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What did you just smell?

JDlugosz

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Having two threads concerning smells made me think of this idea. People posting various examples have drawn the comment that this is a smell-thesarus.

In the same spirit as the what are you reading and what music did you just listen to threads, I propose the “What did you just smell?” thread.

If you’ve encountered an interesting, evocative, or unusual smell, post it here. What was it and what did it smell like? Did it mean anything emotionally or whatever beyond simply being described as similar to some other smell?

I’ll open with the example that motivated this thread:

Last night, I opened the back door to let the dog out, and the smell in the air instantly brought up a memory of something from when I was a pre-school kid. There was a bath mitt, a sponge glove thing, in the shape of a Charlie Brown character if I recall. Or maybe it was a different character, but the color was chocolate brown. When wet, it had a particular smell.

I don’t know why the air smelled like that. But it’s testament to how an odor can instantly pull up some associated memory.
 

Maze Runner

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One day when I was a kid of about twelve, my mother and I walked into at a fast-food burger joint in Pittsburgh, PA, and almost immediately we turned to each other and said, "The Admiral Hotel" in Wildwood, NJ. No idea why, then or now.
 

MaeZe

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There is a twinge of a foul odor in my kitchen, can't decide if it's a dead mouse in the wall or under the dishwasher. It's just faint enough I'm not sure it's a dead thing. I can't sniff out a location, maybe it's the pile of dirty dishrags I need to move into the laundry room. Or is it something in the trash?

I should eliminate the possibilities, but I had to rush out the door this morning. I do hope it's not another dead thing in the wall. Sometimes you have to wait those things out and that can take months until all the organics finally dry out and the odor dissipates. Make an excuse to keep the neighbor at the door out when you'd normally invite them in for coffee lest they think you are an atrocious person living in filth. :tongue
 

Roxxsmom

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There is a twinge of a foul odor in my kitchen, can't decide if it's a dead mouse in the wall or under the dishwasher. It's just faint enough I'm not sure it's a dead thing. I can't sniff out a location, maybe it's the pile of dirty dishrags I need to move into the laundry room. Or is it something in the trash?

I should eliminate the possibilities, but I had to rush out the door this morning. I do hope it's not another dead thing in the wall. Sometimes you have to wait those things out and that can take months until all the organics finally dry out and the odor dissipates. Make an excuse to keep the neighbor at the door out when you'd normally invite them in for coffee lest they think you are an atrocious person living in filth. :tongue

The weirdest thing of this sort I can remember is when I worked for a small biotech company, and such a smell appeared (if "appeared" is the right word for a smell) in the hallway near our side entrance. It grew steadily stronger over a few days, and fat, black flies began to buzz around. Then maggots began to drop through the cracks in the ceiling panels and wriggle on the floor, needing to be mopped up periodically until whatever it was had completed its circle of life. Something (I'm guessing a rat) had clearly died up there.

It was one of those buildings that was essentially a big warehouse with a front office complex that had a drop down ceiling suspended from the warehouse roof above by wires. It would have been possible to get a ladder and simply push the panels up to check for and remove whatever was rotting up there, but my boss was a wuss, and he didn't pay me or anyone else enough to volunteer for such a duty.
 

Maryn

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We've had exactly one cool day so far this autumn, and it was with pleasure that I smelled someone's fireplace that evening as I went to get the mail.

Maryn, who needs to order firewood
 

Roxxsmom

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We've had exactly one cool day so far this autumn, and it was with pleasure that I smelled someone's fireplace that evening as I went to get the mail.

Maryn, who needs to order firewood

Yes! The smell of wood smoke is definitely associated with the beginning of the cold season in my mind. I'm ready for some cold wet weather.

Though this fall has been rife with the smell of brushfire smoke, which is subtly different. Did I mention that I (and the rest of our state) is ready for some cold, wet weather?
 

Sage

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I came back to work yesterday after a week-long vacation and one of the first things I said was how much I didn't miss the smell of the sediment room. Sulfur rising from the sediment traps, and as an added bonus, a bunch of clams collected in a bucket, decomposing. It didn't seem that strong to me as we worked, and I was surprised when we tossed the clams and someone came in to tell us the smell was traveling down the hall.

Later my lab manager was like, "Smell this," about a pungent sample, and I couldn't smell a thing. My allergies had blocked most of the smell in the sediment room. Just the close ups with the trap and clams pierced my nose-block.
 

Helix

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Not evocative, only pungent -- a big splatter of snake poo in the carport.

Sage's story just reminded me of something that happened ages ago. Every day for a week, I'd go into my office to find it filled with a smell like an open sewer. We couldn't find the source of the smell. Buildings & Grounds even went to the effort of taking up bits of the floor to see whether something was leaking from the sewerage. Nothing. Then they had a look from the outside. And it turned out that the people in the postgrad office were ripening durians on their windowsill...
 

Daggilarr

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Tom went over to Amanda who had stood to greet him. "Mandy, great. You look super really, so good to see you. I hear you and my sister are to be partners in crime." He kissed her on the cheek, she smelt vaguely of almonds.
 

JDlugosz

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"Mandy, great. You look super really, so good to see you. I hear you and my sister are to be partners in crime." He kissed her on the cheek, she smelt vaguely of almonds.

What does “super really” look like?
(and you have a comma splice, BTW)