Today’s look back treats us to one such example.
Here’s a magnificent pipe advertisement, both for its time, and for history. Ten pipe-smoking, young American aviators in a group photo, just seven weeks before Pearl Harbor.
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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A brief observation for those enjoying the STG OTCs (SWR, H&H, Granger, etc.) and who like the big tubs. The ’full size’ 12 and 14 ounce tubs (full size used to mean a full pound) are slowly disappearing from many online vendors’ line cards, replaced by the 7 oz cans (what back in the day would have been the 1/2 pound size). A few places still carry the full size tubs.
Perhaps it is transitory, or perhaps not. But if you like your daily blend in robust quantities and at the lowest per ounce cost, you might want to grab a couple big tubs now, just to be safe.
Perhaps it is transitory, or perhaps not. But if you like your daily blend in robust quantities and at the lowest per ounce cost, you might want to grab a couple big tubs now, just to be safe.
I have noticed that and am planning accordingly.
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
What kind of leaves were in Bond Street? The "Bourbon Street" Match for it on P & C says "Burleys, sweet and tangy Virginias, rich, bold Kentucky and silky-smooth black Cavendish." Was that true of Bond Street?
As an aside, I should start collecting vintage tins of Half & Half, and other codger tobaccos like this and Kentucky Club with interesting artwork.
As an aside, I should start collecting vintage tins of Half & Half, and other codger tobaccos like this and Kentucky Club with interesting artwork.
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
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A brief commentary (another one of those detours and frolics) as we travel along through the golden codger era and its blends of the day.
Looking at these iconic ads, it is certainly normal to develop an urge to try what the old codgers enjoyed back in the day. But with many of them now gone, the only avenue remaining are the matches and ‘alternatives’. By all means, do so! Variety is the spice of life. For the most part, we can only smoke what is made nowadays. We can’t really smoke the past.
However, with all these blend ads, it’s helpful to remember that what separated them then, and what separates most blends today, was more than the recipes, casing and topping formulae. The biggest one of all is the base leaf itself. And not all manufacturers purchase the same leaf stock, either in quality or location. And that was as much a differentiator among them back in the day as anything else. It is also a major differentiator between them and today’s matches.
So let’s take a brief peek ‘under the hood’ of the business, apart from the print ads, to see what one manufacturer was reporting around this time about the leaf being purchased, and how it impacted the blends. Not so much a coffee table item, but perhaps a book shelf one for the more academic among us. In this report, one major manufacturer was getting poor reviews on what they were buying, and the reasons why are stated. But it underscores how the leaf itself is the backbone of what we smoke, then and now.
Most matches today come from one blender, and are likely relying on a single supply of base leaf. That is a uniformity that was definitely not the case during the golden era. It makes for a narrower spectrum of product variance, for good or for bad. It is certainly a factor to keep in mind as we sample those matches today and form our various opinions of them, and of the old blends they attempt to replicate.
Happy puffs!
Report Of Burley Leaf Market Trip Made With Mr. Lipscomb
Looking at these iconic ads, it is certainly normal to develop an urge to try what the old codgers enjoyed back in the day. But with many of them now gone, the only avenue remaining are the matches and ‘alternatives’. By all means, do so! Variety is the spice of life. For the most part, we can only smoke what is made nowadays. We can’t really smoke the past.
However, with all these blend ads, it’s helpful to remember that what separated them then, and what separates most blends today, was more than the recipes, casing and topping formulae. The biggest one of all is the base leaf itself. And not all manufacturers purchase the same leaf stock, either in quality or location. And that was as much a differentiator among them back in the day as anything else. It is also a major differentiator between them and today’s matches.
So let’s take a brief peek ‘under the hood’ of the business, apart from the print ads, to see what one manufacturer was reporting around this time about the leaf being purchased, and how it impacted the blends. Not so much a coffee table item, but perhaps a book shelf one for the more academic among us. In this report, one major manufacturer was getting poor reviews on what they were buying, and the reasons why are stated. But it underscores how the leaf itself is the backbone of what we smoke, then and now.
Most matches today come from one blender, and are likely relying on a single supply of base leaf. That is a uniformity that was definitely not the case during the golden era. It makes for a narrower spectrum of product variance, for good or for bad. It is certainly a factor to keep in mind as we sample those matches today and form our various opinions of them, and of the old blends they attempt to replicate.
Happy puffs!
Report Of Burley Leaf Market Trip Made With Mr. Lipscomb
Interesting from a historical perspective. This is a few years before American Tobacco began sponsoring Jack Benny, the LSMFT! campaign, and the phrase "so round, so firm, so fully packed" became America's favorite double entendre. Nice to see the references to Speed Riggs and F. E. Boone, if only as part of a swipe by Jimmy Hicks to horn in on their radio exposure.
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From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):
