3 Stench Ridden Days

May 20, 2002 3:26 PM

3 Stench Ridden Days "For almost 3 damned days I couldn't find what was causing this god-awful smell. All of my house mates and I were convinced that there was a rotting mouse either under the floor boards or in the wall. Well I say all my house mates except for James William Ascroft-Leigh, who suggested the smell was coming from my computer. I laughed and called him a fool, claiming that the computer surley wouldn't work with a dead mouse in it..."
posted by aaronchristy (23 comments total)

Thumbnails. I tell them all the time, thumbnails. But they never listen.
posted by dhartung at 3:35 PM on May 20, 2002

James William Ascroft-Leigh...

"Pick a fuckin' name, will ya please!"
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:39 PM on May 20, 2002

Computers are fairly nonchalant about what's in them; I once met a guy who kept his stash hidden between two Voodoo2 cards.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 3:44 PM on May 20, 2002

My father's ex-wife once told me a similar but more disgusting story. She had been smelling a godawful stench in the kitchen for a week or so, and after fruitlessly scouring the counters, cupboards, and cabinets she finally discovered the dead mouse...in the bottom of the toaster. Yes, the self-same toaster in which she made her first husband's toast each morning. She never told him, either.

I think Dad started checking the toaster every morning after hearing that one.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:45 PM on May 20, 2002

Back in the hoary old days of 300 baud modems and dial-up BBS's (around 1985), the one system I used to be a Sysop for crashed out one with a dead motherboard one day. Upon inspection we found a dead mouse on the board with the difference being that this mouse must have decided to take a whizz a bit to close to the power supply. It was not a pretty sight to say the least...
posted by RevGreg at 4:32 PM on May 20, 2002

like, izzat jab00 d00d's hair for real? do mice live (or die) in it? does lenny kravits?
posted by quonsar at 4:39 PM on May 20, 2002

Warning: particularly disguting anecdote to follow.

A coupla college friends have a story, where for a 2 week period, they'd noticed an enormously foul stench in their apartment. It seemed to come and go, but when it came -- it was unmistakably repulsive. Like rotting flesh. It permeated the walls. They scoured closets for spoiled food, dead rats, errant poop piles... nothing. But every time the smell revisisted, they'd brainstorm as to what could possibly produce such a vile odor.

They eventually discovered a pattern. The smell seemed to resurface only when one of the other roommate's girlfriends had stayed over. And it was usually later in the evening. They were flumoxxed as to how to proceed.

A few days later, said roommate was comforting said girlfriend, now distaught in the living room. "What's wrong?" they asked...

She'd been to the doctor that day. He discovered a long-forgotten tampon that had since caused an infection inside her cervix. It was now a festering nest of bacteria. And every time her boyfriend and her had engaged in intercourse, it irritated the wound (?) and released the unmistakable odor in the apartment.

You may now resume your regularly scheduled entertainment.
posted by Fofer at 5:04 PM on May 20, 2002

"You may now resume your regularly scheduled entertainment."

I sincerely doubt it.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:16 PM on May 20, 2002

Fofer: You brought back wonderful memories of alt.tasteless. Thank you.
posted by Down10 at 5:25 PM on May 20, 2002

Hah! And the first computer bug was an actual dead bug! Ha Ha! It's funny because it's true!

yeesh...
posted by crunchland at 6:40 PM on May 20, 2002

I would not recommend keeping anything flammable between two Voodoo 2's. Those cards are famous for generating a ridiculous amount of heat -- a bit in excess of 200 degrees, if I remember correctly. Add the insulating effects of one bag of chronic, and you could very quickly have a reefer disaster on your hands...

Or just one really tripped out game of Quake II.
posted by Ptrin at 6:58 PM on May 20, 2002

[insert microsoft mouse joke here]
posted by shinybeast at 7:00 PM on May 20, 2002

is there a picture of an actual dead mouse on the page? please let me know before i click the link. is this gross?
posted by pxe2000 at 8:11 PM on May 20, 2002

Yes. There is a dead mouse. And no, sadly, it's not Mickey.
posted by Optamystic at 8:49 PM on May 20, 2002

You will see an ex-rodent, but it's not a gross-out. Looks like it's sleeping, the poor li'l two-dimensional thing.

Seeing how it was jammed beneath a pair of PCI cards, I'd say it died of stupidity.
posted by LinusMines at 8:50 PM on May 20, 2002

RE: Toaster

Had the same experience while babysitting two cats at a friend's house. The cats were staring at the toaster for nearly a day before I figured it out. I just thought they liked toast ... then I saw the tail. Always clean your toaster of crumbs, every twelve minutes if possible.

This message brought to you by The Ad Council.
posted by user92371 at 9:09 PM on May 20, 2002

That crispy lump in the bottom of the oven is an errant tomato, right? A baked potato that escaped from the rack? No, no. Unfortunately it isn't. Still compulsively washing my hands from that one. Eek!
posted by bonheur at 9:47 PM on May 20, 2002

I would not recommend keeping anything flammable between two Voodoo 2's.

I second that. Imagine the hilarity when the insulator not only damages the card but catches on fire and suspicious smelling smoke pours out the case? Explain that one to mom and dad.

"No its cool. That's just how computers smell when they get real hot. Better not open it to be safe."
posted by skallas at 11:13 PM on May 20, 2002

Seeing how it was jammed beneath a pair of PCI cards, I'd say it died of stupidity.

Or it was just cold and thought a nice, warm computer case would be a good place to get a little shuteye, and maybe just make a little piddle first -- ZAP!!
posted by Dreama at 12:36 AM on May 21, 2002

It's really easy to underestimate how absolutely horrible the stench from one tiny dead mouse can be.

About, oh, eight years ago, I caught a mouse on a sticky trap under my bed in my college dorm room. I was never there, it being a small cell-like confinement with painted cinder-block walls. (Plus I had a girlfriend down the hall.) Foolishly, I didn't check the trap every day, doubting somewhat that it would work.

Anyway, luckily, I disposed of the former mouse a few days before spring break, when the smell was bad enough to notice. I cringe to imagine what that place would have smelled like after another week.
posted by gohlkus at 10:26 AM on May 21, 2002

One hot Mississippi summer, my printer stopped working. Turned out, it was infested with a colony of snickers-bar sized cockroaches. I mailed the thing back to HP, who sent a form letter explaining that, alas, warranty didn't cover bugs. The scary thing was, the letter had a numerical code for this, like "415 - pest/insect/rodent infestation." No smell, though.
posted by muckster at 11:00 AM on May 21, 2002

Computers are fairly nonchalant about what's in them; I once met a guy who kept his stash hidden between two Voodoo2 cards.

I read that and thought to myself, "why would he have two Voodoo 2s?" Then I looked at my two monitors and slapped myself for being a dolt.
posted by sycophant at 1:15 AM on May 22, 2002

sycophant - 2 Voodoo2 cards could be doubled up in a system so that each card rendered every other line in a single image feeding a single monitor. It provided a significant speed advantage that could approach a 2X boost.

But, considering that each one cost about $300 dollars, it was not for the faint of wallet.
posted by NortonDC at 5:43 AM on May 22, 2002