About Smells

Dogs are reputed to have something like 200 times more olfactory receptors in their capacious snouts than do we humans. This makes them excellent if unpredictable allies in the search for contraband. The turkey buzzard can locate rotten meat from miles away using their sensitive olfactory setup. Scent marking is an important method of communicating territory as well as declaring gender (and receptivity) in all four legged creatures. Moose and Rhinoceros even create hollows or ‘middens’ on the ground as a kind of 'scent station'. Can an animal really smell fear?

Miami is one of the few places in the world where a car can pass you on the street at 40 miles per hour (with the windows up) and cologne of the operator will linger! Ships at Sea are some of the few places in the world where your waiter can pass you at dinner only to send a wave of body odor wafting across your meal. It’s really off-putting but most people are way too polite to mention it.

Some cultures have little access to water and so showering daily is a new concept. Still it is an odd experience to smell the janitor’s body odor three floors away!

It's likely humans no longer respond to pheromones. Those little indicators of identity popular with the animal kingdom have been disguised beneath layers of scented drier sheets, detergent, spray starch, deodorant, scented soaps, shampoo, toothpaste, mouthwash, body lotion, hair spray, styling gel and of course perfume to name a few.

Some people prefer natural smells. We line closets with cedar because it’s wholesome and neutral. Napoleon would dispatch a rider to Josephine a few days before returning home asking that she not bathe… apparently he liked her scent. Not surprisingly it was the French who would excel in combining fragrant oils to make perfumes and colognes both pleasing and costly!

Smells can transport us back to a moment in time. Our mothers cooking, the perfume of an ex-lover, a copy machine, a Christmas tree, a pencil, a magazine, garlic bread, leather or that new car smell… you know what I mean. Heaven forbid someone should sniff beer on your breath!

Humans handle scents in very different ways. Sometimes I think men began to enjoy cigars after dinner because smoke would mask a myriad of other post dinner odors! Women are universally awed at the many ways air can exit the male body! My Dad was pretty open-minded about these things. Sometimes he’d let out a huge fart and challenge his kids to ‘catch that, paint it green and put in a bottle’!