The baptism of fire - part II

" Now you are ready for your second light. Once again, move the flame over the entire area of the tobacco as you puff slowly and arhythmically. That‘s all there is to it. Besides giving you a better smoke, getting these step-by-step pipe lighting techniques down pat can give you a decided advantage in an argument. For example, as soon as you feel you are starting to lose in a verbal match to your opponent, give him the last say for the moment, and noticeably pause from the encounter to fill, light, and tamp your pipe (furthering the popular conjecture that all pipe smoker are deep, philosophical thinkers). Then, as the first wave of gray haze lifts from your briar and your antagonist is starting to feel a bit uneasy because of the lull, look him squarely in the eye, slowly take the pipe from your mouth and utter the profound bombardment of words you have by now had ample time to conjure up.
Your pipe will stay lit longer if you periodically keep the ashes tamped down upon the remaining tobacco and if you gently blow a shisper of air into the stem occasionally; your breath will act like a miniature bellows to keep the tobacco burning. That is why pipe smokers who talk with their pipes in their mouths require fewer matches to keep their briars lit; the breath from their speech helps keep the glow alive. Thus we can say that these pipe smokers are stimulating conversationalists in the truest sense of the word. "

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