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Pipe and tobacco experts: Are there any?: Difference between revisions
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Pipe and tobacco experts: Are there any? (view source)
Revision as of 21:02, 9 February 2023
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(Created page with "<center>'''''By Ben Rapaport''''', February 2023<br> ''Exclusive to pipedia.org''</center> This is a rather novel story not meant to praise specific individuals for attaboys,...") |
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One popular belief is that the key to becoming an expert is to devote at least 10,000 hours to the study and practice of a subject. This idea is based on a 1993 study in which researchers found that the most accomplished violinists at a music academy had spent an average of 10,000 hours practicing their instrument by the age of 20. Indeed.com challenges this conventional wisdom: “However, there is no way to definitively say whether anyone can become an expert. | One popular belief is that the key to becoming an expert is to devote at least 10,000 hours to the study and practice of a subject. This idea is based on a 1993 study in which researchers found that the most accomplished violinists at a music academy had spent an average of 10,000 hours practicing their instrument by the age of 20. Indeed.com challenges this conventional wisdom: “However, there is no way to definitively say whether anyone can become an expert. | ||
Now that I have exhausted the definition of expert, who are our experts? Where should I look, and what will I find? I decided to mine the Web, because that’s where, nowadays, one can find lots of pipe and tobacco commentary. The statements are in no particular order of importance or significance. What they all have in common is the use of the word “expert” or “expertise” to describe certain people, most of whom are, unsurprisingly, unnamed. You might be surprised at what I found. Evaluate the comments and draw your own conclusions. | Now that I have exhausted the definition of expert, who are ''our'' experts? Where should I look, and what will I find? I decided to mine the Web, because that’s where, nowadays, one can find lots of pipe and tobacco commentary. The statements are in no particular order of importance or significance. What they all have in common is the use of the word “expert” or “expertise” to describe certain people, most of whom are, unsurprisingly, unnamed. You might be surprised at what I found. Evaluate the comments and draw your own conclusions. | ||
“I have met some pipe smokers who have only owned 3 pipes their entire life and have puffed on the same Over the Counter (OTC) blend for 50 years. This isn’t a bad thing, but does it make them more of a tobacco and pipe smoking expert than the individual who has only smoked a pipe for 5 years, has a 100 + pipe collection, and smokes just about every blend the market has produced. No. In fact, they both have an expertise and background that would be helpful to anyone looking to get into the pipe smoking hobby” (thepipeprofessor.com). | “I have met some pipe smokers who have only owned 3 pipes their entire life and have puffed on the same Over the Counter (OTC) blend for 50 years. This isn’t a bad thing, but does it make them more of a tobacco and pipe smoking expert than the individual who has only smoked a pipe for 5 years, has a 100 + pipe collection, and smokes just about every blend the market has produced. No. In fact, they both have an expertise and background that would be helpful to anyone looking to get into the pipe smoking hobby” (thepipeprofessor.com). | ||
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Chuck titled his bio about me in December 2021: “Ben Rapaport: Tobacco Literature and Antique Pipe Expert.” On pipesmagazine.com, Sagebrush called me a pipe maven. I’ve been called “an antiquarian of rare pipeology” and “a word craftsman of the first order.” Craig Cobine, the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club Show Director, maintains that I am “one of the world’s best known and highly regarded experts on antique pipes, and pipe literature.” However appreciative I am of these several honorifics, I have never sought or desired accolades or kudos. To dodge the proverbial slings and arrows of those who occupy the Web and enjoy ridiculing or embarrassing those who assert expertise, my druthers is, when asked, my response typically is that I am just someone who likes to write a lot about pipes and tobaccos … nothing more. | Chuck titled his bio about me in December 2021: “Ben Rapaport: Tobacco Literature and Antique Pipe Expert.” On pipesmagazine.com, Sagebrush called me a pipe maven. I’ve been called “an antiquarian of rare pipeology” and “a word craftsman of the first order.” Craig Cobine, the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club Show Director, maintains that I am “one of the world’s best known and highly regarded experts on antique pipes, and pipe literature.” However appreciative I am of these several honorifics, I have never sought or desired accolades or kudos. To dodge the proverbial slings and arrows of those who occupy the Web and enjoy ridiculing or embarrassing those who assert expertise, my druthers is, when asked, my response typically is that I am just someone who likes to write a lot about pipes and tobaccos … nothing more. | ||
According to pipesandcigars.com, “Russ [Ouellette] is our resident tobacco guru around here. If there is anything you need to know about a blend, cut, component or history of a tobacco blend, he is the guy to see. Thankfully he has compiled the following compendium of information for the learning masses.” “You ought to try the Hearth & Home blends from Pipes & Cigars, concocted by Russ Ouelette [sic], generally acknowledged as the most expert blender in America” (gentlemansgazette.com). That description, I would say, makes Russ an expert, but he never self-promoted as one. And I would add Greg Pease, the late Joe Lankford, and Cornell and Diehl to this short list. As well, the Doctors of Pipes and Masters of the Pipe should be considered experts in their respective fields. | According to pipesandcigars.com, “Russ [Ouellette] is our resident tobacco guru around here. If there is anything you need to know about a blend, cut, component or history of a tobacco blend, he is the guy to see. Thankfully he has compiled the following compendium of information for the learning masses.” “You ought to try the Hearth & Home blends from Pipes & Cigars, concocted by Russ Ouelette [''sic''], generally acknowledged as the most expert blender in America” (gentlemansgazette.com). That description, I would say, makes Russ an expert, but he never self-promoted as one. And I would add Greg Pease, the late Joe Lankford, and Cornell and Diehl to this short list. As well, the Doctors of Pipes and Masters of the Pipe should be considered experts in their respective fields. | ||
There is ample evidence that in this narrow domain, there are plenty of very smart people with experience, knowledge, opinions, and views, but the record—at least the Web record—acknowledges only the aforementioned few as tobacco experts. The lingering question for me: why did I not find any named pipe experts? Strange, indeed. | There is ample evidence that in this narrow domain, there are plenty of very smart people with experience, knowledge, opinions, and views, but the record—at least the Web record—acknowledges only the aforementioned few as tobacco experts. The lingering question for me: why did I not find any named pipe experts? Strange, indeed. | ||