Scents I Like in Small Doses

I was walking up the stairs into Suburban Station today and caught the smell of shoe polish that was wafting over from the shoeshine stand nearby. I like that smell in small doses. Which made me think about a few others:

I’m sure there are many others. It’s funny, because I mean small doses when I talk about these. Back in the days when I used to work in R&D, I worked in lab where we had all the chemicals, from the sweet smelling to the foul. But you have to be careful around those ones that smell sweet….you can go from yum to yuck in 3.2 seconds. I used to be in Headache City every time I had to wash glassware in benzene. It smelled great, but it chews your liver like it has side of fava beans and nice Chianti.

Know why I got out of the polymer physics business? Because I read a study of life expectancy based on profession. Know who lives shorter than firefighters, dentists, or coal mine workers? Chemists? Yep, that’s right, people who wash glassware in benzene. The average life expectancy for those people is 58 years. They usually die of liver and associated cancers. Benzene is a mutagen. So, I like scents in small doses. Very small doses.

Posted on September 10, 2007
Filed Under Frank's World, Thoughts | Comments

Comments

  • Hey, Pinky Bear, I was hoping your trip to Chicago was going well. Chocolate...hmm. Yes, that's one. There also used to be the smell of beer in the old days in Chicago...the smell of yeast.

    Merci, that's funny how we make memory triggers...and yours being a sign. That is great,
  • Merci
    And as for Pax's Walt Whitman Bridge Smell, I called it the Old Hickory smell because I always smelled it when I saw the Old Hickory billboard when we were crossing the bridge to visit my grandmother. It was there in 1978, and I think it was there in 1968, as well.
  • Greeting from Chicago where I have been smelling something burnt choclate in the air. Nice at first then it gets sick.
  • Merci, that's so funny. Steve is in Iowa, and my wife (and his) are from there as well. Steve's and my father-in-law was an executive with Farm Service and used to say, "That's the smell of money" when the farm smells would be heavy in the air.

    Yes, I love the smell of horses. There's something fundamental and earthy about it. Swamp gases...how funny, yep, that's another one. Yum for wood smoke...and nothing better than gardening...getting down on your knees and getting a scent of the earth.
  • Just got home from Iowa, where I spent a week on a working farm. The smells aren't too noticeable right now - the corn and beans are ripening quietly at the moment. The air was fresh and pure smelling.

    Some of my faves (but only in small doses):

    horse and dog (not the foulest smells they emit, just the general scent of the animals)

    pine sol

    a very brief whiff of swamp gases - just enough to let you know you're down the shore

    wood smoke

    earth
  • Steve, those are beauties. Yeah, it's funny, that initial scent from a skunk is good...then it builds and it's ugh. The Smell of Money...I remember Howard saying that when we went by the cattle farms...that makes me laugh. I don't know if I've ever smelld anhydrous ammonia (the fertilizer). New mown hay...beauty....and the word "mown" is in a league of its own.
  • Steve
    Since I have lived my entire life in Iowa (but never on a farm) the small dose smells that I can relate to are:

    - Money (at least that’s what they call the smell of manure around here….)
    - A skunk (preferably alive)
    - Anhydrous Ammonia
    - New mown hay (or alfalfa) at least until my eyes start watering, the sneezing begins and my nose makes like Mr. Coffee..drip, drip, drip…

    But you can never get enough of smelling Mr. Sketch scented markers!!
  • Oh, Pax, I am going to go back into the fog of my youth....Creepy Crawlers. That couldn't have been good, but I can smell them now.

    Yes, bus exhaust and Pledge. How funny.
  • *Pledge Polish.

    *That odd scent you'd get when driving over the Walt Whitman bridge circa 1978.

    *Bus exhaust.

    *That smell of plastic liquid cooking when making Creepy Crawlers.
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