Skunk Boy

Today in class the smell of skunk pervaded the room. We all discussed the stank and talked of how gross it was.

(World and wife, I take back the comment of a few weeks ago -- when I said that I kind of liked the smell of skunk. I don't.)

After finishing the taught portion of my class, my students and I moved to the computer lab for the lab portion. The smell continued to exist, unabated. After a while, one student, who I'll call Sammy Satchett, approached another student, saying to him, "Let me ask you a question. That smell....does it get worse when you smell this?" He offered up his gym bag. "Yes," the other student replied, "it does."

I asked for a sniff, and the bag did indeed smell strongly of skunk. "You, Sammy," I said, "are the skunk."

"Yes I am," he said, "Yes I am."

Turns out that Sammy's got skunks living under his house. Apparently, they occasionally make a foray into the living quarters. Now, he's talking about cleaning the bag with ammonia, but I've predicted that the bag will get thrown away...We'll see I guess....But a bag that smells like skunk and ammoia seems worse than the current situation to me.