Nose adventures
Sunday, 4 March 2007
Magnolia liliiflora, or Japanese magnolia, although the species is from China.
From Carl Hiaasen in Nature Girl (2006, pg. 188):
Thirty years in the seafood business combined with grossly irregular bathing habits had cloaked upon Louis Piejack a distinct and inconquerable funk. Were it cologne, the essense would have included the skin of Spanish mackerel, the roe of black mullet, the guts of gag grouper, the wrung-out brains of spiny lobster and the milky seepage of raw oysters. The musk emanated most pungently from Piejack’s neck and arms, which had acquired a greenish yellow sheen under daily basting of gill slime and fish shit. Nothing milder than industrial lye could have cleansed the man.
I shivered reading that and the image of standing on a wharf awash in the odor of sea-ness filled my mind and nose. You can tell Piejack is a bad guy, right?
Overall take on the book: loved the character and adventures of Honey Santana. A good read.
Today’s vocabulary:
fetor (Br. foetor)
a strong, foul smell
We usually use fetid (Br. foetid), the adjective, rather than the noun form….