I mention every now and again with a certain pride what a complete dumb-dumb ninny I am, and this is another of those occasions. The other day I was at a thrift store across from a chicken slaughterhouse. It was overcast and I noticed much more how horrible it smelled in the parking lot than on previous visits. I thought it must be a temperature inversion or something. Today it's overcast and walking back from dropping the car off at the mechanic, I could smell a cigar from someone I never saw at all for ages. Later, I had a similar experience with mothballs.
Back in the day, I always thought that Philadelphia smelled like tar, as in the tar that is spread on roofs to keep leaks out. (Or just to make a horrible smell, I don't know.) But now that I think about it, that overwhelming smell always hit me when it was overcast, too. I guess the volatile compounds that we find stinky must stick around better when it's wetter, literally. They must be sticking to the water molecules in the air. So when it's dryer, they blow away, or at least they blow away more easily. Maybe weather forecasts should add a Stinkiness Index.
No comments:
Post a Comment