The nose knows and so does Howard Hughes!

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Source: clipartpanda

Source: clipartpanda

I have a great nose — not the structure but the function. I can smell things that are best left un-smelled. Lucky me.

This skill was inherited from my mother who could tell where I was from my smell. You couldn’t pull anything over on my Mom. She made James Bond look like an amateur sleuth.

The smell thing happened again last week. My clothes stunk (as Dr. Seuss would say, stink, stank, stunk!). I could smell it but the beloved husband couldn’t. He ruined his nose with smoking decades ago and it never reset when he quit.

On the other hand I have the dog’s sense of smell. (One that can’t smell too good). I can detect odor anywhere, not rabbit poop but close.

Odors get to me. I’m not talking about stinky people odors although those get to me too. Nor am I talking about sweet cat odors (but not the litter box ones).

I am talking about those damn odors you pick up when you are out in public places. I avoid perfume spritzers although an occasional “test application” can mask “sweaty people smell,” mine included.

There are leather smells in shoe stores even though very little leather is used. The smell is brought in for effect like those bakeries that exhaust onto the sidewalk so you can’t resist buying their buns.

Paper smells are in book stores. This is a good smell especially when there is a little café in the corner with a coffee smell.

Roasting nuts are the best!

I should be in the book of world records but I’m off track.

Back to my clothes. We ate in a restaurant where I always pick up the smells. I wear clothes that are on their last wearing before the laundry. I would try “no clothes” but even I think that would be disgusting. (Do nudists carry around a towel to sit on? If so where do they keep it? Just asking…)

Some fabrics pick odors up more than others but they all pick up cooking odors. I love garlic and onions, just not in my hair or my bra.

Coming home I put the top in the laundry along with ALL the underwear. The jeans were clean so I thought I could get a day’s wearing out of them.

Ha!

I spent the next day in a grease coma. It had to be the pants. The coat was aired out.

Howard Hughes had weird towards the end of his life. He was a germ phobic (check) and paranoid of illness (check) and didn’t like people (check).

Except for billions of dollars and a genius at inventions we had a lot in common.

58 thoughts on “The nose knows and so does Howard Hughes!”

  1. When I was a kid, we spent a ton of time at the local rink. Curling bonspiels were happening, hockey tournaments, and old guys playing cards. The kitchen was always in full swing, with onions being sauteed by the pound. It always smelled great walking in the door – but coming home after a long evening there – Mom made us leave our greasy-onion-smoke smelling coats outside. Outside! -40F outside! It worked – your coat might be frozen but it no longer stunk. However, your touque (stocking cap) and mittens and hair were another story. 🙂

    I love the smell outside after a summer rain … MJ

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  2. Pingback: Random 5 for February 28 – Poinsettias, smells, restrooms, cherry pie, WordPress Reader | Views and Mews by Coffee Kat

  3. I can’t imagine, really! I don’t have this same sensitivity and don’t even come close to it. I don’t think I’ve ever considered what a nuisance or liability having a sensitive nose might be!

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    • It can be. A long time ago when I was in a bridge group, we were playing at a friend’s house. I was at the side of the table closest to the garbage can (which was about 6′ away). OMG! They hadn’t taken it out the night before. It affected my game badly but I didn’t know how to say anything politely.

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  6. My husband is a super-smeller too. He is always looking for the source of something his noise has picked up while I’m completely oblivious. On the other hand, I can make a big change to something in the living room and he won’t notice it for days (he’s also oblivious to messes that need to be taken care of, but I think that’s intentional).

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  7. My thing is musty odors in the home. I only notice it when I go out and then return. I like to open windows and get some cross-ventilation, which in Florida is tricky because we are supposed to keep the humidity OUT to eliminate mold from growing. This time of year we can do it, but come April or so the windows will need to be closed 24/7 again.

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  8. I can see where your talent for odor identification can be both an asset and a liability. Still, it is a gift to be cherished! 🙂 I also admire your sniffing ability akin to the canine world. I knew there was a reason I liked you. 🙂

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  10. “Roasting nuts are the best!” Apropos of nothing you’ve actually said here, I nominate this sentence for best sentence to be taken out of context and snickered at. I suggest this because I’m so mature, but it did make me laugh. 😉

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  11. My sense of smell is normal, but my husband’s is extraordinary. He can’t stand smelly stuff — perfumes, scented anything, etc. When we were dating I piled on the perfume, not knowing. Nearly exphixiated the poor guy.

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    • People don’t wear perfumes as strongly as they did when I first started working. Those older women would lather it on. As we have become the older generation (that’s me, not you) we shower more often and just use a touch of a scent.

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  12. OK, you had me at Howard Hughes. Funny post! I can relate to the aroma hypersensitivity. My sense of smell is becoming more acute the older I get. I’ve wondered if all the scent-free products I use contributes to that.

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  15. Oh, I am like that with smells! I have to hunt down any foul smell and destroy it, while other people stare at me and say, “WHAT is your problem?!”

    Andy used to make fun of me, but then I saved our lives one night when I smelled smoke as the dogs snoozed blissfully. Now he says nothing. 🙂

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  18. It’s probably somewhat uncomfortable to always be able to smell all those layers that usually go unnoticed by most folks. Thankfully, my smelling apparatus falls in the “sometimes works” category, in that I can pick up that sweet stench from fruit gone just one day past its prime consumption date, or I can get overpowered by the perfume someone is wearing in an elevator, but most of the time, my nose doesn’t get overwhelmingly assaulted.

    Of course, having two dogs that have multiple beds around the house, I’m forever throwing blankets and bed covers in the washing machine, as I don’t want to end up being one of those people who has a house that constantly smells like a wet dog. Ewww. In deference to my visitors (and because of my own appreciation for clean air), I do use candles and other such means to try to balance the odors competing for space inside my home, but nothing beats that fresh air smell just after a good rain. Wish I could bottle that one.

    Loved the Howard Hughes reference. Made me laugh. If it wasn’t for those pesky billions of dollars, you two could practically be twins! LOL

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  19. My hearing is acute, Kate. So when I say “I hear you!” . . . I mean it!

    Love this thought: “Do nudists carry around a towel to sit on? If so where do they keep it? Just asking…”

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  22. Poor Thing. That would make me crazy. I very occasionally will persistently smell something out of the ordinary and it becomes like a ear worm of a song. Its very intrusive and I’m grateful it doesn’t happen very often.

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  24. I get smells attached to me that follow me around too. Some leach onto my clothing but others I thing are hallucinations because there is no reason why I should still smell what I do. Mostly it happens when I go into a home that is moldy and cluttered.

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