Huh. You don't say.

[lukon_idein]

"However, the metal pipes could be painful if jolted into someone's eye, and they were not widely used." -- Ivor Noel-Hume, Artifacts of Colonial America

Um, I'm pretty sure a ceramic pipe would also be pretty painful if jolted into someone's eye. Did this happen a lot? Who knew pipe smoking was an ocular hazard? Perhaps we ought to petition to get a warning placed on pipe tobacco packaging.

Comments

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

You would think anyone old enough to actually smoke a pipe would have better hand-eye coordination than that.

[lukon-idein.livejournal.com]

You'd think! Maybe if you were on a boat or something, I'd understand. (Perhaps that's why all those pirates have eyepatches?) Must be too much wine and spirits. I guess drinking and smoking just don't mix!
: )

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

Now that's an reason for the eyepatches I'd never thought of. Just remember kids, friends don't let friends boat and smoke.

[lukon-idein.livejournal.com]

LOL! They always claim they lost it in a fierce battle for a Spanish galleon laden with gold, but now you know the truth. Now I'm wondering what really led to all those peg legs...

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

Using the bottom of their shoes to tap the pipe out on?

[lukon-idein.livejournal.com]

OF COURSE! Genius! I can see it clearly - after a long stint in the powder room preparing shot for the next daring battle, one of course needs a smoke. But one forgets one has spent all day in said powder room and has many grains of gunpowder embedded in one's shoes, and when one goes to empty the smoldering pipe before turning in for some well-deserved shut-eye (just the one, of course) - BLAMMO. Bye bye leg. So sad. That pirating life sure was tough!

[lil-1337.livejournal.com]

*nods sadly* It all makes sense now does it? A horribly rough life that risked life and limb. Well, eye and limb as it were.

[dentelle-noir.livejournal.com]

I can see it now: "EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! 'Man made cyclops in pipe-smoking accident! Doctors plead for an end to the insanity!'"

[lukon-idein.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! I'll have to dig up past issues of the New Amsterdam Gazette and see if that ever came up. ; P