Just A thought
I apologize for the late delay in getting some government meeting discussions written and uploaded, but I have a good excuse. I spent Thursday in Franklin, Tenn., receiving awards from The Tennessee Press Association for my work at The Herald in 2025
Yours truly won two first-place awards, Best News Reporting and Best Personal Humor Column. While I won’t bore you with the first, a series of articles based on shenanigans at Grundy County Board of Education, I do want to share the second for your amusement.
Here you go:
Ooh, that smell
Can’t you smell that smell?
That song by Lynyrd Skynyrd kept running through my mind recently. Specifically, those two lines and only while driving to and from work. My commute is more than two hours a day, so that was an extremely irritating earworm.
What triggers an earworm? According to the University of Cincinnati, recurring tunes that involuntarily pop up and stick in your mind are common – up to 98 percent of the Western population has experienced the phenomenon known as earworm. Usually, stuck songs are catchy tunes, popping up spontaneously or triggered by emotions, associations, or by hearing the melody.
I also read that earworms can last a few minutes to several hours. However, they can persist for days, weeks, or even a year or more in some cases, with some people experiencing them more than once a day and others only occasionally. The duration of an earworm depends on various factors, including the song’s characteristics, how often it’s heard, and individual brain function.
For me, the reason for that persist song was simple. I jumped into my car one evening during the last heat wave and smelled a faint odor of something not so nice. And, no, it was not a case of she who smelled it, dealt it. As the first day or two passed, the aroma intensified to something I’d describe as strong, pungent, and foul. It was the unmistakable smell of a decaying animal. I’m guessing a mouse. If you’ve never experienced it, trust me when I say it’s nothing you want inside your vehicle.
My dogs took notice very quickly, as did every person who came too close to my vehicle. The fragrance, Eau de Rat, traveled several feet away when my car was stationary. When it wasn’t, I was trapped inside that traveling stink bomb.
I quickly became concerned for the toxic smell clinging to my hair and clothes, as it does when people smoke cigarettes in their cars and homes. Image that decaying smell following me into work or to a government meeting. I did have the windows cracked as much as possible, but that doesn’t help smokers, and it likely wouldn’t help me. I started carrying a bottle of fabric refresher in my vehicle. I’d occasionally spritz myself with it. Eau de Rat was replaced with Eau de Flowery Rat, which was not much of an improvement.
Along with leaving the windows cracked, I’d roll them all down every time I could for a momentary breath of fresh air and to let the stink out. This was the only time in my life that I’ve been thrilled by stop signs, lighted intersections, construction zones and traffic slowing my commute.
My son refused to ride with me. My fiancé couldn’t stand it. My daughter hated to park next to me in the driveway. I understood. It was disgusting. More than a week passed before I could tolerate leaving the windows up so that I could use the air conditioner but still rolling my windows down every stop.
Four weeks out, and the smell is gone. I’m now dealing with the fact that I’m driving the coffin of a dead animal. Try using that as a selling point: electric windows, AC, automatic transmissions, low mileage, clear title, and one dead mouse that no longer stinks. Asking price $12,000, or best offer.
In the future, someone will tear into this motor or its air conditioning vents and find the skeletal remains of a very sad creature that lost is way and its life. Death by misadventure. You are gone, but never will you be forgotten. RIP, little dude. RIP.
Well, my Warren County family, that was it. Written and published on Sept. 11, 2025. As I’m walking up to the front of the room to accept my plaque and get my picture taken with the TPA president, I stated, “I can’t believe I won with ‘Ooh, that smell.’ He laughed and said, “You’ve had a good day.” Yes, I was. Along with my two first places, I brought home third place for Best Personal Column. Tyler Brown garnered first place for Best Personal Column (I jokingly shot him a text firing him for besting me in that category) and a fourth place for Best Sports Writing. Beth Riner, a contributor who wrote human interest stories and went with me yesterday, was delighted with her first-place award for Best Business Coverage.
I can say, honestly, that I went out with a bang. While we’ve won many awards during my time in Grundy, this was the first year receiving four first places.