“Does this smell OK to you?”

Why do people do that? What sensible person would take something from a refrigerator, smell it, cringe in horror at the stench of the item, and then turn to the nearest body and ask…

“Does this smell OK to you?”

Of course, when the person doing the asking is your significant other, in this case my wife, protocol demands completion of the ritual. I lean over just enough to get a whiff of the rot emanating from the plastic jug. On a purely instinctual level, my body jerks back, attempting to put distance between itself and death inolfactorate. On a more intellectual level, my brain is sickened at the recognition that smell works by the inhalation of tiny particles into the nasal passages. Minuscule traces of that pestilence potion are now in my head! Whatever the level, the reaction is the same.

“Good GOD , woman!” I shout. “Are you kidding me?”

“No good?” she asks innocently.

“Not good! No!”

She sets the jug aside and picks up the orange juice.

“Does this smell OK to you?”