Dear Abbott

I mean, sex is gonna smell like genitalia and perhaps butt and (let's be frank) santorum.

i'm sorry to hear that jesse---i suppose it could have been worse?

mostly curious because abb's anosmia has a different etiology than yours, so yr already subjective experiences might also be objectively different, you know?

I mean, sex is gonna smell like genitalia and perhaps butt and (let's be frank) santorum.

― i need to organize my zines (Jesse), Saturday, December 4, 2010 6:43 PM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark

right. people that have been working out don't have the smell of ~secretions~ on them.

TMI but i have basically walked into ex-roommate's rooms ("hey dude have you seen my...") and been like whoa something happened in here

OOOH - I forgot that you might also smell semen. Which can be kind of overwhelming.

The smell of semen to me is very very slight (at least uh, when its fresh... don't know about otherwise). Course, I don't have a lot of experience regarding that...

guys the point is that yr sex organs make stuff that don't occur anywhere else in your body, and are generally only produced when yr doing the deed. and this stuff smells, often v v strongly.

You guys are blowing my mind!

:-/

•_•

mostly curious because abb's anosmia has a different etiology than yours, so yr already subjective experiences might also be objectively different, you know?

― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Saturday, December 4, 2010 6:43 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yes, that's true. I get really frustrated when I want to know what something unfamiliar (e.g., food or cologne)smells like and no one has the words to describe it. I imagine congenital anosmia might worse in some ways because it's a world you can not understand whatsoever, but it could also be less frustrating because it's not like you are going to long for something that went away.

No one is good at describing smells, it's true. "Imagine how it tastes, but, like, in your nose." Actually, the Viceroy said something lucid once. We were walking by a Hollister and he said, "The smell coming out of it is as loud and impossible to ignorable as the music." It is just hard to imagine being overwhelmed by this invisible thing!

TBH I thought just like erotic lust had a smell. Like I remember masturbating and then going in the living room to watch TV with my parents, worried they could smell it on me. I think my religious paranoias got mixed up w/my insecurities about anosmia.

"Imagine how it tastes, but, like, in your nose." is what I usually think and say, but the comparison to music is brilliant.

You know what is really weird!? How smell can affect you physically by making you nauseated or giving you a headache. I was extremely surprised to find that things whose smells used to give me a headache or make me queasy - such as glue and paint - do not do so now that I can't smell them! I thought the headaches and sick feeling were the result of absorbing the chemicals, but it looks like it was just a result of the smell.

Paint fumes will still make me a little light-headed, but my reaction is almost nothing compared to what it was when I could smell. And rotting meat or food doesn't affect me whatsoever anymore.

It sort of makes me reexamine my deep skepticism toward aromatherapy.

I wonder if abbs taste has overcompensated for her lack of smell, like how people who are blind have a greatly enhanced sense of hearing

I am secretly this guy

http://notthebeastmaster.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/daredevil.jpg

"Imagine how it tastes, but, like, in your nose." is kind of like "imagine how it looks, but, like, in your knees" – nearly impossible to imagine

yeah I can't imagine tasting with, say, my ears

I'm not being contrary when I say that I can imagine those things.

I believe you! I'm just kind of thick about some things.

I mean, if I met a creature who had a sense that they described as "it's like seeing, but in your knees" I would probably imagine it differently from how they did, but I could imagine it somewhat.

Dear Abbott:

Do people you know often forget that you can't smell?

Yours,

Stinky Jizzknees

Dear Jesse,

Most people tend to forget. There's no real obvious cue for it, so I don't blame people. I think my mom forgets more often than anyone. It sometimes leads to a funny conversation when someone farts.

I am always flattered when people remember, but I don't expect them to. DO you find people tend to be forgetful about it?

Do you ever have a problem of people buying you cologne? I feel like there are a lot more generic gift items (like lotion, candles, etc.) stereotypically given to women. John's stepmom got me some Avon perfume as a gift once and I thought: fucking seriously?

–The broken old factory olfactory lady

Dear Abbott,

have you ever used your anosmia for evil, and not good? did you ever play a particularly nasty practical joke or prank wherein you utilized your anosmia to, say, not smell the stinkbomb you smuggled into 6th period English class?

Dear dayo,

I would be too paranoid of getting caught in the stink crossfire and not knowing it! I am v slapstick in a way, things tend to backfire on me, meaning I am basically good out of knowledge that all my plans get wacky i the end.

This whole conversation has made me want to put on more deodorant.

Abbott

Dear Abbott,

do you have wet earwax or dry earwax?

froyo

Dear dayo,

Wet is my phenotype! I have never seen the dry earwax. What kind of earwax do you have?

Sorry anyone who finds this gross!

– Towellie

Abbott:

I think usually people remember, but certainly they forget sometimes. It can be humorous when they do forget and ask me to smell something.

No one ever bought me cologne before. Not since I was a teenager, anyway. I have two colognes that I bought when I could smell (accident was in Feb. 2010, colognes are Varvatos..."Vintage?" I forget... and Acqua di Gio) and I guess I'll just wear those if I want cologne.

Do you ever feel like you have to fake having a sense of smell?

Do you ever think people think you mean that you can't smell very well when you say "I have no sense of smell"?

I have a friend who had nasal polyps and she said they prevented her from being able to smell, but one time we got on a train with a vagrant who was so covered in feces and piss and body odor that it *literally* stung my eyes and she was able to smell. So now if I have to explain my condition, I put it in terms of a condition hat I have, not "I can't smell."

Kindred Agnosmic,

Jesse

at least if you get accused of farting, you're off the hook -- no smelling, no dealt-ing

Dear Abbott,

I have dry! I was hoping to alleviate your deodorant fears because:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/29cnd-ear.html?_r=1

unfortunately I may have only aggravated them! many apologies

dryo earwax

Oh, and btw, I have felt the need to fake being able to smell. Now when I get on an El car with a truly horrifyingly stinky person, I take my cue from others' offense and move away from him or her. I do this b/c I used to sometimes see a solitary, normal looking person sitting next to the stinky person while everyone else was crowded at the other end of the car, and I wondered WTF was wrong with that person. I will not be him.

I find it easier to fake it sometimes if a stranger is trying to get me to smell their nice-smelling lotion or somesuch. "Oh, how nice." Way easier than explaining the whole thing and having to recite the anosmia FAQ to some incredulous person. If I know I will spend a lot of time around a person, I will take the time to explain so I won't have to in the future, and so I don't feel like they think I'm a liar ("she smelled my lotion four months ago, is she just trying to get attention by being weird now?").

Most people have never heard of anosmia at all, so there's a range of reactions. Framing it as a condition would be wise, I am going to stela that idea. I remember one time I told someone I had no sense of smell and he said, "Neither do I." I got v excited (having never met another anosmic) and started asking questions like we are to each other. Then he said, "I mean, I have a cold." Heartbreak!

What do you miss the smell of the most, besides lovers? What would you say is the best smell? And the worst?

stela = steal, obv!

Dear dayo,

That article wasn't not reassuring either, fwiw. I enjoyed it because I always like to have examples of single gene traits! When I taught biology, I hated when people would use examples of multiple gene traits, like eye and hair color, when talking about simple inheritance. It made it sound like they were single gene traits, and made it hard to explain epistasis, which is easy to explain w/those exact two examples, eye and hair color.

Pedantically,

Abbott

here's an article from the nytimes a few years back about not smelling.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/dining/18taste.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=anosmia&st=cse

At one point I found this anosmia web site where people posted messages like, 'There's more to food than flavor - there's still texture and color and temperature!' And that just seemed depressing, like, 'Ah, here's a red cube, and it's tepid, oh boy!'

bahahahaha

It's harder to find stuff about congenital anosmia, tho, it's all peeps who just had it wrenched from them mid-life. Like Stevie Wonder!

I find that the best way to explain my situation is to say "I lost my sense of smell in a head injury." For you, maybe "I was born without a sense of smell"?

What do you miss the smell of the most, besides lovers? What would you say is the best smell? And the worst?

I miss wine, both the smells and tastes. I also miss practical smelling -
like being able to tell when food is spoiled, when something is burning, if my apartment has a weird smell (especially when I've got company and the cat takes a huge dump and I don't know it till later). Also, I wish I could smell my own B.O. and breath. I told my friend Michael to please let me know if I ever had bad breath, but he is really bad at it, and he tries to be "funny" about it (i think b/c he feels like he's insulting me) and we end up having an argument.

This was my first traditional (turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes) Thanksgiving since the accident and I had twinges of melancholy because I was missing the smell that has such huge significance for me (and most Americans).

I miss the smell of the ground after the rain, for sure. Also, the smell of kitties' faces and breath.

Oh- I don't know about the best smell.... There is a scented oil that I love(d) that smells of pine, but also some kind of warm spices and something "sweet." It's ridiculous that perhaps my favorite smell would be synthetic. Other than that, smells of food.

Worst: rotten potatoes and onions. Rotting flesh. People on the El who have soiled themselves for weeks without bathing.

Ok, that's really surprising to me too, the kittens having a smell idea. Same with human babies, people say they smell nice. Though maybe that's just baby powder?

Actually, one of the most upsetting and offensive things I ever read is the following claim, from Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier:

Parent and child may become bonded to each other prenatally, through an exchange of odors and odorlike molecules...Ambient fetal odor types may serve to indoctrinate the circuits toward a receptive and compliant condition. John Money, a caliph of sexology research, has said a person who is anosmic – who has no sense of smell – can feel lust but cannot form attachments.

wtf! I mean that is the kind of claim that fundamentally fucks with my self-perception.
OTOH, I realize this just now: I recently read a book where John Money was a major player and he seems like a guy with more than a few fucked up ideas, so. Maybe I'm not an unfeeling monster who would kill my children, if I had any!

He also seemed like he had a number of powerful and useful ideas, too, not all bad. Just this one got me right through the heart!

DID YOU KNOW?
http://www.gearlog.com/images/stevie%20wonder%20sytnhs.jpg
^^ This man has no sense of smell.

Hi Abbott I am home writing a paper what are you doing on this fine Saturday night?

Besides smelling, obv.

Above discussion gives me a terrible idea for a slogan/catch phrase kind of thing: "Abbott, don't worry, you smell."

Hey Hurting, I am waiting for Grady to return my call so we can hang. I am doing this by hitting 'refresh' on site new answers and drinking a currant cider, which is a little more watery tasting than I anticipated. What is your paper on?

Your slogan is pretty silly.

It's about native american online tobacco sales and the push to regulate them out of existence.

btw Jesse – here is a street sign I came up with to spread anosmia awareness (quick sketch):

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/628/anosmiasign.jpg

ahahaha

Dearest Abbbbotttt,

What songs do you love to dance to when you are by yourself in your room or car or walk-in beverage cooler or living room? Do you enjoy having solo dance parties, and do you enjoy them often?

Fanciest of Feet,
One (1) Mr. Stevie D.

Haha.

We need to start an Anosmiac Awareness Day on Facebook. Maybe I'll try to come up with some funny possibilities for text, but I'm not feeling it now.

I have actually worried that not smelling might mean that I will miss some kind of pheremonal connection and that I will never truly love again.