LIFE

What Smells Like Skunk?

Has my olfactory system betrayed me?

Something you don’t want to encounter on a walk in the woods! Photo by Bryan Padron on Unsplash

Wandering the streets of Downtown Chicago after dark with friends, I suddenly catch a whiff of a familiar, yet unpleasant smell.

“Why does it smell like skunk? Are there really skunks in the city?” I queried.

(In my defense, we legit saw a red fox hanging out by the Bean sculpture during our visit, so the possibility was not out of the question.)

“Anne, that’s not skunk,” says one of my friends. “That’s weed!” she explains.

Oh, wow. I was clueless. I thought my nose knew better.

Proof of our encounter with a red fox in Millenium Park in Chicago near the sculpture of the Bean. Photo by author.

Perhaps my two bouts with COVID and its seemingly temporary alterations to my senses of taste and smell were more of a permanent disablement, even though the bland world without the joys of these experiences did seem to subside.

I realize that so many scents in my world smell like skunk to me now: skunk (obviously; and living out in the country, we smell this a lot), coffee brewing (unfortunate, I know.), car exhaust, sometimes poop (a smell encountered frequently as a healthcare provider and equally unfortunate)…