[Knight of Gondor]

I have GOT to read UT soon! I didn't know that stuff was in there.

I think a good deal of the pipeweed mentioned had to do with the fact that Tolkien equated hobbits with some groups of people who dwelt in Kentucky. They actually did, in some more backwards areas, have names like Baggins, Proudfoot, and the like! They grow "pipeweed" a lot, and they live simple lives. As I have read a few different places, Tolkien had a student (or was it a fellow teacher?) who hailed from Kentucky, and was questioned deeply about the simple lives the people lived there.

I guess you could just go ahead and call me Baggins then, because I live in that state!!!!! My mother informs me that she honestly and truly had an Uncle Bilbo.