April 20

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Quince.

Species tulips in the periwinkle in my front yard.

Walking downtown for a Smell and Tell.  Cherry.

This month's Smell and Tell was on Musk.  As always, Michelle Krell Kidd (glasspetalsmoke@blogspot.com) blended history and science with interesting and lovely things to smell.

Now that I think of it, I suppose putting together a Smell and Tell is something like building a perfume.  There's a beginning.  There's a middle.  There's an end.  There are timeless ingredients, and there are the results of new technology.  Layers and layers of information are presented to the senses.  The experience is a bit different for each of us, depending on who we are and what we bring with us............

From a flight of fancy to the barnyard............  Humans will do the darnedest things to attract a mate.   This is hardly news -- we are famous killing everything in sight and/or using absolutely anything in any way we can think of, if we believe it might improve our sex lives.  I already knew this.

On the 20th I learned this sort of human behavior includes spraying ourselves with things that attract other species but not our own.  Boar taint, anyone?  You can buy androstenone -- one of two ingredients in boar taint -- in a spray can, and apparently some people use it on themselves................. 

(Wikipedia:  A pheromone (from Ancient Greek φέρω phero "to bear" and hormone, from Ancient Greek ὁρμή "impetus") is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual.^[1]) 

(Editorial note -- "trigger a social response in members of the SAME species".................)

Public service announcement:  Spraying yourself with something that attracts some other species is not a good idea, especially if you go where wild animals can smell you and get the wrong idea.....................



Musk for human use used to mean death for animals, but now there are good synthetics that can be used instead.
 
Different components of perfume have different functions.  Musk is an "exalter" -- one of the ingredients that exalts other ingredients (makes them more noticeable).  It does the same thing for other smells -- if you need a bath, musk is going to make that plainer to others, rather than masking it.

I guess musky odors can smell funky to some people, but I am apparently not one of them.  I thought some of the things we smelled were "too strong" but in a "too-strong soapy/perfume-y" way, not in a funky way.  I thought most of the things we smelled (including the deer lure) smelled good.  (We did not smell boar taint....)

There are all sorts of different "odor wheels" to help people develop a vocabulary for describing smells and tastes.  Here's one for whisky.  Here's one for tea.

Given that odor wheels exist, it's not a surprise that they exist for ... all kinds of different sources of odor.

If you want to see a nice crisp image of the body odor wheel, there is one here.



In this Information Age, we can access more information, and access it WAY more easily, than in former times.  Many things we read online are not correct.  (This is equally true of things we hear from the person behind us in line at the grocery.............)

As Theodore Sturgeon said, "90% of everything is crud."

Here are a bunch of really good questions we can ask ourselves, when we are trying to find out about something.  SMELL makes a good acronym.  "Does this info SMELL, or might it be reliable?"

John McManus, on using the SMELL test to see if information is likely to be reliable.

McManus focuses on info found online, but I can't think it matters.  The same questions are equally applicable to info from any source, in my humble.
 


Thank you, MIchelle, for another interesting Smell and Tell.

The next Smell and Tell is May 25 at the Ann Arbor downtown library, and the subject is roses..........  Y'all come.



I took the bus home from the Smell and Tell.  It was dark, but not quite totally dark.  This Bradford pear is right under a street light.  The camera couldn't have done this, but the phone can.

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May 25 -- evening

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My better half spotted this.  We seem to have much in common with these people!

We love Pooh.  Our kid was in choir, rather than orchestra, but it looks like we can agree about some important elements of politics.  I have been known to spend some time with the Snoods (an elderly computer game).  As recently as this morning.......... 

(The Poohs look as though it's possible their honey was fermented.......)



The 25th was just packed.  There was a Smell & Tell, which I planned to attend.

It turned out that the golf course was full of a high-school tournament on the 25th.  This meant my husband could go along to the Smell & Tell (rather than golfing into the night). 

We decided to begin with supper at Jerusalem Garden (just around the corner from the library), and our daughter decided to join us.  We had a pleasant family evening, enjoying falafel at Jerusalem Garden, and then strolling over to the library for the Smell & Tell.  It was about roses..........................

Perception of chemicals in the environment is Life's oldest sense.  Vastly older than come-lately senses like hearing and vision.  Since Life began, billions of years ago, it has prospered through attentiveness to the scent of its environment.

Given the antiquity of smell and taste, it's not a surprise that they should be closer to the essence of being alive than newer senses.  Not a surprise that they are intertwined with emotion and memory in a unique way.

Most of us walk through our days paying very little attention to our noses and the news they bring us. 
Not so for Michelle Krell Kidd, whose nose has guided her since her early childhood. 

Michelle, Ann Arbor's only trained Nose*, is on a mission to help all of us pay more attention to what we are smelling, and to help us practice describing the unseeable.  On the 25th, her subject was roses.  The history of rose cultivation, the differences between different roses, the ways humans have sought to preserve and enjoy the scent of roses, the way perfumers have used roses in the design of fragrances....

This is only the second Smell & Tell at which I have been offered tastes as well as smells.  We began with rose Turkish delight.  When I was a kid, I had a little round tin of those small hard candies.  As an example of memory brought forward by smell/taste, I am pretty sure that my little candies tasted like the rose Turkish delight we ate on the 25th..........

We went on to smell the scent of a couple of different roses.  We tasted D'Arbo rose hip jam, which is delicious.  We smelled a couple of rose perfumes, and didn't have time to smell all the ones Michelle brought with her, alas.

As always, in addition to the history and culture of perfume, in addition to the active smelling, in addition to telling what those smells entice us to remember (perhaps connections to places/times/people), we also receive a lot of information on how and where to acquire the things we enjoy at a Smell & Tell.

I got some D'Arbo rose hip jam at Busch's yesterday.  (Rose hips!  Something new to add to my Food as Medicine repertoire for 20 different foods each day!)

If you live near Ann Arbor, and you want to expand your mind with an experience you aren't likely to find anywhere else, I encourage you to try a Smell & Tell.  Michelle's connections often mean we get to smell things that basically no one else will get to smell.  Each Smell & Tell is a unique venture into a place most of us don't usually get to visit.  Highly recommended.

The next one is June 22, when the topic will be patchouli.


* Wikipedia:  A perfumer is a term used for an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes referred to affectionately as a Nose (French: le nez) due to their fine sense of smell and skill in producing olfactory compositions. The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained in depth on the concepts of fragrance aesthetics and who is capable of conveying abstract concepts and moods with fragrance compositions. At the most rudimentary level, a perfumer must have a keen knowledge of a large variety of fragrance ingredients and their smells, and be able to distinguish each of the fragrance ingredients whether alone or in combination with other fragrances. As well, they must know how each ingredient reveals itself through time with other ingredients.


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December 3 -- Smell and Tell

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I did something excellent on the evening of the 3rd.  I went downtown to the library, even though it was cold.  Even though it was dark.  Even though I wasn't sure if I'd have trouble finding a place to park.

I'm so glad I did!

Michelle Krell Kydd, who used to work in the perfume industry, gave a talk about patchouli -- its uses past and present, where it comes from, what perfumes it's part of............. 

We heard about the way our sense of smell works (smell info goes straight to our emotional brain, and only later does the translated smell info get to our cerebral cortex).  We heard stories about perfumers she knows and loves (including a French man who has a mohawk and wears a red leather jacket).  Stories about what some supposed health risks of various ingredients is doing to the perfume industry.  Stories about how patchouli has gone in and out of fashion over the decades..........

Michelle calls the talks she has given at the library "Smell and Tell."  She brings various scents and perfumes for her lucky listeners to smell. We started with the smell of damp earth, and then some 15-yr-old patchouli (one of the only scents that gets better over time).  We smelled several different perfumes that consist partly of patchouli.

We got to smell a part of the scent of patchouli which now is synthesized (GMO yeast makes it!).  We are the very first people outside the lab where it was invented to smell it as a group..............  Cool.  :-)


Where was I for the previous 9 of these talks?????  She was fascinating and engaging.

I always love finding out about some cool topic that I had no idea about, but which is its own world.  The world of scent/perfume has its own rock stars, with recognizable styles.

Of course there are perfume rock stars and divas, but I never thought about it.................

Anyway -- it was Different.  And excellent.  A whole nother aspect of living in our world that I'd never given any thought to.  She can sit on a crowded New York City bus and know which perfumes people are wearing, and who designed those perfumes.........

Who knew.



In addition to the great presentation, I spotted someone in the audience whose daughter went to elementary school with mine.  It was nice to catch up with her, a tiny bit, and to hear that her sister (a college friend of mine) is doing well, and to hear that another friend of hers and mine is also doing well.

An evening very well spent!



I definitely need to pay a lot more attention to what is going on at the library!  I am wondering what other really interesting things I've been missing!

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July 21

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For unknown reasons, neither of our Des Moines hotels had windowsills.  What's up with that?  Where do they suppose people will keep their Cheerios???

Our Washington DC hotel had a gracious plenty of windowsill.  This was the view southwest from our window.  You could see a lot of sky above the hotel, but nothing else but hotel.

Looking more nearly straight south was our view of Rock Creek Park, and other stuff (including, I promise, the top of the Washington Monument).  I really like it when I can see a lot of sky from my window.

Having enjoyed breakfast, I am ready to brave the heat and go downtown.

Far too many bridge players smoke, and far too many of those smokers park themselves right outside the hotel doors, forcing anyone who comes or goes to proceed through a miasma of smoke.  And they throw their butts on the ground, too.  What a bunch of dirtbags.  Shame on 'em.



Luckily for me, 20 feet from the door was this intense bed of marigolds.  I could smell the marigolds as I walked by, and so could clear my nose (and lungs) of the stink of cigarettes.

One of my favorite things to do in Washington is to ride the Metro down to the Smithsonian station, and come from underground right on the National Mall.

This year, the pleasure was distinctly muted.

I learned just before I arrived that the East Wing of the National Gallery was basically closed, and that I would not be seeing Alexander Calder's wire drawings.  Those wire sculptures are amongst my very favorite things on the Mall.  I go see them every time I visit Washington.  But not this time.  Sigh.

Little did I know that "Sorry, it's closed." was going to be one of the themes of this visit.

On July 21, I came up from underground to discover that large sections of the Mall itself are being reconstructed.

It's possible to get to a place where you can stick the lens of your camera through the chain link.  (At least this is possible if your camera has a small lens, as mine does.)  But you still get chain link and piles of dirt in your picture.

Not to mention construction machines,

enormous dump trucks, portapotties, snow fence.........  Not to mention scaffolding on the Capitol itself.

I sighed, turned my back on the Mall, and headed toward the Freer (my customary first stop when I get to the Mall).  Signs outside the front door said "Closed" and redirected hopeful visitors around the side.  After I walked along the front of the museum and turned the corner and walked another good way, went inside one of the entrance thingies to the Freer and Sackler, wandered around a lot, and finally found someone to ask, I found out the entire Freer is closed.  Not just the front door.

?!?!?!?!??!!!!!?!?!?

I mean.  I get a lot of email from the Smithsonian, and I read that email.  I contend that they do a horrible job of keeping people informed as to what is open and what is not.

Attention, museum (and zoo) people everywhere!  Visitors would rather know up-front what is closed than find out AFTER they get there!

And it is NOT helpful for workers in the museums to cheerfully tell me something will be open in September, when I live in Michigan.  This was my first lengthy visit to Washington since 2005, and who knows when I'll be back???????????????????  What will, or won't, be open in September is not interesting to me in the least.

Sigh.  I try to keep things positive here, but I was seriously disappointed that so many things were closed.

I'm glad they are working to keep things in good condition, but really, so many of MY favorite things closed?  Very disappointing.

Sigh.



A very few objects were on display from the Freer's collection.  (The gift store, however, was totally open.................)

I failed to capture the info about this nice big bowl.  Isn't it nicely lit?  If I had to guess, I would say it was Islamic.

So -- we can't do the Freer.  It's way too hot to linger outside in Enid Haupt's very nice garden.  Let's walk through the garden and see what's up in the Castle.

I have no idea what this plant is.  Each cluster of orange flowers had one of these white leaf? petal? things helping point the way toward the flowers.

I thought this was amaranth when I took its picture, but the label at the bottom says "chenille plant."  I looked it up online, and found that chenille plant is toxic to animals, in contrast to amaranth which is good for humans, at least.  So it's good to know that this is NOT amaranth.

Chenille plant is pretty (though toxic).  Nice to admire in someone else's garden, but I wouldn't grow it.

The back (not-Mall side) of the Castle, with part of Enid's garden.

I bought a really expensive lunch in plastic boxes in the Castle, and struggled to find a place to eat it indoors (they have tables, which were crowded).  At least my really expensive salad included lots of rotten lettuce.

At this point, I am thinking "REALLY, Smithsonian?  REALLY???????????????????????  Everything is closed AND my really expensive salad is icky????????????????"  Sheesh!

I pick out the nasty bits, and eat the rest of my lunch, and head outside.

I wander past the very cool Arts and Industries building ("Building Closed") to the Hirchhorn, which has interesting architecture and contains modern art.  I don't take a picture of the front of the Hirchhorn building, because there is scaffolding.



I'd like to take a pic of the outdoor space surrounded by the building, but guess what?

It is possible to take pleasant pics from near the location where I took the previous, but you have to work at it.  (At least the trees hide the scaffolding on the Capitol, right?)

I went in the Hirchhorn.  I thought this piece was mildly interesting.  I couldn't tell from this view what was going on.  What was part of the wall; what wasn't...............

Mostly, I believe, the above is a trick of lighting.  Once you know the trick, is it still interesting?  Hmmmm........

Many more works by the person who made this.  Many of which had so little going on that people were setting off the alarms by leaning in close trying to figure out what, if anything, was going on.  (Guessing that if you can't tell if it's a plain white canvas, or if something is going on, not much is actually going on......................)

I'm in a cranky mood, ok, after trundling my way through the heat and humidity to find out that many of my favorite things are closed.  But.  Most of the contemporary stuff that is in Serious Art Museums makes me very tired.  I have come to believe that most of it is intrinsically without interest.  Only with the backstory does it take on any "meaning" at all, and a lot of the work is actively hideous.

Is Art really about salesmanship?  Because I'm pretty much convinced that without the story line, no one would ever purchase most of this stuff.............

I thought about that, as I wandered around in museum after museum. 

You know what?  I am pretty sure there isn't much that is hideous (or pointless, like three identical black canvases...) in museums that is older than a few decades.  If it isn't appealing to look at, and you can't figure out what it "means," I'm thinking you won't find it in a museum, unless it's relatively new and someone with too much money to spend has been taken in by a story................................

That's my theory.  I'm going to keep thinking about this, as I wander in art museums, and see if I think this idea is supported, or disproved.....................

Anyway.  It was nice and cool in the Hirchhorn.  Nice and quiet, too, and not crowded.  I spent some time there.



Then I went next door to Air and Space.  This is the self-proclaimed busiest museum on the planet.  It was not that cool, and it was crowded and noisy.  We used to say the terminals at the Detroit airport were like Calcutta -- people sitting on the floor because there weren't enough seats, and other people having to step over the people on the floor because it was so crowded.

Well...................................  This has been palatte-knifed to obscure identities.  You can't tell, but there are multiple groups of people sitting on the floor.........

I touched the piece of moon rock that was carried back to Earth by an astronaut (one of my favorite things to do at the Smithsonian that was amazingly not closed), and I blew that taco stand.  Crowded noisy places are not where I want to be.........................



In addition to everything else I learned about on July 21, I found that visitors are subjected to a bag search in all venues on the Mall, and that in some places (Air and Space, for example) it's full-on airline take-everything-out-of-your-pockets and walk through a scanning device.  You have to wait in line, and take everything out of your pockets, and open your bags to be searched, so you can enter a really crowded and noisy museum.

!!!  SIgh, and argh.  !!!



I hate terrorists, and I hate the trouble they cause everyone.  Dirtbags.  Them causing trouble for me does NOT make me more sympathetic to their cause (whatever it may be).  It makes me want to exile them all to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Sigh.

(The next post will be less angry, I promise...................  I was not successful at not being angry when I was there, and reliving it, I'm angry all over again.)



Heading back out into the heat, to see what else I can do...................................

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September 30

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Walking downtown for supper and a Smell & Tell.  Excellent skies.

Looking north from West Park.

Standing around waiting for my daughter.    Looking southeast.  Sun over the post office.  See the bit of rainbow sundog, about in the center of the image?

Looking east toward the library.

Looking northeast over the library parking lot.  I like the grass.  And the mostly muted colors (except for the sky!) and that RED car.

Supper was a bit strange.  A new restaurant has taken over a space in which I have eaten many times.  They've repainted, and have a completely different menu.  It felt odd to be in such a familiar space, with a totally new vibe.

It was also strange, I thought, that having told the waitress that one of the dishes we ordered was really hotter than I prefer (and that I thought the menu should be clearer about the hotness of dishes), she let us order an even hotter dish, with no warning.  At least it was expensive.....   I'm not eager to go back.



The sky was still excellent as we headed to the library.

Another interesting Smell & Tell from Michelle Krell Kydd.

Fracas is a perfume, created by perfumer Germaine Cellier. 

There was more history and culture in this presentation than there has been in previous Smell & Tells I've attended.

As you might predict, if you thought about it, life was very difficult for women in science (Cellier was a chemist), in the first half of the 20th century, and even worse for women perfumers.

It was interesting to hear how Germaine Cellier persisted in the face of obstacles, and made large marks on the face of perfumerie.  Michelle is determined to learn everything she can about the women who have made significant contributions to the art and science of perfume, and to make sure they become better known rather than being forgotten.

We got to smell Fracas, which is based largely on tuberose, and a lot of its components, including tuberose and orange blossom.

A very interesting presentation, as always.  Michelle is enthusiastic and interesting.  Her knowledge and skill set are unique in my experience.  I always enjoy the Smell & Tells.

The next one is set for the last Wednesday in October......

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What a Plant Knows

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I am enjoying What a Plant Knows.

The first week was very lightweight -- "Why study plants?"  He did make one really interesting set of points -- because plants cannot move under their own steam (my words, not his...), they are, of necessity, more complex than many animals.  They must cope, in place, with whatever happens around them.  Other plants, animals, predators (plants and animals!), infections of various kinds.  Weather and seasons.  Plants had to figure out how to reproduce without moving to find others of their kind, and without touching each other.

The second week we heard about what plants see (and what they do with that information).  Their perception of light goes over a broader part of the electro-magnetic spectrum than ours, and they have more different sorts of light receptors than we have.  They know a lot about their environment from their perception of light.  Are they shaded by other plants?  How long is the night, right now?  Is this a good time to flower?  Is it spring or fall?

This past week we heard about what plants can smell (and what they do with that information).  Plants learn a lot about their environments from their perception of volatile chemicals in the air (smell).  A ripening fruit gives off ethylene, which will induce the ripening of nearby fruit (from one fruit to fruit very nearby on the same tree, to the whole tree, to the whole orchard).  A leaf attacked by insects starts making chemicals to repel/kill insects, which are smelled by other leaves which also start making those chemicals.  A leaf with a viral or bacterial infection starts making chemicals to deal with those infections, which are smelled by other leaves which also make those chemicals.

We are learning that a plant not only can tell what's up with other plants via smell, but also with its own self.  It used to be thought that one part of a plant communicated with other parts of its self primarily via its vascular system (a very animal-centric view, I think), but now we are learning that a plant learns about what is going on with its self via smell.

The most interesting thing I've learned, I think, is that plants make salicylic acid as a defense against microbial infections.  It makes perfect sense that salicylic acid isn't just randomly made by plants.  It makes perfect sense that they make it because it is good for them in some way...........

The fascinating thing is that salicylic acid has been known since before ancient Greek times (Hipocrates describes using it) as something beneficial against human aches and fevers.

We call it aspirin..........................

I suppose it's hardly a surprise that a chemical that plants make for their own health might well have significant effects on our health, too.

We did evolve from the same organisms......  If something helped those long-ago critters stay healthy, it seems reasonable that it would help both plants and animals stay healthy now.........

How arrogantly shortsighted we are, to blithely poison this, that, and the other thing, assuring ourselves that what is poisonous to some kinds of plants is surely benign for animals (or that what is poisonous to insects can't possibly affect mammals).........................

I'm guessing we're going to be learning, more and more, that the interweaving of the web of life is much more complex, and much tighter, than we currently know.  I surely wish we'd be more judicious (and more cautious!) in our approach to changing things we know very little about............................... 

We seem to assume that we know everything -- so if we don't know there's a reason not to do something, it's ok to do it......

Sigh!

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May 20, rest of the day

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The car was making a rubbing noise somewhere in the front, if you bore left around a curve at about 30 mph.  I took it back to the mechanics, and walked home.  Working on those 10,000 steps.......


More tree peonies.

 I think this is spirea.

Another interesting sky.    Those tiny little spots of cloud, near the top...........

I've seen more pink maple seeds this year than I remember ever seeing before.  (usually they are tan or green)

I think this is some kind of hydrangea.  But I'm not sure.

So -- I think the mechanic is about a mile from the house, putting me at 2-2.5 miles walked, at this point.



Walking downtown to the Smell & Tell.

Poppy.

Michelle is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and fascinating speaker.  She knows all kinds of things I've never dreamed of, and generously shares what she knows.  She brings all sorts of interesting things from her vast collection of scents, and shares those, too.

An evening with Michelle (and the audience she attracts) is like a mini-vacation to an exotic place you may never have known existed..

On the 20th we smelled sandalwood, and agarwood (which, alas, is no longer available, as all the trees were chopped down by greedy people (including thieves), and the trees have to be 30-40 years old to be harvestable.....   We smelled a couple of perfumes -- Encre Noir, and Yatagan. 

All of the scents are pondered and discussed.  Memories are shared.  The presence of others in the audience adds richness to the variety of memories.

Highly recommended.  If you want a real break from ordinary life, and have an evening free when there is a Smell & Tell downtown, my advice is -- make time and go.  I will................


I walked home after the Smell & Tell.  It's over a mile from home to the library, so that brought me up to somewhere between four and five miles, walking, for the 20th.



It became clear to me that I really (really) needed a new pair of shoes.  The old ones just didn't have much cushion left, and my feet weren't as happy as I like them to be.

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