Monthly Archives: December 2017

Bare Essentials

Bare essentials? More like dire straits. Grab and Uber have drastically reduced the costs of my daily commute. It is now at a conservative estimate of S$30 daily, that is, if I am in Singapore every day. 30 bucks a … Continue reading

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My Absolute Crap

I just dumped My Absolute Darling, literally trashed it into the bin. I gave up reading after a couple hundred pages despite universal critical acclamation – “must-read book of the year” and all that crap, accolades probably planted by the … Continue reading

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Texting

While the first text message was sent on December 3rd, 1992, it was Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen who first conceived of the idea eight years earlier. Since then texting has taken off in a big way. The country that sends … Continue reading

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Moretti Axe Effect Pipe

The quest for Moretti pipes continues! Here’s what Marco, the famous carver, refers to as an “axe effect” pipe – a real beauty – and is my latest acquisition:

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A Rare Seven-Day Longchamp Set

In 1948, Jean Cassegrain inherited a small shop selling pens and smoking accessories near the French Theater on the Boulevard Poissonnière in Paris. Cassegrain found some poor-quality pipes in the inventory and so he took some of these pipes to … Continue reading

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A Pre-stained Meershaum

At my age, I will long expire before I aspire to inspire someone to smoke a brand-new white meerschaum pipe until it looks like this one smoked by master meerschaum pipe carver from Turkey, Fikri Baki himself: So I cheated. I … Continue reading

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Ivory Pipe by Tsuge

Kyoichiro Tsuge, the founder of Tsuge Pipe Company, was born on February 25th 1911. The genesis of Tsuge Pipe Company began back in 1924, when the young Tsuge became an apprentice under a master ivory carver. Here is an early Tsuge … Continue reading

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