That smell

Apologies to the song "That Smell" by Lynryd Skynyrd.

Last night at a restaurant, Suzanne commented that the bar area seemed to possess a residual smell of vomit, although I averred it was more the end result of many many nights of drinking and the accumulated smell of alcohol and waste.

I happened to be riding to the store today and caught a whiff of spring that reminded me of running cross country and track back in high school. I get that smell in the fall too, reminding me of races on golf courses and in parks.

In Cockeysville/Hunt Valley in Baltimore County, where McCormick Spices is based, the air is sweet with the smell of spices. And sometimes, riding the Metropolitan Branch Trail is gut wrenching when the smells produced by the asphalt plant located next to it cross the threshold of tolerable.

Notions Capital points us to an initiative in Sheffield, UK focusing on the urbanness of smell. These articles, "Sheffield Smellwalk," from the Urban Design Group and "Smell-designing Sheffield" from Edible Geography provide more detail.

(Edible Geography is a keeper on food issues.)

It reminds me that there was a similar initiative in Minneapolis back in 2003. See "City Maps Drawn on the Senses: A faucet, garden, silo and sewer grate are featured in Twin Cities tours designed to offer fresh (or not-so-fresh) insights into urban life" from the Los Angeles Times.