What smell bothers you?

[Andy M.]

Old cigarette butts/ashtray
fingernail polish remover
chicken farms
bad fish
canned catfood

Nail polish remover!! I ask SO to go to another part of the house or out on the deck when she uses the stuff.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've never figured out how diesel exhaust can be so foul except be accepted as non-polluting. Here in Los Angeles you can smell it when coming from out of town (even returning from vacation) and yet you get used to it unless you're behind some diesel Mercedes or some toy hauler F250 or F350 diesel.

Our L.A. buses have been mostly or all converted to LPG so you don't have to smell foul diesel buses anymore.

 

[Somebunny]

Can't stand the smell of orange on my hands after peeling one or working with them for zest etc. I do like oranges tho!

 

[Alix]

The aftermath of coleslaw and potato salad with eggs. Yeesh.

 

[buckytom]

i really dislike industrial citrus scented cleaning solution. they use it to clean the floors in my office and it's nauseating.

 

[Kylie1969]

Nail polish remover!! I ask SO to go to another part of the house or out on the deck when she uses the stuff.

I am so with you on that one Andy...that would have to be one of the worst smells out!

 

[Cindercat]

Diesel exhaust, yuck! And the perfume department in department stores. I have to cover my nose and rush past. I hate that a lot of department stores have the perfume department at the entrance.

I'm the same way. I cover my nose & mouth, hold my breath and get past the perfume department. Many fragrances can set off my asthma, especially florals & musk. I used to have students who carried bottles of perfume & fragranced lotions in their monster size purses so they could "freshen " their fragrance every hour. I had to ban using any fragrance in my room. I could already smell some of them as they walked in the door. One girl accidentally broke a bottle when she dropped her purse on the floor. My classroom had no windows that opened. I had to send her to the nurse to decontaminate her purse & took my class to the library for the rest of the day because I was coughing & couldn't breathe in there.

 

[Margi Cintrano]

Good Idea for a thread ... Thanks for posting.

Most disinfectant cleaning products, soy products and in general, the rubbish bins or cans especially when it is not picked up on the weekends until Sunday night ...

Have a lovely 4th,
Ciao, Margi.

 

[Hoot]

Back in the day, I used to despise the smell of an incense and/or oil called frangipani.
Thankfully, I haven't had the misfortune to run across it in a long time.

 

[Claire]

I had a bizarre thing happen during menopause. One day I made the great Thanksgiving turkey, turned out perfect. The next morning I was making the great turkey stock. All of a sudden, it smelled, really, really bad. I thought, well, I must have left the carcasse out to long before I started making soup. THen husband came down and told me how much he loved the day after Thanksgiving because of the aroma is even better. Huh? My sense of smell went off that badly, and that fast, and stayed that way for a couple of years (I lost 40 lbs). At one point (a month or so later) I was making negemaki and though it smelled bad, but then everything did, so ignored it. Husband came in and stopped me, my vegetable oil had gone rancid. But it just smelled like most other stuff, especially meat. (we rescued the negemaki, cleaned the few I'd actually put into the oil, and no one was the wiser, he caught me early).

For the most part, I have my sense of smell back. A remnant just makes me want to cry. Watermellon and Cucumbers smell awful, and I miss them so much! I want them, I want them. That clean crisp texture. But they both smell terrible. How can something that mild smell so bad?

I still sometimes wake and find stuff just smells horrible, especiallly meat, and I'm a real omnivore. I've learned to take it in stride. I lose a few pounds when it happens, and that's good. I guess. I only go to my doctor every other year or so (am very healthy) so have never mentioned it to him. Maybe I'll email. Seems to me someone told me what cukes and watermelon have in common that sets me off. It breaks my heart, I miss them so much.

 

[justplainbill]

Fish cannery towns, paper mills, pre-1960s Secaucus NJ, Sharpie markers, stale eggs, and certain bath houses.

 

[sparrowgrass]

The smell in the house the day after I fry fish or chicken. Not so bad when I am cooking/eating, but later--phew.

Solved that one with a covered deep fryer--not so pervasive now.

Diesel fumes make me sick, and any kind of aerosol spray makes me stop breathing--no air fresheners for me.

 

[blissful]

The smell in the house the day after I fry fish or chicken. Not so bad when I am cooking/eating, but later--phew.

We had a woman at work that brought fried fish to warm up at lunch, let's call her, Annoying. I never heard so many people complaining and rolling their eyes about this warmed up fried fish. I've tried to compete as Ms. Annoying, though I couldn't make the whole building whine about it.

 

[Rocklobster]

Fried liver bugs me. I don't mind fried fish, if I am the one frying it. I lived in an apartment once and every few days somebody was cooking something that made my stomach turn every time I went out my door. Not sure why, but sometimes other peoples' food can smell really good, or really bad....

 

[justplainbill]

Phosgene

 

[buckytom]

lol, jpb. not many people who've smelled enough of that are still around to tell about it.

 

[justplainbill]

lol, jpb. not many people who've smelled enough of that are still around to tell about it.

Used to be generated by the use of carbon tetra chloride fire extinguishers.

 

[Cindercat]

I hate waiting in the auto service area at WalMart or a tire repair shop. The smell of new tires is overpowering.

 

[blissful]

Mister Plain Bill--phosgene and some bath houses, in the US? Where have you lived? Are there bath houses in the US?

 

[justplainbill]

Mister Plain Bill--phosgene and some bath houses, in the US? Where have you lived? Are there bath houses in the US?

Is NYC in the US?