Hmmmm, I DO own several Brylons and it has been awhile since I fired one up.....
I'm game!!!

Oh yeah, I once was pretty fond of EMP but it was so darned hard to find in my area. I, pretty much, gave up on it. I do have a few tins in the cellar.

One of my pups, I should say, is certainly not afraid of thunder. Spotty lives anything that goes"boom! " he is also attached to me with glue so, if he sees the other two piling on, he has to get in on that too!

Middle Earth, Yeah, I know about that but the Paperwhites are expensive. and the Fire has a "low light" setting.

AngraMelo , Careful, careful scraping, even if you must start with something really small like the pick on a pipe tool. Take your time and do it bit by bit. I use a dull edge for cleaning out the bowl. In fact, I use the spoon on my Czech pipe tool. I just take a great deal of care and get all of t...

Middle Earth, You are right about that. So many books and no shelf space. I still like to have hard copies of some books though. Just because.
I use a Kindle fire because it also serves as my tablet computer. All in one, so to speak.

Oh, they got it back on about bedtime. The whole thing just made me think about how nice it was to slow things down. No TV, no "Smart device" crap, nothing. Fortunately, we had just finished dinner. Just sat with the pups, smoked the pipe and a bit later, read a book...Ok, that was from my...

Last night we had a pretty bad storm come through my area of Dinwiddle, Virginia. Of course, our power was gone with the wind, literally. I keep a good supply of candles, candle holders and oil lamps. My wife is always crying about "why do keep all of that?" No crying about it last night. ...

IMHO, don't put anything into a meer, even for cleaning, that you are not willing to taste.

Silly question here but are you cleaning the stem REALLY well?
...and +1 on NO salt.