Well, hello there!  I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.  I was having a little trouble with an upcoming post and then I went on a two week social media fast (I needed to stop interrupting myself every five minutes and get some writing done). The blog was supposed to be exempt, but once I was off the internet, I didn’t want to get back on. I enjoy the community here too much to go away forever, but it was good to remember what it was like to be an email-only person, and to hold the possibility in reserve.

Then, just when I needed reminding about the wonders of the internet, my husband sent me a link to Google’s April 1 “release” of “Google Nose” (in Beta, natch).  Those of you who follow the news items over on Now Smell This know that we’ve been hearing rumors about smell enabled smartphones and USB drives for several years now–usually emanating from gadget-obsessed Japan, where a smell app called “Chat Perf” (short for “Perfume” I assume) was released last October–and there are already electronic noses at work sniffing out disease. So it’s a perfect April Fool’s joke–close enough to the truth to be believable but with plenty of room for comedy.

I was enjoying the photo of the woman blissfully sniffing her phone (love the blue nail polish and pearls, too), and then, as I scrolled down the page, giggling over the “People Also Sniffed” section and admiring the perfect description of Wet Dog (“Agressive and foxy with notes of musk and wet towel”) when I noticed something.

It’s probably just a coincidence. I mean, it has to be right? There couldn’t possibly be a secret perfumista living under deep cover inside the Google hive mind, quietly plotting and planning for the perfect moment when it’s possible to unleash her/his perfume evangelism on the world in the clever form of an April Fool’s joke…someone who likes to read?

Smelling is believing, everybody. Smelling is believing.