Paula Altenburg just asked the other day if a man’s underwear defines him. I’d have to respond with an emphatic, “Hell, yes!”
Her question got me thinking about another male-centric activity: Smoking cigars and pipes. Yes, some women do it, too, but it’s definitely more of a male thing. As awriter, when you’re faced with assigning character traits to your heroes and heroines, you many not realize that the impact of those choices often goes much deeper than you think.
So, cigar or pipe?
What does each say about a man?
Let me add here that my husband is a cigar smoker. I wouldn’t classify him as an officianado, exactly, but he smokes regularly, provides him a way to have a mental break from the stress of his job (along with a glass of scotch!), and in Texas, it means he can sit outside and watch the sky crackle with lightening on a humid-filled summer evening. These are the three things he loves best in the world (excepting our kids and me!).
So what did we do for Christmas? We bought him a pipe, ala Sherlock Holmes, and all the paraphernalia that goes with it: pipe smoking book, tamper, ashtray, pipe stand, tabacco, pipe cleaners, pouch… It was an easy shopping year! Note the picture… Husband was working in the garage, needed his coal miner’s headlamp, and had his pipe. Classic refinement!
My question for you is this:
What characteristics do you automatically, subconsciously or otherwise, assign to a cigar-smoking man?
And what character traits do you assign to a pipe-smoking man?
Is there crossover? Is one more refined that the other? I’m so interested to hear your thoughts on men, cigars, and pipes!
About Melissa Bourbon Ramirez
Classic refinement, indeed.
To me, a pipe is more of a college professor type thing, something that goes along with tweed jackets with elbow-patches and deep discussions about poetry and Lord Byron. Cigars are more exotic; they bring to mind hot climates and white suits and palm fronds rustling in the breeze. The beta hero smokes a pipe, the Latin lover – or alternatively, the villain – smokes a cigar.
Stereo-typical, I know.
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Misa Reply:
January 29th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
LOL What does that say about my Latino pipe smoking husband?!
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I dunno. When I think of a pipe smoker, I think of my grandfather, an old great-uncle, and a grizzled sea captain with one leg. “Aarrrh, Billy. Ever been to sea?” So a cigar smoker is definitely a leg up on that. (Pun totally intended.) Real cigar smokers tend to be more about the quality, like the way they’d admire a fine wine, and less about the habit and the addiction. So if my hero smoked it would be a cigar. Definitely. But he’d probably wear boxers.
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Misa Reply:
January 29th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
LOL I like the way you think, Paula
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I see cigar smoking as more of a social get gathering, the guys get together–they smoke cigars. But pipes are solo–when a man wants to think about the meaning of life and death–hence, Sherlock Holmes
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