What Is The Bad Smell I'm Encountering So Much Lately?

[AndiFlatland]

I didn't really know where to put this one, so this'll have to do.

I wonder if anybody else has noticed this, and winced at it, like I do.

For the last few years, I've been increasingly noticing a very unpleasant smell that more and more people seem to be trailing around, whether in shops, public buildings or in the street. It's hard to describe, but I would say it's a sort of sour, rancid aroma that suggests poor hygiene. It seems to be primarily, though not exclusively associated with black, African and Asian people, but also seems to be related to some white people of what I would term a 'gipsy-ish' persuasion, and people with eccentric dress sense and hairstyles (without wishing to be derogatory to any of those people). Some of them don't seem to have had a good wash for weeks - indeed, only a couple of months ago, an Indian chap moved into the flat adjoining mine, and I hear what he does when he gets up in the morning, and comes home in the evening. While he looks smart and clean, I don't recall that I have ever heard him use his shower or obviously having a wash, and that same smell is beginning to emanate from his flat and permeate the house.

The worst of it is, you really can't just go up to people in the supermarket or the library, and say 'What is that awful smell? I think it's about time you had a good bath', can you?! But sometimes it is so pungent it makes me gag, and I have to get away from it as quick as possible. I may not sometimes be the freshest-smelling person around, and frequently go without a shower for 4 or 5 days - but I don't think I ever smell like that!

Any ideas or suggestions as to what it might be? Have you noticed it too?

[highbury57]

Him as smelt it, dealt it!

[KARL]

Incidentally, those who wear jumpers during all waking hours (probably due to absence/lack of heating) suffer from localised heavy sweating (underarm in particular) and they (males in particular) and their clothing often have the classic BO (testosterone/cat's urine type) about them. They need more frequent washing/bathing. In my experience the UK has noticeably higher incidence of this than elsewhere. Oddly enough, areas of high levels of poverty and high temperatures internationally do not (in my experience) have a particularly high incidence of human odour.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//hey did anyone see Bettany Hughes ( you know andies sista) last night and the new stela in Komombo ?//

No. Who or what is Komombo? Last time I saw Bettany she was riding a horse in the Peloponnese wearing an unbottoned shirt and talking about the "agoge" (Spartan equivalent of the boarding school system).

[nailit]

///I may not sometimes be the freshest-smelling person around, and frequently go without a shower for 4 or 5 days - but I don't think I ever smell like that/
Bet that you do!...Smelly git!
A bar of soap and a bit of water costs nothing.
Cant stand people that find it a chore to wash daily.

[albaqwerty]

what concerns me is you can hear your neighbour never having a shower or washing himself.

What sort of pervert of a neighbour are you Andi?

[jno]

PP, I believe Bettany is the sister of Simon Hughes, the rather tiresome cricket journalist.

[nailit]

clean underwear, socks and shirt everyday, doesn't go amiss either before describing someone else as dirty??

[Ringlet]

I think this post is a wind-up to get people up and arguing about racism.

[aelmpvw]

thread has reminded me to change my underpants, there's a 'y' in the month

[davebro]

Maybe time to revive the old practice of carrying a vinaigrette?

[KARL]

It seems no matter what the subject, the cultural inclination/tendency toward the us-and-them mindset enters any discussion.

[Peter Pedant]

// thread has reminded me to change my underpants, there's a 'y' in the month //

do you wash them or just put them back in the drawer and let them fester until they are needed again?

my father in POW camp 1940-5 was allowed one shower every fortnight - enshrined in the geneva convention I think

he said of the chubby actors in the POW films - too clean and not thin enough- I think they were on less than 1000 cals a day

and I havent even started on Zazi dans le metro - her father has a thing about unwashed Frenchmen on the underground
zazi has a thing about 'la greve'

oh Komombo - site of the double temple to Sobek and khnum around 50 m south of Aswan - some one asked

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kom_Ombo

thnx for the extra info: I did wonder why she was a srcheologist who cdnt speak a word of Arabic

[Zacs-Master]

Common denominator......

[david small]

Strange pong of kipper pinned under the table at appalling B&B ran by a nasty lady.

[Ken4155]

Though i usually buy Daz capsules to do my laundry, i mistakenly bought some Bold a few weeks back. Having done a wash, i hung the items out to dry but noticed a very distinctive smell when i brought them back in. Something akin to the towels Karl mentioned earlier. You know, when you've washed something and just allowed it to dry on a cold radiator or something you end up with foisty smelling items. I immediately washed them again, and again the smell was there. Yep, it was the detergent i had used. Won't be buying that brand again - not even by mistake:-/

[10ClarionSt]

PP, That's true but there were other cotton mills still operating in Oldham and Rochdale into the 70's.

[Peter Pedant]

I thought it was retained rinse water that had gone off in the washer

[andy-hughes]

PP - please don't bring me into your random nonsense and please, if you must refer to me, and I hope you won't, spell my name correctly. Thank you.

[douglas9401]

Topically sniffy.

[Peter Pedant]

//PP - please don't bring me into your random nonsense and please,//
o heavens what DO you mean andie ? typical AB trash

and anyway I may be referring to andie and not andy
( are they necessarily the same person )
no they are not in case you feel obliged to discuss at length

have a good evening anyway - Jurassic park just on - the chaotician has just been zeroed in the jarn