Hookah Town: Electronic hookah sticks

Hookah Town (url http://www.hookahtown.com/)  is a very "busy" site. It's an e-commerce store, selling a variety of hookahs, from the full size version to the tiny, portable hookah sticks (also known as hookah pens).

The logo is teeny tiny in the left hand corner - very easy to not notice. Their left hand size nav bar needs some work as well.

Other than that, it's a typical e-commerce site. They've got about a hundred products, such as replaceable cartridges for the hookah pins, or new hookah sticks if you prefer the disposable kind.

Hookahs have been used for centuries to vaporize nicotine in order to smoke - you may have seen Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes smoking a hookah in a turkish bath in one of his episodes, and kids will have seen the caterpillar in the 1950s Alice in Wonderland smoke a hookah and blow smoke rings. (He's doing this in the book as well).

These days, people who are concerned about the harmful effects of nicotine will use fruit-flavored liquid cartridges instead.

221B Blog Street (Arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: 221B Blog, Bufo Calvin (then click on archives for the appropriate month)

WEB ADDRESS: http://sherlockblog.wordpress.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: This blog brings you the original Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. In a return to serialized literature, you get one chapter a day. The material is in the public domain in countries where copyright is Life+70 or shorter. Arthur Conan Doyle died the Seventh of July, 1930. If the material is not in the public domain in your country, do not subscribe to this blog.

MY REVIEW: I feel that I deserve a medal for being able to provide you with the actual URL of this blog, it wasn't easy to find! The owner of this blog is also the publisher of the I Love My Kindle blog (http://ilmk.wordpress.com/) and do you think he has a link to this blog there? Well... he does...buried 2/3rds of the way down the page so no one will ever find it!

In any event, if you've got a disposable 99 cents a month, subscribe to the blog to get a chapter of a Holmes novel, or a part of a story, delivered to you each day. Now, all these stories are in the public domain and you can download them all for free, but it's nicer to read them on the Kindle...

At one point the author was also writing his own Holmes story in this blog, but it looks like he's given that up.

RECENT POSTS:
--The Sign of the Four, Chapter 2: The Statement of the Case
--The Sign of the Four, Chapter 1: The Science of Deduction
--A Study in Scarlet, Chapter 14: The Conclusion
--A Study in Scarlet, Chapter 13: A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D.
--A Study in Scarlet, Chapter 12: The Avenging Angels

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters

The Baker Street Blog (arts and entertainment)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Baker Street Blog, by Scott Monty

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The leading blog about the goings-on in the world of Sherlock Holmes - past, present and future - as written by a member of the Baker Street Irregulars.

MY REVIEW: I love this blog. I don't know that I love it for $1.99 a month, but a serious Sherlock Holmes fan might. (KIndle's blog pricing continues to mystify me...authors can't set their own price. The price starts out automatically at $1.99...and then through some formula known only to Amazon, may or may not drop down to 99 cents, with the blog owner none the wiser. )

But if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, and if you yearn to be privy to the secrets of the Baker Street Irregulars (an organization based in New York) subscribe to this blog and check it out.

A sample post:

"Ashes of 140 Different Varieties" [BOSC]

Lately, the news has been dominated by the ceasing of air traffic in and out of Europe, thanks to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland. Rather than some of the lava-based eruptions we regularly see in the Hawaiian islands, this series of events has resulted in millions of tons of volcanic ash.

We know that Sherlock Holmes was an expert on identifying ash - he tells Watson in A Study in Scarlet:
"I have made a special study of cigar ashes - in fact, I have written a monograph on the subject."

And then again in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes again shares his pride in his special powers:

I found the ash of a cigar, which my special knowledge of tobacco ashes enabled me to pronounce as an Indian cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco.
No mention of his knowledge of volcanic ash, however.

In today's fast-paced technology-laden world, it's astounding that something so basic an primordial as a volcanic eruption could disrupt travel globally. It makes one wonder if it would be easier if we lived in the era of the transatlantic liner as the primary means of getting to and from Europe.

If you happen to be one of the many who are thus waylaid this week, we hope that you'll take the time to peruse the Canon - perhaps looking for your favorite mention of ashes. Then again, there are some ASHes of an entirely different variety with whom you might enjoy spending some time...

RECENT POSTS:
--Ashes of 140 Different Varieties" [BOSC]
--Dated From Cleveland" [STUD]
--"Burn This Letter" [HOUN]
--"A Curious Constitution" [SIGN]

___________________
Ms. Cairo writes two blogs of her own:
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters