What?
 Smoking, and anything related to it. I don't smoke by the way.

When?
1980's -

Why?
There's something tactile about smoking paraphernalia. Zippos, rolling papers, rolling tobacco; I can't help but start fiddling with them. Harder to justify collecting beach dog ends though.

What happened?
At least this one is easy to indulge in. Since several of my friends smoke I get the chance to mess with their fags and baccy on a regular basis. I now have a Zippo of my own so I can also mess with that when the mood takes me. Specific things I obsess about are
  1. Gold and silver paper from the top of cigarette packets. I can happily spend a long time flattening out the ridges on a piece of this to form a perfectly smooth layer.
  2. The little lines on the side of cigarettes.
  3. Lighters of all types.
  4. The cardboardy noise cigarette packets make when you tap them with a fingernail.
  5. Rolling papers and rolling generally. I spent a long time being taught to roll by Big John. Since I don't smoke myself, I then have to find someone to smoke the product of my exertions for me.
  6. French tabacs, and the little red cigar signs they all have outside.

As I recall, this obsession began on Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth. For some reason now, mercifully, lost in the mists of time, I started collecting dog ends from out of the sand. I stuffed them into old coffee cups, also scavenged from the sands. I found that I could fit about 120 dog ends in one coffee cup. I had filled 3.5 coffee cups before my Grandad found the collection and threw it in the bin, much to my disgust. Speaking of my Grandad, I also keep his smelly old pipe to hand. I never smoke it, although I must admit that I'm sometimes I'm tempted to try. The picture on the left shows typical tobacco products ready to be fiddled with - lighters, cigarettes, and slightly damaged gold paper ripe for the flattening.
More recently, I've also developed the idea of "drinking tobacco". Basically, this is my idea to allow all non smokers to enjoy the taste of tobacco without actually smoking. It's inspired by the old experiment where you take a slice of potato and a slice of apple. Holding the apple under your nose, you then eat the potato, which tastes like apple because that's what you smell.
Repeat this experiment, but for 'apple' read 'cigarette' or 'rolling baccy', for 'potato' read 'pint of lager', and for 'eat' read 'drink'. Bon appétit.

When Will it End?
This is another one which will probably run and run. I aim to have a collection of smoking paraphernalia in my room of obsession. I definitely need some Sobranie Cocktails in there because they come in pretty colours, and I'm told that Black Russians are also worth a look. I have a plan to dissect a cigarette into its component parts and set it in perspex at some point. Once I've done that I might be able to get over this, but it's not likely.

Loose Ends
The following loose ends still remain. If you can answer them, please contact me.


Play Along at Home
If you smoke, you already are. If you don't, why not try collecting dog ends on the beach and stuffing them in old coffee cups? OK, there's probably lots of reasons why not. Don't let that stop you though.