I'll give you "take out"!

Just to mix things up (cuz we’re crazy like that), we decided to get some take out food. So I grabbed by pipe and my wallet and drove to the Downtown Lounge to pick up the grub. Something happened there that has never happened to me before, and it has me worried about the state of the world today. As I was waiting at the bar to pick up the food, a woman next to me turned to her male companion, who was himself smoking a cigarette, and said, "Eew, he’s smoking a pipe… (cough cough)." Now what in the world is going on? Marlboro mullet-man’s big tobacco cancer stick is just fine and dandy, but aromatic cherry cavendish is unbearable??? Okay, okay… maybe she’s allergic or something, but then again, maybe she’s not. And what then? I politely stopped puffing. I mean, I didn’t want to interrupt her steady inhaling of nasty funk by introducing my therapeutic scents. Is this what things have come to? Nice = bad? Nasty = desirable? Whatever the case, I know this… next time I go to the Downtown Lounge, I’m not going to smoke my cherry cavendish. Mocha maybe.