Reged: 04/26/04
Posts: 1490
Loc: New York, New York
I don't smoke cigarettes, never have really. Maybe about 5 in my life, mostly when really really drunk, all in college. But, I do smoke this ...
Don't call the cops, it's not for pot. It's an Arabic water pipe, called a Hookah or Shisha, or nargileh (though the last is mostly a Syrian word). You smoke flavored "molassas" tobacco from it, which is wet and sticky and comes in lots of flavors. My favorites are mint, melon, apple, apricot, and cola. You put coals on the top, over the bowl that has the tobacco in it. Then the smoke goes down into the base and mixes with water (or whatever else you put in there, like vodka or sambuka), and it gets all steamy/smokey, and you smoke it through the long tube. It's a social thing, and I do it about once a month or so, with my brothers and my friends. It is so relaxing, I can see why cigarette smokers get addicted to that feeling! It does get me kind of woozy and nauseated though sometimes, so it's really just for once in a while. I do love it though! I have the one in the pic, and I have a teeny baby one that I used in college, which is now mostly for decoration. My brother has 3, and always brings them out for parties and stuff. And now there are about a million places in manhattan and brooklyn where you can go smoke and order appetizers (meze in Arabic). Interestingly, a lot of those places don't serve alcohol (I think it's a Muslim thing), so it's a fun thing to do when you don't want to really party hard. Mmm .. makes me want to light mine up! Panda