The Cottom's Choice Pipes are here! Ok, so Paul Revere I'm not but I can't tell you how excited I am that the Cottom's Choice pipes are finally in our store and ready to go on sale this Sunday, July 1st, 2007.

For those of you not in the know, Tom Cottom and I went to Turkey earlier this year on a buying trip and to meet with carvers. This being Tom's first trip to Turkey, he was suitably moved and impressed with the amount of work that goes into making each of these as well as the skill of the craftsmen involved. 

He was inspired to commission a limited edition run of pipes, numbering only fifty for the 2007 year, that would be suitable for a daily smoker but also one that was elegant enough for refined company. He worked with the carvers in our workshop to come up a lightweight, and yet sturdy pipe that was similar in design to one of his favorites, the Dunhill 197.

This resulted in a traditional billiard-shaped pipe with a long, thin shank that is capped with a gold-plated band connected to a straight black stem. Each hand-carved pipes is packaged in individually fitted cases with a snappy burgundy leather finish. 40 of the run of 50 are smooth while the remaining 10 are hand rusticated. Each pipe bears the legend "Cottom's Choice 2007" on the left side of the shank and "Limited xx/50" on the right side. The results, as you can imagine, are nothing short of spectacular.

One of Tom's other requirements was that we keep the price down as close to $100 as we could. He really wanted this to become a treasured keepsake, and perhaps an entry point into meerschaum for loyal Tobacco Barn customers who have, to date, not smoked anything but a briar pipe. By limiting distribution of this pipe to our retail store and our website, we can bypass the distributor and wholesaler overhead and deal direct with our most treasured, repeat customers.

I can't wait to smoke mine (since I get my mitts on them before Sunday's sale date) but unfortunately it is about 2 hours away being photographed (in fact, that is my baby there in the picture at upper right). But, I'm hopefully I'll be able to light that bad boy up on Friday afternoon and settle back for a well-deserved first smoke. The question now is what tobacco to celebrate with. Anyone have any suggestions?

Don't forget to come either by the store or the website on Sunday to get yours before they are all gone!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... James Sunderland, one of our regulars and an up and coming briar pipe carver suggested that we should hold a Pipe Coloring Contest for buyers of the CC2007 pipes to enter. Great idea James! So, anyone who buys a Cottom's Choice pipe is now eligible to enter our pipe coloring contest with the chance to win a free Cottom's Choice (either #49 or #50) pipe while second and third place finishers will receive gift certificates for the store or the website. You can get all the rules on the contest here.

Google Alerts to the rescue again. Waiting for me in my inbox this morning was a Google Alert of a weblog posting by David Honl describing the tools and process he used to capture the dramatic image shown at left. Be sure and click through to this post (or by clicking on the image at right) to get a much better look at this incredible image.

Interestingly enough, his blog is hosted by Lexar; a case of corporate sponsors helping to offset the cost to disseminate information. Not unlike what we are attempting to do with PipeTrader.com and the associated blogs.

If you wanted to know more about David Honl, here is a blurb from his blog:

David is an American photographer based in Istanbul Turkey. He regularly covers the war in Iraq and culture throughout the Middle East. His work has been published by Newsweek, National Geographic, ABC News, People Magazine, and French Elle, to name just a few.

Click here to view this whol

Well, smokers here in California successfully (but narrowly) avoided an overly onerous tax burden last fall but it appears that this tax has reared it's head at the federal level and we need ALL of you out there to hound your Senators and Representatives at the federal level to knock this one down.

Numbers provided by NATO

Now through end of July EVERYONE who enjoys a cigar, pipe (or heaven forbid cigarettes) needs to be hounding their elected federal officials to oppose this unfair taxation.

In an attempt to expand funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) the feds are proposing to increase the federal excise tax on tobacco products. This amounts to an unfair taxation on approximately 10% of the population to bear the burden that should instead be shared across the entire base of taxpayers!

The arguments to point out to your representatives (in our area that would be Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative John Campbell) are as follows:

•  This tax should be broad-based and not placed on about 10% of the American public, many of whom are at the lower end of the economic spectrum (pipe smokers and RYO consumers are more often than not retirees on fixed incomes and cigarette consumption is higher among lower wage-earners than higher-earning individuals)
• The likelihood of this tax to crush many small businesses is extremely high. Most tobacconists are Mom and Pop businesses that operate on a razor thin margin and a increase in the cost of product will force them to either eat the difference or suffer a reduction in sales. California has seen this in the past that attempts to raise revenue by taxing tobacco forced many small businesses around the state to shutter their operations.
• As borne out by past-experience, the taxes generated by the higher rates will NOT NECESSARILY increase taxes collected. Quite the opposite has happened as consumption of legal tobacco products caused a decrease in collected tax revenues. California voters recognized this last fall and narrowly defeated Proposition 86 which would have accomplished the same thing under the guise of "helping the children."
• As more people attempt to avoid the taxation, a growing black-market will emerge. It is no wonder that ALL of California's law enforcement agencies were against Prop. 86. They recognized that this growing black market demand would not only increase the amount of theft (usually on very large scales) but more importantly that organized crime, always ready to take advantage of these types of situations, will rush in to fill the void with either stolen or illegally imported tobacco products.

Make your voice be heard and stop this insane tax! They figured if they can't snow the voters so now they'll attempt to snow the legislators. In a politicians mind, a sound bite showing them "supporting the children" is going to play much better on TV, radio and print than them standing up to protect a small minority of the population from this unfair burden. It is up to us to SHOW them that we are a force to be reckoned with and listened to!

Congratulations to our own Chad Meisinger for finishing his first ever marathon this weekend. 26.2 miles after starting the San Diego Rock And Roll Marathon he crossed the finish line at the MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot).