Pages

Sunday 8 July 2012

Unusually pleasant aroma

J R R Tolkien

I was just about to enter Sainsbury's, when I caught an unusually pleasant aroma and for once it wasn't fresh baked bread or coffee.

No, it was the aroma from a chap quietly smoking his pipe just outside the entrance, an nice old-fashioned briar with a curly stem. I was reminded of the Balkan Sobranie my father used to favour, but that was so long ago. Yet as Sam Vega pointed out just recently, smells can be very long-lasting in their evocative effect.

We're missing something - we really are.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rosa Gallica my favourite.

Bored rigid by telly I doodled on Ipad and discovered Wikipedia's "List of eponymous laws", a rich haul indeed.

A K Haart said...

Roger - Wikipedia's list of eponymous laws is certainly a rich haul. Worth a short post for those who haven't found it.

So many threads though.

Anonymous said...

As an ex-60-a-day man I now cannot abide cigarette smoke but pipe tobacco is fine. Especially so if it swamps the ghastly reek of all those personal hygeine products and aftershave perfumes that men smother themselves with.

Sam Vega said...

DD is not alone in his aversion to aftershave.

What is going on there? A rare cologne might come across as interesting, providing you don't have to meet the person again. But that pungent waft of cheap aftershave just says "Im a dodgy thick bloke with a high opinion of myself".

James Higham said...

Is the Tolkien pic significant other than for the pipe, AKH?

A K Haart said...

David and Sam - you are right about the aftershave perfumes - I even wonder if they are bad for you.

James - not really, I just thought he was a good example of a chap enjoying his pipe. What I notice about pipe-smokers is they seem to enjoy it more than cigarette smokers.