The Electronic Sniffer

摘要

My wife and I were taking our morning constitutional walk up the hill when I noticed the smell. The wind was from the south. "Do you smell that?" "What?" she said, "I don't smell anything." "Our neighbor must be gluing some PVC pipe or fiberglassing something." I didn't think much more about it, but the smell continued off and on for the next couple of weeks. A month later, the wind was from the north and we had taken a different route. "Wow!" I said, "Is that ever strong!" "I don't smell a thing" she replied. Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I am a retired chemist and I don't know why it hadn't clicked before: acetone or ether or a combination thereof. There was a drug lab in the neighborhood.