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Comment by rottendoubt | Hacker News Reader

Someone posted on the original article that "You cannot recall smells..." That is one possibility. Pandarus could give Manelaus a bottle of a very specific perfume that Pandarus was familiar with. If Pandarus smelled the perfume in the future, he would know it was Manelaus. But if captured, he would not be able to remember the perfume's smell -- at least not in a specific enough way to reproduce it.

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I agree. Actually, the secret needs to be something that can be remembered well but not described well. Smell and maybe taste are very well suited for this. Anecdotal evidence: I recently learned how a dead mouse smells but cannot think of any way to describe this smell. However, I could definitely identify this smell again.

I have to tell this one:

Early on in urinalysis, we discussed the physical examination of urine, which of course included odors. One of the odors mentioned was "mousy," which prompted one of my fellow students to ask if we were talking about a live or dead mouse.

It's been an interesting year.

I recently learned how a weeks-dead human smells. I doubt I'll ever forget it. But I don't know how to describe to someone else ANY smell, other than comparing one odor to another. About as effective as the old joke about an unfamiliar meat, "It tastes like chicken."

I hope I never have to smell either (dead mouse or dead human). =/

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