[paul cotter (OP)]

Yesterday the boss headed into Dublin with the express intention of wasting as much of my good money as possible(retail therapy, I believe is the term). After this attack on my accounts she comes home with a collection of rubbish and some joss sticks. I am well used to these sticks being used and generally I have no problem but occasionally a particular type will be unpleasant and I request that she desists. None of my previous experience prepared me for what happened yesterday. Two sticks were lit and a short time later both our eldest daughter and me began to suffer throat irritation which got worse and worse and eventually required the opening of doors and windows to vent the noxious fumes. The sensation was akin to that which occurs when a large quantity of chillies are being finely diced and capsaicin becomes airborne. The boss was not affected. Our daughter has several allergies but I have none that I know of.

[alancalverd]

I think the local pest exterminator used something similar to kill the spiders in my barn. (Not friendly British spiders but some Black Widows who had stowed away in a consignment from the USA and bitten my boss.) Check the label and suggest that maybe an agrochemical store is not the best place to buy perfume.

Or perhaps they were this week's fashion accessory: incense that purges anticapitalist thoughts.

[paul cotter (OP)]

The boss bitten by a black widow? That must have hurt. I have never seen one in vivo but we get a lot of false widows which also have a nasty habit of inflicting a painful bite. Don't import anything from Sydney, you might get a free funnel web which can kill.

[alancalverd]

It was quite an event. The local teaching hospital was amazed by the reaction and called a tropical medicine referral center. Fortunately my boss responded well to a massive dose of antihistamine and the barn responded well to whatever chemical warfare agent your boss seems to have purchased without a licence.

Pity about your throat irritation but I bet the house is now devoid of arthropds!

[paul cotter (OP)]

My throat is fine, recovering quickly once we vented. I have not done a spider count/health check yet. Spiders are welcomed in our humble abode but other arachnids, such as tics are liquidated(lot of tics around here-middle of a forest). 

[Bored chemist]

On a tangentially related matter...
There seems to be some component of some recent (say 6 months) perfumes that's eye wateringly acrid.

Is it just me who has noticed this?

[paul cotter (OP)]

Eau de acrolein! Can't say I have noticed, I don't really like perfumes. Some aftershaves should be controlled substances, they are overwhelming.

[alancalverd]

An old girlfriend used to call perfume "man repellent" but I think it is used as a territorial marker, like dogs peeing on a lamp post, to warn off other females. Which is why men invented washing machines and tumble driers to purge the bed linen between dates.

Which brings me to another olfactory question. TV adverts now promote "freshness" additives. AFAIK fresh fabrics should have no perceptible odor. Has the world gone mad?

[paul cotter (OP)]

Indeed Alan, the world has gone bat-sh1t crazy. Or maybe we are both just too old. "man repellent", that is how I personally view most if not all perfumes. PS I spelt the naughty faecal word correctly but it came up with a 1 instead of the I. Is the forum software censoring me?, I had better put my collection of bold words away!