Smelling a pipe being smoked is so evocative of so many great memories that cigarettes and cigars never generate. My Granddad, my Uncle, even my own Dad for some time. I am never offended by pipesmoke.

I am sure men have affairs with their pipes. They caress them, mould them, hold them, cleam with such care and tenderness. I do not believe this is some oral fixation however, as has been suggested some time past, but a genuine love affair. They are are so very very different - men and pipes - with not one being the same.

Romantic? Maybe. But I'll leave it for the pipesmokers to tell it how it really is. I am convinced, however, that a man who smokes a pipe is not just a smoker (and I recall, when I was younger, quite a few women who smoked pipes back then too). Pipesmoking men of my acquaintance seem to have something more about them. Intangible... but there.Have any other women felt that? (no offence to any men at all who do not smoke pipes)

Kipling had it wrong... "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke" on BOTH counts! lol

mp