Bilbo is such a well-known character I'm sure anyone who sees this already knows about him.  If you don't, you really shouldn't waste any more time reading this blog until you've read The Hobbit.

I didn't discover the works of Tolkien until high school, when a cousin of mine told me I "really should read this book," so I checked it out from the school library.  I read it, then loaned it to my grandmother who also read it and discovered Tolkien in her sixties(!).  It wasn't long before I was reading everything Tolkien I could get my hands on, and passing it all on to her so she could read it as well.

One note:  when I came across the chapter "Riddles In The Dark" I recalled that I had actually read that chapter before, years earlier.  It had been in my sixth grade literature textbook.


Bilbo wished many times during his adventures that he hadn't rushed away without his pipe.  The one in the top picture appears to be a version of the Tyrolean.  The one just above looks like a standard briar, probably a bent apple or pot.  Both pictures are stills from the Rankin-Bass animated movie of 1977.

Although pipeweed, or westmansweed as it was known in Gondor, grew wild throughout Middle Earth, the hobbits of the Shire were primarily responsible for cultivating it for smoking, and there were at least three distinct varieties:  Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star.  Bilbo's favorite leaf--if he had a special preference--was never mentioned.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas, and dropped out of high school to pursue a music career, moving to Austin.  He became very well known--even famous--regionally and finally achieved national and international acclaim with the release of his debut album Texas Flood in 1983.

Vaughan fused the styles of a wide variety of guitartists--Albert King once called Stevie Ray his "godchild."  He was influenced by other blues guitarists such as Muddy Waters and Otis Rush, by rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, and even some jazz influence via Kenny Burrell.  The style Vaughan created was all his own.  He also achieved his distinctive sound by using heavier than normal guitar strings and tuning them down a half step.

During the mid-80s, after serious health problems brought on by drug and alcohol addiction, he entered rehabilitation and afterwards remained clean for the rest of his life.  Whether this meant he also gave up pipe smoking, I do not know.  The above picture is from the Pori International Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland in 1985, probably during the same tour that his drug problems finally caught up with him.  He's smoking a Peterson.

Stevie Ray died when the helicopter he was riding in crashed in Wisconsin, killing him and four others (the pilot and some members of Eric Clapton's crew).

In 1991 Texas Governor Ann Richards declared his birthday, October 3, as "Stevie Ray Vaughan Day."  There is an annual motorcycle ride and concert in central Texas that benefits the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Scholarship Fund.

There is a memorial statue to Vaughan on Town Lake in Austin, Texas.

Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader was born in London.  He was a pilot and a very good rugby player.  In 1928 he joined the Royal Air Force.  While attempting some stunt flying in 1931, he crashed his plane during some low-altitude aerobatics.  As a result, both his legs were amputated, one just above and one just below the knees.  He was still able to fly with artificial legs, but he was invalided out of the RAF anyway.

When war broke out in 1939, he used his connections within the RAF to be reinstated as a pilot.  He became Flight Commander of a Spitfire squadron.  By August 1941, he claimed 22 German planes shot down, which was the fifth highest score in the RAF.  In that same month, he was shot down and taken prisoner.  Although he insisted that his crash was due to a mid-air collision with a ME-109, later evidence indicated that he had indeed been shot down, perhaps to a German plane, or perhaps even to friendly fire.  He was almost not able to bail out because one of his artificial legs became trapped, and he was able to escape only when its straps broke.

Although a prisoner of war, he was treated with respect because of his piloting skills.  Britain was notified regarding his damaged leg, and a British bomber was allowed safe passage over the area so it could parachute-drop a new leg.

He attempted to escape many times, and proved so troublesome for the Germans that they threatened to take away his legs.  Eventually he was moved to the inescapable Colditz Prison, where he remained until the end of the war.

After the war he became an avid and skilled golfer, and also became involved in politics.  He supported apartheid, and his associations with some on the extreme right of British politics led many to believe he was a closet extremist and racist himself.

He was knighted in 1976 for his services to amputees and his advocacy for the disabled.  He died of a heart attack in 1982 after a golf tournament.

His prosthetic legs are on display at the RAF Museum at Stafford.