After reading both articles, tell in a complete paragraph what ONE thing surprised you the most about reading the articles and why. This means you need to (1) state the article, (2) write what surprised you, and (3) conclude with your thinking on why that fact was surprising.
62 Comments
barracuda
11/26/2012 04:44:04 am
In “the history of stink” article, I was happy to hear that the ancient Greeks, Romans, & Egyptians are careful about their ‘smelliness’. The Greeks used olive oil to moisturize their skin, then they use what looks like a metal ruler, to scrape off the extra olive oil. The Romans have huge bath houses that they wash their selves in every day. The Egyptians used to rub their pits in cinnamon & skin-sensitive oil. I think that all the Ideas are great & I couldn’t think of a better idea for each of the cultures. I wonder if the cultures use the same ideas now, or if they did something else?
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Bull
11/26/2012 04:50:44 am
In the article “History of Stink” I was surprised to see that deodorant was originally intended for doctors so their hands don’t get sweaty during surgery. Also I was interested by the fact that in the article “What’s That Smell” the article was primarily focused on boys and how boys mainly use deodorant and grooming products such as Swagger by Old Spice and Axe. In all I think we spend too much money on body sprays. Though being clean and smelling good is something nice to be, how far is too far?
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Penguin
11/26/2012 04:59:21 am
In the article “The History of Stink” I found out that in back in the 1400s, a baby’s diaper was changed once every few days.
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izbuscus XD a.k.a squid
11/26/2012 06:02:17 am
The thing that interested me the most was that Egypt was one of the first society to start bathing and other cleanly things in the article the history of stink. I was surprised that in B.C they were clean and bathed everyday and how the bathtub came from rome. I'm surprised that England now one of the most cleanly country's, was (before in the 1400-1600) was the most smelly, funky places on earth. King something the XIV only bathed twice in his smelly life. That concludes me paragraph.
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Fish
11/26/2012 07:46:50 am
What surprised me is that if it hadn’t been for a scientist, we would all smell today. In the article “The History of Stink”, Europeans were afraid of water but a scientist found out that dirt contains germs and bathing is necessary if you want to be healthy. I think it’s astonishing what the earlier Europeans thought. If it hadn’t been for one person, we would’ve been living in filth in America!
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Panther
11/26/2012 08:06:42 am
In the article called “The History of Stink” I was intrigued by how the Europeans in the Middle Ages disliked taking baths. People preferred not to be clean. The reason that people did not take baths was that they were petrified of the water. There was a disease called the “ Black Plague” that was killing millions and they thought that the water would open up the pores in their skin and allow the disease to enter their body. Even the French king Louis XIV said to have supposedly taken two baths in his whole life. I was surprised by all of this because I never heard of people not taking baths.
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Tiger :)
11/26/2012 08:18:11 am
“The History of Stink” Blog
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Wombat
11/26/2012 08:34:46 am
I was baffled when I heard in an article called "History of Stink" that in the Middle Ages the British hated baths and thought you were weird if you took them often. At least the Romans liked and actually took baths. The Romans were said to revolve around baths. They even had bath houses where they would conduct business and socialize wile taking a nice hot bath. The Greeks and Egyptians on the other hand did not take baths but they did make some way of making them selfs some-what clean. The Greeks would lather their skin with olive oil and then scrap it of with a piece of metal called a stirgil. Scraping the olive oil off metal bit takes off unwanted oils and dead skin. The Egyptians rubbed cinnamon and citrus oils on their arm pits to make them smell better. In conclusion i think that this new information will help me understand what it was like in the Middle Ages.
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Platypus
11/26/2012 08:51:02 am
After reading the article “What’s That Smell”, I found that 9-year old Tanner wears axe, at his age that should not be permitted. Number one that kid should not be wearing it because it has been said that it contains harmful chemicals that can cause skin disease or lead to other health problems. Another reason is that the smell is horrid. It isn’t only at home, it is also at school. Teacher’s desks are overflowing with confiscated body sprays. Boys are strutting down the halls with clouds of fumes all over their bodies. Now let’s get back to that 9-year old boy who uses axe, let’s think of the sours of the problem. The parents, if they had been responsible they would not have bout them the deodorant and this would never happen. So in conclusion axe and other products like it is not that good for people who don’t need it.
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Lynx
11/26/2012 09:24:00 am
I wonder, in the article “The History of Stink”, why the people in that scolding summer of 1912 were doing wearing high-necked long sleeve dresses and heavy suits! I think that maybe people thought it was fashionable and cool to wear these things but in they were truly miserable, couldn’t they have changed in to something lighter? Maybe they did and were still miserable, and maybe the article doesn’t mention that. That could have been the case. Besides the warmth, they also smelled bad though. They smelled terrible in fact. “For Edna Murphy, that stench meant success”. Her father, a doctor, had invented deodorant. However, it was not for people’s body odor. He invented it for surgeon’s hands not to get sweaty as they worked. Edna named her product Odorono. It sold very well even though it burned the skin and burned through clothes. She was lucky it was so hot that summer. Also the fact that they might have been in turtlenecks. If they weren’t and it was a cool summer, I wonder if deodorant would be a part in our daily lives.
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Rabbit
11/26/2012 10:40:24 am
I was surprised to find out that Europeans in the middle ages wanted nothing to do with bathing. I found this information in the article, “ The History of Stink.”
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Skunk
11/27/2012 04:32:48 am
I read the article “What’s That Smell?” and found it surprising that boys who are so young, like 9 year-old Tanner, are using body sprays like Axe. I don’t think that boys should be using body spray at such a young age. It’s okay when boys in middle school are using body spray but nine year-olds?! I wonder why boys are deciding to use this smelly stuff so young when they don’t even really need it. I think that boys who wear body spray in their young years is irresponsible and they should at least wait until they are in middle school to start using sprays like Axe.
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Ostrich
11/27/2012 05:12:09 am
I think it's cool that the ancient Egyptians used natural resources like, cinnamon and citrus oils, to prevent their selves from smelling bad. It was smart of them to use natural resources because they weren't harming their body. What we use now is chemicals that can infect our skin and have really weird smells, and a lot of them. I think if we start to think like the Egyptians and use natural resources it would be better for our skin, and we don't have to pollute the earth for natural resources as we do with chemicals.
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starfish
11/27/2012 05:34:22 am
I found it surprising that there was such an abrupt change and contrast from the Greeks and the Romans to the European. In the article, "The History of Stink," it states; "Romans spent countless hours in grand bathhouses- socializing, conducting business, and getting squeaky clean." This is contrary to how the Europeans viewed bathing. They bathed as little as possible, scared of the Black Death plague, because they thought you got it from water, even though it actually come from fleas. This resulted in them bathing about once a year. This article proves that things can change throughout time, and so do people's beliefs. Maybe in the future people will rethink our theories and methods of bathing and create new ones. The change was very sudden, and that shows how history is always developing and expanding to accept new ideas and creations.
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Sea Lion
11/27/2012 05:37:45 am
In the article “What’s That Smell,” it states that some products “contain chemicals that may irritate skin or lead to other health problems.” This makes me think we should be very conscious of what we are putting on our body. If we use these products daily our whole lives, could these products lead to skin disease or introduce new types of cancer? I think people should ask questions about what is in deodorant or spray products so they don’t die trying to smell good.
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Gold Fish
11/27/2012 05:53:34 am
I can’t believe that people use Axe body spray as an excuse not to shower! I found that very amusing. In the article “What’s That Smell?” I found out that “we spend over $2.7 billion dollars a year on body spray products.” That’s a lot of money to be wasting on something that you don’t need. “If they’ve been sweating, they’ll use it as a mask instead of a shower.” says Paul Begley, a middle school gym teacher from Maine. Spraying yourself with body spray does not clean your body; it just makes you smell refreshing. I learned that some body spray has a bad side. The article states, “They contain chemicals that may irritate skin, or lead to other health problems.” If you use too much spray, it can be as bad as not using any at all. If people want to smell nice, why don’t they just take a shower? For free!
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Dolphin
11/27/2012 05:58:03 am
In both articles, “ The History of Stink” and “What’s that Smell?” I found lost of facts that surprised me. One fact that surprised me was in the article, “ The History of Stink” it said that the Europeans had a reputation of being the filthiest folks in the world. It also said that they were scared of water so maybe that was why they didn’t bathe. That fact surprised me because its kind of funny that they were scared of water that’s why they didn’t bathe, water is what helps you to be clean not try and kill you or harm you in a way!
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octopus
11/27/2012 06:10:25 am
What I thought was the most baffling part of the articles is how the Europeans said that it was a virtue to bathe as little as possible. When I was reading “ The History of Stink”, it had said that the Europeans hardly ever bathed, They thought that the people who took showers regularly were strange. The smell back then was putrid said the article. It stated that people changed babies diapers once every few days, and to think we change there diapers every few hours. The thing that amazed me the most is that before that the Egyptians practically lived in there baths. After reading that article I don’t think that I will ever get why they didn’t take showers!
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Eagle
11/27/2012 06:10:43 am
What surprised me was that back then the ancient Egyptians used olive oil to clean their body. They would rub themselves in olive oil and then take a “ruler” to scrape all of the dirt and extracts off their skin with the oil, which would make them clean and have smooth skin. I thought that was interesting because I would have never thought people did that back then. I thought they took a shower or a bath like we do. I found that information in the” what’s that smell” article.
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blue jay
11/27/2012 07:00:32 am
I was surprised that most Europeans didn’t take a lot of showers. The article that I found it from was called the history of stink. There was a plague called the Black Death and it wiped out millions of people. They were terrified to take a shower. One of the reasons why they didn’t take showers is because for the people who had died. For those who had died had lumps all over their bodies caused by the plague carried by the fleas. Those were some of the reasons why the most Europeans didn’t take a lot of showers.
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Hedgehog
11/27/2012 07:09:59 am
I was surprised by the fact that antiperspirant was originally for surgeons to keep from their hands getting sweaty. In the article “The History of Stink” it states that antiperspirant was originally for surgeons to keep from their hands being sweaty while operating. I found this surprising because now antiperspirant is for slowing down the sweating in peoples’ armpits. Since the purpose for antiperspirant now is so different from the purpose for antiperspirant then I wonder how it came to be used for the armpit instead of for surgeons’ hands
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Walrus
11/27/2012 07:19:04 am
In the article “The History of Stink”, it says that King Louis III only bathed twice in his life. All I have to say is… eew. I thought kings were supposed to be clean. King Louis’ people were cleaner than he was! The middle age people had fashion trends, many fair laws and punishments (a little violent though), and some nice aspects of culture. One thing they could have improved on was their medical services. All around Europe at the time people had strange ways of curing people; some which didn’t work. For example: if you had the measles, somebody would cover your bed in a red curtain and put the bed by the sunlight. The red light would be the cure. Only if they washed daily, or at least weekly they could have prevented the black plague.
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Pheonix
11/27/2012 08:24:41 am
After reading the articles “The History of Stink” and “What’s That Smell?”, I find it interesting that the antiperspirant product like the kind that kids are using too much of wasn’t even made for that purpose! It was made to keep surgeons hands from getting sweaty. I think that if the summer in 1912 hadn’t been so hot that people used Odorono, than we wouldn’t have products like deodorant and antiperspirant. That is why I find it interesting; anyways if we didn’t have it people would smell really bad from sweating.
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Today the world is obsessed with personal hygiene but according to The History of Stink life wasn’t always like that. There were many very intriguing facts but the one that most surprised me was that by the 14th century it had become a virtue to bathe as little as possible and judging from what the article said about the diseases created by not keeping clean, you would think they would put 2 and 2 together. This was intensely surprising to me because my mother thinks that not keeping up my personal hygiene is like a sin and only 700 years later the exact opposite has occurred. It is almost like a joke that they thought bathing was bad. They just should of stuck with the Roman’s plan and stayed ahead of their time.
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Red Panda
11/27/2012 09:07:39 am
After reading "The History of Stink" by Kristin Lewis, I was surprised to learn that something we use every day was invented by a doctor to put on surgeon's hands so they won't get sweaty when operating. Then Doctor Murphey's daughter, Edna, thought it would be a good way to stop people from sweating in their armpits and stinking up Atlantic City. I thought this was surprising because something that we use to clean ourselves every day was, in fact, invented by a teenager!
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Screech Owl
11/27/2012 09:31:36 am
I believe smell and especially stink is a relative sense. In the article “History of stink” by Kristin Lewis, Lewis descried some very nasty habits (to our standards) of the English back in the Middle Ages, such as bathing once a year. Did anyone complain or even notice, for the most part it seems that the population was adapted to the constant odor. The history surrounding these habits of the English offers some explanation, the plague or Black Death made everyone wary of contaminated water. They believed that water opened the pores in the body and let illness in, and that dirt gave a protective layer over the pores to bock illness. I wonder when it became desirable to have a pleasant scent. I think it interesting how we have shifted from dirtiness as the normal to cleanliness as a staple and especially how we adapt to the scents provided by the situation.
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Unicorn
11/27/2012 07:57:23 pm
After reading the articles “History of Stink” and “What’s that smell?”, I think that Americans use too much deodorant/antiperspirant. Doing this isn’t good because inside these are sometimes harmful chemical. Also, using too much can make the smell of deodorant to strong and is equally as bad as smelling bad. The antiperspirant is bad for you if you use to much so why not take a nice warm shower! Basically, too much antiperspirant is bad and America is using far too much of it so I think we should all go back to taking showers every day.
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jellyfish
11/28/2012 05:05:56 am
In the article “The History of Stink” it said that people in the middle ages in Europe rarely bathed. This was due to the fact that they were afraid of the water. They were scared of water because they thought it opened up their bodies to a plague called the Black Death. I think that was kind of stupid because if you are dirty more and more things collect on your body, some that carry germs. Water would off the germs. Maybe if they had been bathing not as many people would have died.
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Howler Monkey
11/28/2012 05:05:56 am
In the article “The History of Stink” It stated that people in the Middle Ages almost never bathed, and they were afraid of water. The reason for this was, during the Middle Ages a disease called the black plague was going around. People in that time period believed that water opened up the pores in your skin to let disease into your body. In reality, the disease was caused by fleas. I thought that this was interesting because I am so used to cleaning myself daily, using water. It is hard to believe that the people in the middle ages were afraid of water. I am very glad that the people of Europe today care a lot about being clean, if they did not our world would be a whole lot smellier.
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I read the article "What's That Smell" and "The History of Stink". The thing that surprised me the most is that we spend 2.7 billion dollars a year on products like deodorant body spray and stuff like that. This surprised me because I think people must really care about how they smell. We buy so many things to make us smell good that means people don't want to smell and they really care about smelling clean and fresh. Think with all the money we spend on stuff to smell good, what we could buy.
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sponge
11/28/2012 05:24:20 am
What I thought was surprising in the "History of Stink" is that in the Middle Ages people thought that stink was good. They thought that water opened their pores and let a deadly disease called Black Death. But they had it all wrong stinky things attracted rats. The rats carried fleas, which in turn made Black Death enter the body. It was extremely surprising because people thought about it wrong. People attracted Fleas and Rats like magnets. Luckily someone found that it was wrong to not bathe.
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Piggy
11/28/2012 05:27:47 am
I was surprised that so many kids use deodorant as said in “What’s That Smell?” Even nine year olds use it (I bet some even some younger kids use it)! I don’t usually use that much deodorant and my mom gets me to take a shower everyday. But the US spends 2.7 billion dollars a year on deodorant.
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Cloud Panther
11/28/2012 05:46:05 am
After reading the article "What's that smell" I am really surprised by the way that some kids nowadays don't want to bathe! This surprises me because when you bathe you feel better right? Well all that these kids do is cover up there stink with harmfully chemicals that can be very unhealthy for you. Another downside to this is that they might put to much of the stuff on and make others gag because ether smell is so overpowering. As I said in the beginning I still do not understand why kids don't want to take baths. Instead they spray themselfs with chemicals I don't get it!
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Muskrat
11/28/2012 06:35:02 am
In the article “History of Stink” I liked that ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greek were as clean as us. Ancient Rome had huge “bath houses” and a lot of them too. Ancient Egypt rubbed themselves with cinnamon and citrus oil to keep smelling clean. Ancient Greek poured olive oil and scraped it off. I’m happy that ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greek wanted to be as clean as we want to.
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Falcon
11/28/2012 06:44:00 am
In the article "What's That Smell?" I found a fact that I thought was very interesting. Americans spend $2.7 billion a year on antiperspirants full of chemicals that irritate some people's skin and could cause other health problems. I think this is surprising because even though we know it is terrible for our skin, we still buy and use the products just to make us smell "good", but sometimes the smell isn't even that great. If the reason were buying it is to make us smell better, but it doesn't smell that good in the first place, and its bad for your health, then why are Americans paying $2,700,000 for antiperspirants each year. "The World May Never Know!!"
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Kangaroo
11/28/2012 07:16:15 am
In the article “What’s That Smell” By Kathy Satterfield the thing that surprised me the most is how a lot of boys are starting to wear body spray instead of taking showers. The reason this surprised me is because kids that wear the spray are taking less showers and that is not good. The spray could also be bad for your skin if you put on to much. Not taking showers can be unhealthy to. That is why the article was surprising to me.
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flamingo
11/28/2012 07:19:47 am
In the article The History of Stink. It talked about how long it took people to use deodorant
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Rat
11/28/2012 07:31:57 am
Cleaning wasn’t very good during the dark ages and this because people thought that a harmful disease called the bubonic plague was caused by water when it was caused by bad germs from fleas. But during the time of Greeks, Romans and Egyptians cleaning was at an all time best in human history until America started to get better with cleaning. The Ancient Greeks invented a tool which helps like deodorant that gets your arm pits clean called a strigil. Plus the Romans used to have full bathhouses and it was like a place to do activities such as consulting business to hanging out. But in Ancient Egypt like the Greeks were concerned with arm pit smells so the Egyptians rubbed them with cinnamon and citrus which is again like deodorant. So as you see the ancient times were once clean and dirty but the clean part definitely had some clean techniques we use today and that explains that we weren’t actually so much different then the ancients.
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Basilisk
11/28/2012 07:33:14 am
In the article “The History of Stink” they said that “the ancient Egyptians kept fresh by rubbing their pits with cinnamon and citrus oils” which really astonished me because that would either smell really good or really bad and frankly, I don’t think I would want to be sitting next to someone at the bus stop who smells like a bunch of cinnamon and lemons (I have no problems with the smell of lemons except the smell of both of them together...) but then i again it is definitely better than smelling like a big bag of camel. What I don’t understand is why/how come they didn’t think of something else to make them smell better besides cinnamon and citrus oils; Just lemons would smell nice or maybe use the Za’atar plant (Fun Fact: The Za’atar plant is illegal to collect it in the wild so it is cultivated za’atar is grown to supply the demand because it was nearly picked to extinction). The thing that would be cool to do with this information is to make deodorants, colognes, etc. using foreign plants like the Za’atar plant or the Elderflower. To conclude, this was very interesting and really made me wonder about how we really improved from how we used to be (as humans) and made what we used to do easier and smell better, but we could learn from this and make what we have made even better.
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snake
11/28/2012 07:38:43 am
I read the article “The History of Stink!” and one fact i thought was interesting was that deodorant
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Zebra
11/28/2012 07:43:01 am
In the article "What's That Smell?" It states " Across the country, teachers desk drawers are overflowing with confiscated body sprays." What surprised me is that people care very much about if they smell good rather than taking a shower. Because in the article "The Heat Is On" it also states that " If they've been sweating, they'll use it as a mask instead of a shower." said Paul Begley. It is surprising because you start to get smelly even more then when you are young. Also your hair gets very greasy if you don't take a shower once in a while. That is what surprised me most about this article.
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Panda
11/28/2012 08:18:21 am
The thing I found surprising in the article “The History of Stink” was ancient Egyptians stayed clean by rubbing their arm pits with cinnamon and citrus oils. I found that surprising because in the morning I use deodorant so I smell good all day. I wonder if it kept them clean all day long or just covered up the body odor. It is cool to learn how different cultures clean themselves. It is cool how they used the things they had compared to what we use now. That is what surprised me.
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Dragon
11/28/2012 08:19:12 am
I was really surprised while reading the history of stink because I found out that the first antiperspirant was made only 100 years ago, even if it was not that nice on you. This is surprising because that means people probably have been very stinky for much longer, especially the Europeans who tried their best not to bathe. Also this antiperspirant was harsh, “Its harsh ingredients ate through clothing and inflamed skin”. So if it was not for the hot and very smelly day it was sold the antiperspirant might have taken even longer to actually be used for sweating.
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Porcupine
11/28/2012 09:07:31 am
Both of the articles that I read had interesting and surprising facts. In the first article, “The History of Stink”, one of the most interesting facts was that in the Middle Ages, the Europeans did not like to bathe. That surprises me because, if you don’t bathe for a long enough time, you can get all sorts of diseases and you are not pleasant to be around. Also what surprised me is that the Europeans thought that to protect themselves from the Black Death they should keep as filthy as possible. If someone nowadays were to go back to that time we would have a hard time dealing with the rancid smells. Those facts were generally surprising to me because, in present times we make it routine to bathe and to smell nice. If the Europeans would have bathed more often then not as many people would have died of the Black Plague.
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Duck
11/28/2012 09:12:04 am
learned from reading an article called “The History of Stink” that Europeans really did not like getting clean! In the middle ages, (14 Century) the Europeans made it so they only bathed as little as possible. They became known as the filthiest, funkiest, folks in the world! The Europeans thought that if you wanted to get clean, you would change your shirt! First of all, I think that is just plain gross! I would also assume that it would smell very bad in Europe. I would think the Europeans would get used to the bad fumes because they smell it 24-7. Also the smells can die down after a while! I first had no I idea why the Europeans did not want to get clean! The reason is that a plague called Black Death was going around and killing millions of people. The Europeans thought that if you get water on your skin, it opened your pores and got the disease into your body! I conclude that a long time ago, when this was happening, the Europeans were not exactly smart, and did not have computers to look things up!
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rhino
11/28/2012 09:27:34 am
I read the article “The History of Stink” and I was surprised to find out that most Europeans in the Middle Ages bathed once every year. I thought this fact was surprising because there opinion on cleaning was so much different than ours right now. In Europe it was considered bad to bathe. Now, people are obsessed with being clean, and taking lots of showers. I think it’s interesting that most Europeans in the Middle Ages took a shower once a year.
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Toucan
11/28/2012 09:36:31 am
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Mammoth
11/28/2012 09:50:33 am
Smell Blog
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Hippo
11/28/2012 09:53:18 am
When I found out that body odor was a big problem 100 years and that the first antiperspirant wasn’t exactly healthy for your body I was surprised. The fact that the first antiperspirant ingredients were very affective in a bad way on skin and clothes and that it had huge sales really impressed me. This showed me that the heat had such a bad affect that people did not care that it had such harsh affects. I think that it was a big invention that was very useful, and the fact that it was not meant to keep people from smelling or sweating but used for surgeons hands from sweating in operations. This was at first a harsh product that made a huge hit because of the heat that caused a putrid smell and I am just amazed of how it was first such a harsh product that still made sales. In my opinion I wouldn’t have bought this product, I made that decision because that this can hurt your skin and damage your clothes. No matter how bad it was out or smelly I don’t think I would by this.
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Mouse
11/28/2012 08:29:29 pm
It was interesting to me that Romans main spot to go was a bath house . They would talk at the bath house also they would have meetings there. They would go their to have fun. A bath house is basically a pool but it's a gigantic pool in a house. When today there Is know such thing as A bath house. We have fun at parks and sports, a lot of people have fun at different places but I could assure you that none of those places is at a bath house. I thought that this was interesting because it showed me how much things can change threw a long period of time. Also how different our society is thats what I think about the article "The history of stink"
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Shway
11/28/2012 10:02:26 pm
The article I read was "The History of Stink". I learned that stink has been around so very long, and that in the Middle Ages, in Europe, some people only bathed once or twice in their lifetime! I am completely surprised by this fact because, in my opinion, I would never be able to get out of bed with the outstanding stench in the air!
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Squirrel
11/29/2012 04:42:04 am
Smell Blog
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Puppy
11/29/2012 05:03:16 am
In the article "The History of Stink",there were a lot of great facts, but the one that surprised me the most was that the Europeans used to not bath, and that they were very smelly all the time. They didn't like bathing because at the time, a plague called the Black Death was spreading across Europe. People thought that the water opened pores in your skin that allowed diseases to enter your body. They thought it was better to avoid bathing,so that it was harder to get the disease. I thought that this was interesting because I am Scottish (which is part of Europe), and I never heard this strange but interesting fact, and was interested in learning about it.
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Racoon
11/29/2012 06:00:22 am
I was very surprised. The thing that surprised me the most is we spend 2.7 million dollars on cologne sprays like axe and old spice. And I think it is interesting before because we try to stay as clean we can. But back then no one cared about being clean and in the magazine French king Luis XIV only took a bath 2 times in his life.
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newt
11/29/2012 07:39:31 am
I was surprised that there are different “customs” of being clean.
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Koala
11/29/2012 08:08:14 am
From the articles “The History of Stink” by Kristin Lewis and “What’s that smell” by Kathy Satterfield. I was surprised to hear that in the middle ages Europeans barely bathed. I mean, I always knew they weren’t the cleanest of people but I always thought that that was just peasants and that the wealthy would bathe more often. But I never knew that “it was a virtue not to take a bath”. Also whenever I saw paintings of famous people from the Middle Ages they never looked that bad.
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seahawk
11/29/2012 08:42:47 am
“The History of Stink” by Kristen Lewis, in the second paragraph of the subtitle “smelly spots,” I found it surprising that from the fourteenth to sixteenth century, Europeans didn’t bathe regularly because of the Black plague. They thought that water opened their pores therefore letting the germs in. But it was later that scientists found out that the Black Plague was caused by fleas. The Europeans thought that the sweat gave an extra layer of protection from the plague. I think that if I was in Europe I might’ve thought that bathing opened the pores letting in the germs. But if I didn’t shower for a month, I think that I would feel so disgusting I would eventually want to bathe. Concluding that just bathing once a year will not protect you from diseases. Also bathing regularly, won’t open pores letting germs into your body getting you sick.
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Elephant
11/29/2012 08:43:25 am
In the article Hold Your Nose by Kristin Lewis surprised me. I was surprised how people barely ever bathed their entire lives. Since they barely ever bathed, most of them got diseases. Since almost everyone never bathed around the world, diseases and health issues affected the whole planet. It surprised me even more because they refused to bathe. It’s not like all the water was contaminated, they just didn’t want to bathe.
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House
11/29/2012 08:49:11 am
What surprised me most in "The History of Stink" was that Europeans in the Middle Ages did not bath our groom themselves. Why this surprised me is because they thought it was a virtue to not clean. Apparently it brought them closer to God. They thought water opened the pores and let in germs and sickness, like the Plague. Clearly the Europeans got the wrong idea about cleaning.
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Cow
11/29/2012 08:49:41 am
In the article “What’s That Smell”, I found it very interesting that a lot of body sprays have a dark side….body sprays contain chemicals that are harmful to the human body. I can’t believe that something we use every day can be harmful to our body. I know that there are chemicals in body sprays but I didn't know so many chemicals are that bad for us. I think we should try to get rid of the harmful chemicals and try to use more natural materials in making the body sprays instead of using harmful chemicals. I think this because natural materials are much less damaging to the human body.
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Otter
12/3/2012 07:09:21 am
The History of Stink- When reading the article, one thing that surprised me was that Ancient Greece stayed fresh by rubbing their pits with cinnamon and citrus oils. The reason why I thought it was so surprising was because I didn’t think they minded being dirty, I thought they were just like the Europeans. Filthy and dirty!
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Mockingjay
12/4/2012 09:24:38 am
After reading the articles History of Stink and What’s That Smell, I learned some fascinating information. One thing that shocked me was that women made a living by sniffing men’s armpits. The reason why they did that was so they could test deodorants. I found that interesting because a normal person like me would not really think of that job right away when I need some cash. I also found that a bit odd because I don’t know anyone who would want to have that job.
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