I started out with cigars at age 17. When I was at Rutgers, a woman said to me "Gee, I just love a man who smokes a pipe."

Switched over but never went much further with her. Eventually my collection grew to about 80 pipes, almost all of which I still have in storage. At one point, I worked as a blender for a tobacconist.

About that time, I became enchanted with latakia blends, which I smoked until I stopped smoking in the mid 80's.

I never quit but the most recent smoke I had was a really good cigar I enjoyed over the course of several hours during the last major blackout.