I've been thinking of this recently, but I don't hear dumb ass remarks like I did when I was younger. Still, I'd like to know if others have dealt with this nuisance. You're smoking your pipe out in public, and some troglodyte just has to make an inane comment about having just seen a real live pipe smoker. Here are some of the brilliant remarks I've heard.

"Hey, I smoke somethin' else from a pipe, he he."

"Why you smokin' a pipe?" (say what?)

An ignorant ass reference to Sherlock Holmes, these would annoy me the most, just appallingly stupid (I always wear a hat, an ivy dress, not a deerstalker, but an unfortunate coincidence nonetheless)

There were others, of course. Y'all heard any comments like that? Which ones do you find the most asinine?

Actually had the opposite happen on Halloween. I was downtown trick or treating with the little one and a woman commented on how much she loved the smell coming from my pipe. Mind you this was the first time I've been out and about smoking it so it could very well be an anomaly.

I did hear positive comments back then, I was smoking aromatics. That and some people are charmed by a pipe if it evokes fond memories of a dead family patriarch. I don't know, my grandfathers smoked cigarettes, but the children and grandchildren of pipe smokers see the pipe in a positive light. Whether they'll outright admit it or not.

I heard a woman behind me once as I was smoking say to her friend, "I think all pipe smokers are lazy! Don't you?"

I rarely, if ever, smoke in public. But one time I was at the post office mailing a package of various tobacco samples to a fellow Brother... so there I am in line, and I get to the window and proceed to putting the finishing touches on the package.

The mail person at the window (a woman) commented on the smell... I said it was pipe tobacco. She picks up the box, puts her nose to it, and inhales deeply, then says, "Wow that reminds me of my father -- I LOVE that smell!"

Well, the woman in line behind me then says that her father used to smoke a pipe, and could she please smell the box... so then she smells it and says she LOVES the smell too. At hearing this, another mail employee behind the counter asked to smell it, he loved it, then two more people in line behind me asked if they could smell it.

Everyone was commenting on how great it smelled, how it reminded them of this person or that.

During all of this, the original sniffer, the mail lady, was actually tearing up, because the odor had apparently brought back strong memories from when she was a little girl.

It was a totally surprising, very awesome experience!

That's a great story!

That is a good story. I do see pipe smokers in public, but only while in their cars. Why is this? I just don't get it. I always smoke mine wherever I go, hardly every like to put the pipe down. Plus, I don't drive, never owned a car and don't care to fool with it so long as I work only a mile from home as I've generally been sure to do.

Hey, show your pipe smoking mug around town and maybe I won't look so damn conspicuous.

I was at my 5yr old son's t-ball game and myself and another kid's dad were both smoking a pipe in the bleachers and woman approached us and said "smoking will kill you". He replied is a soft monotone voice "giving unsolicited advice may get you killed faster than smoking". That was one of the funniest moments of my life.

I smoke my pipes in public all the time and get mixed comments such as " wow that really smells good" or "that reminds me of my grandfather" and sometimes it's "that thing smells worse than a cigar". To each their own, if you don't like my pipe, don't breathe in my smoking space!