Matthew E. Taft

You may not know this about me. If you do not, it is not because I have kept it a secret, nor is it because I am in any way ashamed of it; it simply hasn’t come up. Some may have reservations about the fact that I smoke a pipe (tobacco only) on occasion. Pipes have been, unfortunately and unfarily, equated with cigarettes.

Having said that, this isn’t an article on why I enjoy pipe smoking, why I believe the way I enjoy it presents little (or no) health risks to me or my family, or why it isn’t unchristian or unbiblical. I can give what I believe is a reasonable defense of these things–and I may consinder doing just that, if any of you would like me to. Just leave a comment letting me know–but that’s not what this particular article is about.

Part of what I do on this blog is post things that are interesting to me. The fact that today, February 20th, has been named the International Pipe Smoking Day, is one of those things. My way of celebrating, beyond the obvious, is to post something about it here.

Here’s the flier (click to enlarge):

An honest question arises as to what the intentions and goals of this celebration are. There may be some who are planning a more public demonstration to raise community awareness or something. However one celebrates it, I think this celebration must go hand-in-hand with remembering the many people who have gone before us, who not only greatly influenced the world in which we live, but also enjoyed pipe smoking. Here is a small list (a far more extensive list that can be found here):

Adams, John (President of U.S., Statesman)
Armstrong, Neil (Astronaut)
Aykroyd, Dan (Entertainer)
Bacon, Sir Francis (Intellectual, Scholar)
Barth, Karl (Theologian)
Baudelaire, Charles (Poet)
Bell, Alexander Graham (Inventer)
Clemens, Samuel (Mark Twain; writer)
Cosby, William “Bill”, Jr. (Entertainer)
Crocket, Davy (U.S. Congressman, frontiersman)
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (Writer)
Einstein, Albert (Physicist, Mathematician)
Eisenhower, Dwight (Military leader, President of U.S.)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (Poet)
Faulkner, William (Writer)
Ford, Gerald (U.S. President, Statesman)
Freud, Sigmund (Psychaitrist)
Gable, Clark (Actor)
Gardner, John (Writer)
Geisel, Theodor Seuss (“Dr. Seuss”; Writer, Cartoonist, Animator)
Hemingway, Ernest (Writer)
Lewis, C.S. (Writer)
Melville, Herman (Writer)
Newton, Sir Isaac (Physicist, Mathematician)
Prager, Dennis (Conservative Talk Radio, Author)
Porsche, Ferdinand (Automobile designer)
Reagan, Ronald (U.S. President, Statesman, Actor)
Roosevelt, Franklin (U.S. President, Statesman)
Russell, Bertrand (Philosopher)
Schwarzenegger, Arnold (Actor, Governor of California)
Stein, Gertrude (Intellectual)
Tolkien, J.R.R. (Writer)