Our latest pipe club meeting was certainly an interesting one. We descended into the worst stereotype of hillbilly pipe smokers and embraced corn cob pipes filled with the scariest of drug store tobacco varieties. An odd thing to do perhaps, but it certainly made for an interesting and fun evening, despite a little problem or two.

The evening did re-confirm two things for me as well:

Corn cob pipes, while being cheap and rather lowbrow looking smoke extremely well. My particular cob, filled with Dunhill's Medium Mixture smoked as well as any of my high-grade pipes, and all without any kind of breaking in process.

Drugstore tobacco, especially the old time kinds are bad. Truly bad stuff. While a number of old time blends were available I picked Half & Half. I muttered while filling my pipe that I hoped it would not kill me. A fellow club member assured me that I would not die from smoking it; I would simply wish that I were dead. His prediction was rather close to the truth I fear.

Three days have now passed, and my poor palate has finally recovered from the Half & Half. I know that if the club ever does this again, it would certainly be best for me to secretly fill my cob with a fine English Blend.