having a smoke together

I guess New Year’s Day is a light news day, because I read a story this morning about the hookah craze. No, this isn’t about a resurgence in popularity of ladies of the evening. Hookah’s are pipes used to smoke tobacco, and are typically used by several people at the same time. There is a community bowl of smoldering tobacco in the hookah and several hoses with mouthpieces connected to them. A group of people typically sits around the hookah and smokes from it at the same time. These things are popular in the Middle East. You may recall the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, was toking on one of these things. The general consensus, however, is that this particular insect was smoking something other than Carolina Burleigh in his pipe, and what he was smoking may have, it is suggested, caused his bizarre behavior.

The behavior of the caterpillar takes me back in time a number of years to my youth, when one could purchase a hookah at one of those “tobacco smoking accessories” stores. If you’re old enough you may remember having one in your neighborhood. They were typically places with sitar music playing, a door to the back room made of beads on a string and a guy who welcomed you into the establishment with the greeting, “Hey, man. What’s happening?” There were usually a selection of pipes and incense inside the glass counters and zigzag papers for sale behind the cash register. Or, at least, that’s what I am told as I would never have gone into one of those places myself.

You may recall that I blogged about hookahs a little over a year ago, on what must also have been a slow news day. Okay, you probably don’t. Hell, I barely remember it, myself, but here is what I said. Please disregard my ranting in the first paragraph about how oil prices at $42.50 a barrel were out of sight, as they are nearly 50% higher than that, now.

http://jimboandhisfriends.blogspot.com/2004/12/happy-hookah.html

Anyway, like I said, it appears to be a slow news day, and I guess, for that matter, a slow blogging day. So I guess I just wrap this thing up by telling you HAPPY NEW YEAR from here in Jimbo’s world.