Author: ModernNomad84

hookah forum stolen by big business intrests

I had a hookah forum going for about 3 years at gooogle groups called “Hookah-

Lovers”.There were around 500 people whom I actually myself convinced to join, from verious local hookah lounges, but it basically turned into a blog of my own doing. I was¬† #2 member listed¬† as “Tom Sar” after Heshel Pashell was the owner started it¬† as “owner” for the commercials and advertising that google does on the page, but he didn’t write unless I “prodded” him out of his¬† shell quite defencifly to shake a fist and¬† run to his shell.

owner of hookah-lovers answered, and here is a reply by “Tom Sar”
http://groups.google.com/group/Hookah-Lovers/browse_thread/thread/997bff693d95f6fa

here is the link

http://groups.google.com/group/Hookah-Lovers/browse_thread/thread/8a4a0dde4b3de9b4

It was  meant to be about hookah things only and with humourous intent.

I have left it for a year and find it taken over by comercial intrests.

Here is view send in by Tom Sar to the new owner of Tom Sar’s” forum forum which was hijacked and stolen from him by commercial intrest at google groups!

http://groups.google.com/group/Hookah-Lovers/browse_thread/thread/997bff693d95f6fa/7900caa1ab11e605#7900caa1ab11e605

(The owner even deleted all my original posts ).
Thems the breaks.
I’ve been thrown out of better places than google foru.
I’ve checked out the hookah-lover’s forum at yahoo, its full of posts like”Want to find your dream girl, the one with 4 eyes and bad breath just like you do? call here! Or ads. for viagra and such. no hookah there.
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and see here the “new owner” “hookah gossip”
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageBoard.previewReply&categoryID=0&groupID=100890704&adTopicID=18&Mytoken=842142E2-6CC4-4FD3-96E296BC8975A57178938867

Dumb Luck is better than Sense

     I  have  always bought  nakhla locally in small stores  for really cheap.

I’ve ordered the 50 gram packs too, online so that I would get many flavours.

I never bought the Nakhla in the 250.00 gram can since I made the equasion and found it too high.

I figured that the can is air tight, but I have plastic bags, and can save.

Well, I took a chance and ordered a double-apple inthe 250. can to check if there WAS a difference.

     Here is the  pack look and price  at Smoking-Hookah.com  :

http://www.smoking-hookah.com/Products/Shisha/Shisha-Nakhla-Sampler-tobacco.asp 

     here is the can : at the bottom of page :

http://www.smoking-hookah.com/Store/Shisha.asp

Cost is a bit more, but when I opened the can, I saw a difference from the small 50 gram packs  immediately!

Much more  fragrance, more juicy from glycerine and honey.

Its much  tastier to smoke also.

¬†¬†¬†¬† The circus manager P.T. Barnum from around 100 years ago¬† is quoted¬† “A fool is born¬† every second”

Was he refering to me?

¬†¬†¬†¬† I’ve noticed that in all the hookah companies except for Roman and Fumari,¬† they keep the price down to sell more volumn. (Like paying for an overpriced status-symbol car”.

     If one 28 inch high hookah  is a higher price than a similar hookah at that company selling higher, its always because the more expensive one is made of higher quality.

     Sales are in big volumn today.

When friends get together and discuss prices of shisha, they usualy find that ” the price is right, and justifies the cost level.

Dollars and cents, dollars and sense.

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“Salty Dog” (or) sick as a dog

A friend complained about headaches and  being really nauseous. Went to lay down.

A bit later I felt nauseous too.

Now, it¬† was NOT from too much nicotine , since I didn’t have any of those symptoms¬† which are a headache, yes nauseum, but I was noticing the taste of my premium shisha recently smoked was now tasting like charcoal. The other smoke I had before, using my favorite brand of recently found coals¬† was also tasting like charcoal!

The second I stopped smoking, the symptoms went away, but an hour later I still have the taste of coal on my tongue.

This post will be a work in progress in which I came to find out probably a few of the reasons why this hapened to us.
One resaon is “I should have known better”

Nicotine¬† stomach takes longer than that before it gets better, and I haven’t had that in 4 years.

Usually a kid’s first cigarette will do that to him.It must be the Lord’s way of telling us not to smoke ever a second¬† one!

At the cost of sounding hipycritical (I am), I know for a fact that at least  5-10 young  close relatives of mine smoke hookah.In the Arab countries  I know its widespread to smoke nargileh amongst the young. Keeps the hunger pains away too!

Haven’t been¬† to India or Pakistan, but they have the “Hubbly Bubbly” before any culture and kids smoke.

Back to the lousy batch of charcoals. I noticed a few coals out of a package of ten coals last week which were “Bad”.

I keep my coals in a plastic bag or two after unwrapping the  bag of ten.

For sure by keeping them unwrapped  they get bad.

Why? Same as shisha and marshmellows for that mater, or table salt. They will¬† readily absorb much moisture from the air!¬† You’ll see, that is why we put¬† some grains of¬† uncooked rice in with the salt, they absorb the moisture¬† that the salt in the shaker would.

I live  in a very moist area in a low mountain valley which keeps the moisture trapped.

And we see from the article brought down ,above that those charcoal briquettes are made with sawdust which is swept up¬† from the floor and can be quite filthy, and sodium nitrate (that’s found in instant soups and cured meats like salami, blogna,¬† some smokey links, authentically Kosher meat to draw out all of the blood ,which is forbidden to eat. Its got lots of sodium (Duh) in it, and after eating some of the above,even the¬† instant soup mix, I gain in one half day about 2 kilos, or 5 and a half lbs. from the water I drank¬† and obsorbs in the body tissues like a sponge!

So do not eat your charcoals.

Last week I ambled into our community’s general store and saw forthe first time a 2 kilo bag of¬† “Vegetable Coals”. I bought them with the¬† smoking in mind. From this article I see that it is termed ” Lump charcoal. It was hard to light, longer than¬† Jordanian¬† lemon wood natural coals I’ve used and enjoyed, which also take 2-3 minutes to light and make my wife crazy since I lit them on the gas range and smelled up the house.

Outside you’d need to put them into a low fire, or a portable small camping gas range to light the lemon type coals.

The vegetable lump charcoal took even longer to light and not thoroughly lit, either.

Here is a web page created by a particular company warning not to use quick lighting stuff. (Lets keep in mind that the facts here are to serve that firm’s intrests) :

http://virtualweberbullet.com/charcoal.html

Lets see if our coals use that for the quick lighting outer surface.

And what else is in the coals.

(See”hookah history” in that section here)

Gotta be  saltpetre in that charcoal they make!You know, the stuff in gun powder to make it explode.

Its NOT true that armies used it in thier food to keep the soldiers physical desires to a low level, cuz it doesn’t¬† effect male¬† sexual prowness.Might be someone’s excuse.

I’m doing some research online to find out just what’s in the quick lighting charcoals (coals) that most of us use.

Here is the running progress:

came accross this for charcoal briquettes which are more for cooking on the bar-b-que :

http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0411b&L=safety&P=2974

Some fine ideas about quick lites
They mention potassium nitrate as what makes the sparks ignite

http://www.incensewarehouse.com/Burning-Incense-
3_ep_50-1.html

Rolland-Chinese name,no?
http://www.made-in-china.com/catalog/item999i132/Coal-Charcoal-11.html
Here I am going to turn you to Shishainfo which is “Shisha info”.
I had seen some of their work a few years ago, but they have up-graded and this website is more than amazing.
I take my hat off to them .
Read about their explanations for hookah set-up, hints terrific tips etc.
http://www.shishainfo.com/hookah-shisha-setup.htm
Here I urge you to read the short but sweet hookah-set-up pages at at ShishaInfo.com
http://www.shishainfo.com/hookah-shisha-setup.htm
I will re-iterate a few of thier tips and great points, and probably some of these are the cause of this happening to me for the first time in 3 or 4 years.
Store the coal in cool, airtight place, I do that, but its been madly humid here and maybe they absorbed the moisture?
Put your coals on the outside of the bowl .Moving them around the rim.”The center is the last place the coals should be put”. He or she mentions that the top will scorch and smell the whole sessiom up. Well, guess what I di tonight? I used Smoking-Hookah.com ‘s gigantic brown “Party Bowl” in which you can fit the state of Texas in, along with a slice of all the Michigan Upper Penninsula too. I use it so that I can putin a nice ammount, never tamped down, air flowing well, and below the surface of the tinfoil so that it will not cook and scorch.
“Center of bowl” last place to put the coal?
Well, I heaped them in the middle. Why?
Keep those coals around the outside rim.
They mention an idea I’ve never heard. Punch holes in the foil with a toothpick (done that before), 5-6 holes. Pretty small bowl there! Its mentioned that if the suction is too hard, add some more, with the nice addition here: maybe during smoking the holes got blocked and your shisha is going up the chimney.
Thats why I don’t use anything smaller than a small thin nail, but mostly use the metal sticker from the tongs which I took from the tongs after being lightly burnt when using the tongs to movethe coals and the metal sticker got in the way.
Its my favorite hole puncher.
I’ve noticed that with 3 tongs, of the same manufacturer, the sticker and tongs are exactly alike,but the tip of one sticker is more blunt and so the hole comes too big.
I use a lot of holes in the party bowl, maybe I should try just in the center or vice versa.
Which shows that when you (I) don’t use brains, experience will force me to find out the best way after messing up once.
Again, I will mention about the tiny or medium circular ash trays that go under the clay tobacco head.
The coals if round upon falling will prove that physics law of “a matter in motion will continue that speed and motion until its worn down by friction or gravity, or mommy’s white carpet”
I learned something in 7th grade science back in around 1966.

¬†by mentioning the rolling round charcoal which will continue to roll until it burns the floor a bit, or the rug a lot, or someone’s pants for too long. Known fact. Did you ever see a coal drop and not do damage? Rare!
In researching for this post I heard about “the Lord Charcoal.” com. which has a coal that is not round and hence will not roll.
http://www.bernardsformalwear.com/Charcoal%20Grey%20Stroller.htm
(wrong this is the “Charcoal Grey Tuxedo” April Fools.)
Here is the real info and link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mens-Lord-Taylor-Charcoal-Gray-Suit-48L-Pants-40-33_W0QQitemZ200120435387QQcmdZViewItem
alright,I couldn’t resist.
Here you see it from the Hookah Forum com

http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?showtopic=696
(I see good old Malthazar is doing research and benefiting world-wide shisha smokers of all race and creed alike!)
Have used lemon tree woods an natural coals which I’ll bet have at least some compressed sawdust in them, but they are round at one side and flat on the bottom.

Which is were my grocer’s wisdom comes into play.
As I loathe the tiny ash trays sold, and would rather sacrifice beauty for pragmatism, I bought a 8 or so wide aluminum foil pie tin. I didn’t want to make the inner hole too big, so I took my own pee-wee tray and wanted to trace its inner hole on the foil to cut.
You can’t believe my suprise when I found the inner round circle marked groove already on the 8 small piesections and my original as tray were exactly the same circumfrence!
99% of the falling coals are captured and 100% of the ash.

And finally especially for fire prevention as hookah smokers alike.
“Who is wise,? he who sees what is being born”.
A SMART person knows that coals burn, and will be careful, but a WISE person knows that when the coal falls in his lap ,or on the family heirloom $23,000 Original Persiam rug he’d better buy a quick plane ticket to Timbuktoo or Kalamazoo!

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Hookah Club

So you bought a 200 gram can of that sheesha you smoked at the local hookah lounge, and found after one smoke that you don’t care for it. You might have 185 gams left.
Or maybe you are going on summer vacation and you DO love that sheesha brand, but you have you’re tennis racket, balls, books, clothes and a whole supply of sheesha stash left over. You’ll come back in September but can’t leave anything in the university dormitory.

Here’s an idea for you and friends at anytime of the year.
You can make a local hookah club, or university club. Upload the club online and each person who wants to get rid of some sheesha type, or a few clay tobacco heads, or bought theirself that “special dream hookah,” can trade or sell for something else.

Maybe your best friend said that “Abu Shukrey” sheesha ” is the best premium sisha on the market”, as all companies say about every shisha brand they sell. You found out that “Abu Shukrey” is actually an “Abu Ali” sheesha .

I’ve mentioned “Abu Ali” stories a few times. Arabic is one of the richest languages in the world! Okay, with the advent of T.V. and multi-modern media, so is the “American” language with its idioms being born with each season’s hit Television program.
I was born and lived in America until age 17. 1970 moved.
There are 37 years of slang I’ve passed on.
In Arabic the idiom “Abu Ali” is “Father of Ali”, or the “first born son of Ali”, and 497 other meanings!

Also its what’s called “stop pulling my leg”, or “don’t bull shi me”. A grandiose , blatant hashish dream. The Arabs also speak in exageration but THEY know that.
If Achmad tells Feiysal that he will deliver his package before lunch time, Feiysal knows that he’ll see the package in 4 days time maximum! Not bad. We take them literally to their word.

The MiddleEast mentality is really more than the Middle East, of course .The North African countries (like Darfur), Iran, Khazakhstan, Cyprus, Greece, Israel,Turkey, Afghanistahn, Georgia, the former south-east Soviet Republics, and more.
So we are not blaming the Arabs here, who gave us mathmatics, Spain! and added a gigantic bulk of knowledge to the Western World’s culture as fearless sea fearing travelers to the known world, and emmancipated many of the African people on the continent. (They were dragged away in chains but let’s blame “the Whitey’s ” for that.) I am not white by the way.

There actually are many local shisha clubs, born out of hookah lounge smokers, students at a particular school ,university, or local community.

(1) So don’t trash your stash, trade with your hommies.
Barter that older hookah for sheesha, or (2) give it to the poor at “Goodwill” ,”Salvation Army”, or “Bnai Brit”!

And that gives me an even better idea!!
(3) Do they have “Cake Walks” at your Church, or “Best Lokshun Kugel” contests at the local synogog? (I can’t spell Greek).
Why not have a bring your own sheesha party at your place of worship ? I’m not being sacriligious, but its a better idea.

Anyone with the money can buy wheat, eggs,sugar,yeast and milk to bake a cake or noodles for the lukshun kugel.(Don’t forget the onions Ima).
Its not so easy to buy shisha, and its for sure a bit more expensive.
So have that “sheesha barter-trade night”.

(4)You can make a “bring your own shisha” party at the local gym .Each person will donate at least a 50 gram closed pack to a common worthy cause .

(5) Or promote Herbal non tobacco, non nicotine, no tar Herbal smoking sheesha.

“Black Label” brand, “Soex” brand, or made at home herbal!!
It will be healthy and a big hit .
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