
Lately my sense of smell has been bugging me. I’ve always thought that it was weak, but now I wonder if I am downright myopic, nostrilly speaking. On New Year’s Eve my girlfriend and I made dinner at her apartment and I bought/brought many of the ingredients. When I produced some Gruyere, she said, “Whoa, that is one stinky cheese.” Though mine was the hand holding it and she stood four feet away, I could smell nothing. Not until I unwrapped it, sliced it, and held it right above my lip could I detect a scent. Faintly.
Sure, I may have been a bit stuffed up. In fact, I have been since mid-October. But this moment troubled me. At last, perhaps understandably, I began to wonder if something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and if so, whether I’d be able to smell it.