Thursday, March 06, 2008

Perfumigation

[LINK] Too much "fume" in the perfume. A young man passed out from his own homemade perfume fumes, caused a real stink and a scare in the neighborhood where they thought they'd found a meth lab. I'm glad it wasn't a meth lab, but don't know how dangerous a homemade perfume lab is, since I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having one before.

I read that book, "Perfume: story of a murderer," (also a movie that I haven't seen) and it really gave me the creeps... so I'm hoping this wasn't a case of of someone being inspired by the main character of that one! Gaaaahhh.

I wonder if he was hoping to make enough to sell it for income? Has to be too big a batch to use for oneself. I think, personally, I'd rather take my chances making wine or beer... and if it tastes bad, you can just use it for perfume. Call it "Eau de Barfly" or something.

This story caught my eye, because I have a similar one (with less panic and more laughs). My grandma was very fond of liniments, ointments, Vick's Vapo-Rub, Ben-Gay, anything with camphor, eucalyptus or other potent nose-openers. She used them liberally on her body and face, and all at the same time. Grandpa wouldn't let her buy a washing machine, insisting that "she already had one," referring to an antique wringer washer. Grandpa was one of the most frugal people in the world (more about him later in another post). Anyway, we all decided that we needed to visit the Laundromat for her. We had the stuff tossing in the dryer when the police showed up! Some concerned person had reported a very strange odor coming from one of the washers and suspected a gas leak. They poked around a bit, and of course didn't find anything and left. We didn't speak up. We might be bad citizens for that, but we knew what they were smelling and that it was nothing to worry about. So now we have an old story to tell about the time they called the police on grandma's smelly laundry.

3 comments:

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

We had a wringer washer for a time when I was a teenager, I hated that damn thing.

Michael Bains said...

We had one two and I, being the quasi-scientistical punk I am, "tested" it to see how much pressure those wringers really put on.

Needless to say, OUCH! My finger was sore for a week at least.

{shakin'head}

"Perfume" is one of those books I was very glad to have had to read in college. Wicked story, that.

Mando Mama said...

I'm definitely in the make something else category. If wine or beer don't turn out, you can also put them in your compost!
MM