It's impossible to predict what will turn up in the morning's email flood at Light Reading HQ, but it's not often we get a set of pictures as interesting as the ones provided by Jon Baldry, Technical Marketing Director at Swedish transport equipment vendor Transmode Systems AB . (See Transmode Reports Q3 Gains, Transmode Gets Enlightened, and Transmode Unveils SDN Strategy .)

Baldry's colleague, vice president of marketing Ola Elmeland, was one of the lucky winners of the prize raffle draw at the Leading Lights awards dinner in New York City on October 1. In front of more than 200 fellow guests, Elmeland spun a giant wheel that contained the names of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous In-Flight Magazine Products (as featured in Light Reading in August).

As luck would have it, Elmeland's spin stopped on the The Pipe of Gandalf.

Baldry was fortunate enough to be with Elmeland when the pipe arrived, so they both had a puff, as the pics below show. Normally, Light Reading would not encourage smoking, especially in the workplace, but there are always exceptions to the rule...

Figure 1: Pipe Smoker of the Year Transmode's vice president of marketing, Ola Elmeland, takes a moment with his Pipe of Gandalf and reminds himself how his company won the Leading Lights 'Top IPO/M&A Candidate' award in 2008 (the trophy is at his left elbow). Transmode joined the stock market in May 2011.

Figure 2: Hollywood Beckons Transmode's Jon Baldry makes his bid for a role in the next Tolkien-inspired movie...

— Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading