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Marooning Ming

Art Ruppelt (http://www.ming-kahuna.com) is a successful lawyer and a successful maker of premium tampers. He also collects pipes rather successfully and has recently started carving them, too. It's quite conceivable that he will make a success of it… so, to compensate for our jealousy, Pfeifenbox is packing him off into exile.

In the Pfeifenbox version of Desert Island Discs, Art gets to lose everything he has, except for one pipe, one blend and one pet hate.

An anti-smoking government is banishing you to a desert island for your incorrigible baccy habit. You are allowed to take one pipe with you. It can be any piece in the world. Which would you choose?

One pipe? Not too long ago this would have been a much more difficult decision. While my collection is made up of many outstanding smokers, since stumbling across the pipes of Jorn Larsen I can make this decision with a more than fair amount of confidence. No other brand has offered me quite the same consistently outstanding smoking performance as Jorn. Peter Heeschen comes close, but I'd have to give the nod to Jorn. The particular Jorn to accompany me in exile would have to be one that I bought from Greg Pease, a ring blast Jubilee made for Uptown's. This pipe has offered me a number of superlative smokes, one being my first bowl of Three Nuns, an incredible experience that I have never been able to replicate. Add to that the fact that the pipe comes with two stems (a short Cumberland stem and longer Vulcanite) and the decision is a no-brainer.

You are, of course, also granted an unlimited supply of a single blend. Which would it be?

The tobacco is a much more difficult decision. My Jorn's performance with Three Nuns and Escudo would almost lead me to choose one of the two, but I know that I'd immediately regret leaving GLP behind. So, a GLP blend would have to make the trip. The problem is which one. I'd almost be tempted to go with Stratford, a blend I am planning on smoking during the summer months, but I'd have to go with my old favorite, my mainstay, Haddo's Delight. Of course, if there will be no cavity searches, I might also be tempted to smuggle in some coins of Nuns or Escudo a la Papillon.

Arriving on the island, you realise the full depth of the authorities' sadism. They've given you the pipe you wanted, but the baccy they have supplied is the one blend with the potential to make you quit smoking immediately. Which is it?

When I first tried smoking a pipe as a freshman in college I started out with a drugstore pipe, a Zippo, and Borkum Riff cherry. That experience was so horrible, and the burns to my tongue so severe, that just a whiff of that blend and the fuel from a Zippo causes me to convulse in uncontrollable horror. So, condemn me to Borkum Riff Cherry and a Zippo and I'll be quite content in trying to smoke seaweed and igniting my fires like Tom Hanks in Castaway. My tongue is throbbing just thinking about it.

(March 23, 2004)

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