Allergies: nature's favourite way of making us appreciate our noses.

So, thinking of my nose today, wishing it would just give me a break. Here are my thoughts about the sense of smell.

It doesn't stink. I've read that people actually have clearer memories of smells from their childhood than they do for sights or sounds. Isn't that kind of odd? But, I believe it. I can remember smells of those old oil based paints we used for paint by numbers. The way the apple pies smelled when they first came out of the oven. The weird smell of my brother's head and hair when he just finished playing soccer. Rotting yet earthy smells from the pond in back of the farm house we lived in when I was in grade one. That odd special smell that I only (ever in my life), smelled in my Grandparents house. The smell that will forever be the Grandma and Grandpa's house smell. It even has it's own colour, a shade of green.

I could sit here and think of a hundred more old smells. Things I wouldn't remember at all if not for the odd time I catch the same smell, in a completely different place. Walking down a street I catch a whiff of something that reminds me of a troll-like doll my Mom got for me in the 70's. Without the smell I would never remember, or even think about, that doll.

Another thing I appreciate about the sense of smell is how it makes things taste. Have you ever eaten something you couldn't stand the smell of? Experimental soup flavourings come to mind first, for me. Even if it tastes like a slice of heaven, the smell will make it almost impossible to eat. Your nose knows.

Well, that's about it for this newsletter brought to you by the letter N and that zit on the tip of your nose. Why do noses seem to get the worst of the zit situation?