foamy sea of bones
secrets in his yellow eyes
black carrion pits

One of only two meerschaums I own.  The other is a tiny "mini-meer."  This one pictured has one of the most capacious bowls of any pipe I own.

Taking a break from the Bayou Night tonight, which is my usual late-night smoke, because searching through the shelves today I found a couple of ounces of Cornell & Diehl's Balkan, which is supposed to be C&D's knock-off of Dunhill's Nightcap.  It is similar to Nightcap, although not identical.  Nightcap is another of those somewhat infamous blends that makes some people's heads spin because of the Perique content.  The Latakia is definitely the dominant leaf, though.  The Perique starts to come through as you get further into the bowl.  Nightcap is my second favorite Dunhill blend, with Early Morning Pipe coming in first.  I must admit, however, that I've only tried three Dunhills.  The other was My Mixture 965, and it's okay.  I would happily smoke it if a bowl were offered to me, but I don't think I'll buy it again.  C&D's Tuggle Hall is their version of 965, while their Yale Mixture (another favorite) is similar to Early Morning Pipe.

I finally got around to placing a tobacco order today.  My tastes in pipe tobacco tend to run toward the more robust blends.  Here's the list of samples I ordered.

1.  Bayou Night -- Perique, Virginia, Latakia, Turkish and Burley.  Perique is definitely dominant, I think it may be as high as 50%, which I mentioned before.  Another head-spinner for some folks.  Probably my favorite, especially for a night-time smoke, and especially when smoked while drinking a cold Shiner Bock.

2.  Bayou Morning -- Virginia and Perique.  The Perique is much lighter in this one.  There are numerous--perhaps innumerable--blends made from various proportions and varieties of Virginia and Perique.  This is one of my favorites, more of a daytime or anytime-of-day smoke than #1 above.

3.  Crooner -- Burley and deer's tongue.  Deer's tongue is an herb that is not used often in blending tobacco, and is not a variety of tobacco itself.  It adds a very unusual sharp tanginess to the Burley.  It might even be described as "piquant."  This recipe was allegedly passed on by a friend of Bing Crosby, and was supposed to be Crosby's favorite smoke, hence the name.

4.  Haunted Bookshop -- Burley, Virginia and Perique.  A very smooth blend with subtle hints of the Perique throughout, and it somehow even seems to hint of the smell of old books.  Named after the story by Christopher Morley.

5.  Home from the Hills -- Burley, Latakia, Perique and Virginia.  It's been a long time since I've had any of this one, and I remember enjoying it quite a lot.

6.  Gray Ghost -- Virginia and maduro cigar leaf.  Another very robust smoke.  I smoke this one only outside or in the truck.  The "room note" tends to be somewhat overbearing for innocent bystanders.  One of the few blends that I like enough to have ordered by the pound.  This one may be a little too robust for some.  Read the reviews at the link.

7.  Exclusive -- Perique, Virginia and Cavendish.  This is the only blend of this bunch that I haven't tried before.  Supposed to be heavy on the Perique and similar to Escudo.

8.  Perique -- Straight.  I want to try a blending experiment.  If it turns out that my idea produces something that I actually like, I already have a name picked out for it.  I also want to try at least one bowl straight just to see if I can handle it.

I'm sure there are lots of them.  But this article in the Dallas Morning News points out a few:

Where state law varies from federal law is printed on Page 19 of the current annual: "The possession limit shall not apply after the wildlife resource has reached the possessor's permanent residence and is finally processed."

That means the state definition of a possession limit applies only while you're in the field or in transit between the field and your home. Once your two-day bag limit is in the freezer, you can go back the next day and shoot another limit.

According to federal game warden Steve Hamilton, the feds disagree with TP&W's interpretation of "possession limit." Hamilton is one of two federal wardens stationed in the Dallas area.

"I've argued this point with state wardens for years," Hamilton said. "The possession limit also applies to doves stored in your home freezer. The Texas interpretation has never been challenged in the courts. Federal law is the supreme law of the land."

Hamilton said the federal definition allows a two-day bag limit for every member of the household in which the birds are stored. If you have five people under your roof, the feds say you can have 10 daily bag limits in the freezer.

Please allow me a slight pause while I genuflect in obeisance to the supreme law of the land.

Hamilton is an idiot.  According to his own argument, a child who is far too young to use a gun and hunt is still eligible for "possession."  His own argument defeats itself.

Hamilton said last season's birds don't count against this season's possession limit. Never mind that wardens really can't tell the difference between frozen birds from last season and frozen birds from this season.

Like I said, Hamilton is an idiot.  If he were not an idiot, he wouldn't be trying to impose these nonsensical interpretations of the law on innocent hunters.

It sounds to me like he is someone who never learned to hit a flying dove, so he wants to ruin the fun for everyone else.

I have a hard time hitting a flying dove myself, but I still have fun trying.

From St. Petersburg Times:

Tex Smith and Josh Wimberly, the Police Department clerks who tracked down Kuch, said they'll probably mail the rifle to a law enforcement agency in South Florida so Kuch can retrieve it. Both said they'd never seen a case of missing property quite like this.

Stolen from a gun rack at the shooting range in 1982, found next to a passed-out drunk in someone's back yard in 2006.  The owner had etched his driver's license number on the gun, which is how they found him.