The question in the subject line reminds of the Monty Python sketch about World War II research on the "funniest joke in the world' which had a scene from Leni Riefenstah's film "Triumph of the Will" with the following made-up exchange:
Hitler: My dog has no nose! Soldier: How does he smell? Hitler: Terrible! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funniest_Joke_in_the_World But I digress. I really want to point out an opinion piece in the NY Times that is titled "Scents and the City" which takes Manhattan island, divides it into neighborhoods and describes the smell experienced in them (an exercise that is particularly good to do during the hottest part of summer when NYC has much in common with overripe cheese). There is a map and neighborhood descriptions, starting at the top of the island, Fort George & the Cloisters (which actually isn't the northernmost part of Manhattan, in fact, the northernmost part of Manhattan is probably in the Bronx ;-) down to Wall St and points in-between. See: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/08/29/opinion/20090829-smell-map-feature.html Sorry, the Times website does not support a scratch n' sniff feature. For those of you planning on teaching sensation & perception this school year, perhaps one project would be to have blindfolded students recognize a location just on the basis of its scent. Can they do so beyond chance? If so, given that most people don't seem to be aware of the scent of a place, how might this affect their perception and reaction to physical location. Do males and females perform differently? -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
