I can't get freshly baked bread, the fragrance of pine,
the aroma of coffee, good and strong, a whisper of bacon,
crisp and crunchy, clean sun-drenched sheets, the smell
of cooking - all bring back - my childhood, Saturday
nights before a fire, a happy place filled with laughter,
a treasured link in the reality of change.

Yes Poirot, you're right - smell is often subliminal in
our everyday existence. Yet I can't help wondering how
important is smell to the ability to taste? I know how
I'm affected when I have a cold and can't smell as
well - my tase buds also suffer.

bonmot,

Pepe le Pew is a favourite of mine.

(btw, in light of your first sentence http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13287&page=0#230004 - Poirot has worked it out! (he thinks)

Lexi,

Smell is important to taste. A few years ago I developed some sort of diabolical allergy which gave me very overactive nasal passages (putting it politely)...the upshot was that I lost my sense of smell and taste for a month (Just when my daughter decided that she'd cook up a storm for Christmas), but alas I could taste nothing! I went to one doctor (and I use the term loosely here) He immediately burrowed into medical texts and sent me off to buy nasal spray. A few days later I went back to a real doctor who gave me jab of steroids....then joy of joys, the next morning I smelled the first nuances of my coffee.

You often don't appreciate something until it's not there ('nall that)

'Yes, all animals have their smells, but apparently we have the Christians to thank for the malodorous atmosphere described in that book. '

ypgirb obviously have not visited outback Australia places where the gospel has not reached. His/her ignorance is astounding and yet not surprising. I suppose he/she would find any moral boundaries abhorrent no matter how constructive they are.

Here I have runner coming in to equate the lack of smell or odour to ChristIan morality, such a gift, yet I decline. 

I don't want to compete with freshly baked bread since I would risk ending up like one of those bores at parties who lack the manners not to keep banging on about sex and religion when the discussion has moved on to lighter matters.

Did love the book though.

Dear Poirot,

Here's a quote from one of
my favourites - Dorothy Parker:

"Razors pain you, rivers are damp,
acids stain you and drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful, nooses give,
gas smells awful,
you might as well live."

And my adaptation of another:

"Roses may smell better than a cabbage
But they don't make better soup."

And -

"Words without a story are like a fart without a
smell, nice to have passed silently in a crowded lift,
but causing no reaction whatsoever, except as a relief
to the farter that he got clean away."

It's all relative.