It's nice to see someone OK with their huge nose.  I think if people were in general happier with what they have and accepting of a little of the unusual we would as a population be happier.

So I just did a search for which animals have the best sense of smell and, sadly, the toucan is not on that list.  Believe it or not, a bear is the best land animal for smelling.  I did a whole description talking about how to fight a bear earlier, so I won't get into that.  I will just say that bears are really, really dangerous.  Here is the list of best smelling animals.

Of course, by best smelling animals I mean animals that have a great sense of smell, not animals that smell like flowers or whatever.  Most animals, left to their own devices, can smell pretty ripe.  Not reptiles, maybe.

I found this cool Mythbusters video that tries all the different Hollywood means of tricking or escaping a bloodhound.  None of them seem to work.  If you get a bloodhound on your trail you are pretty much in trouble.  

So apparently one of the worst smelling scents is the Titum Arum, a giant flower that smells like a decaying corpse, hence it's nickname "Corpse Flower".  My best friend used to plant rose bushes around his property to help protect it with the thorns.  I think when I am working on my death fortress in my ultimate bid for world domination I will also plant a lot of these in the assumption that it's pretty hard to infiltrate my base while you are puking your guts out.  Of course, for everyone one of these I will have 10 of the ever popular Automated Machinegun Plant.

Toucan Sam makes number 9 on this list of the 9 creepiest cereal mascots of all time.  I can't say I disagree with this guys assessment, although he seems really focused on drug references.  In my opinion, he should have only done one or two as drug addicts and from there found something like sexual predator for someone like Lucky the Leprechaun.  Of course, who am I to criticize someone's literary decisions?  I just write these descriptions and the occasional blog post.  

Like all great cartoon or comic heroes, Toucan Sam has his gallery of rogues.  The villains, who desperately try to steal his flavor, color, or what have you are not quite on the same level as Joker or Two Face, but still entertaining.  They include mad scientist Dr. Peacock, Nasty Alien Froot Monster, and the despotic Froot Queen.  Seems like a lot of effort for a box of cereal you can buy at the supermarket for like $3.

You know, that makes me wonder a lot about the Trix Rabbit.  Really, for the amount of money he spends on disguises and the like, couldn't he just buy a pallet of Trix and eat them legally?  Unless the kids try to enforce the "Trix is for kids" rule on his personal property, in which case he could have them as arrested petty thieves.  When you think about it, why all the elaborate plans when his plan could be simply:

1. Go to store
2. Buy Trix
3. Eat

Of course, that same thought always occurs to me with regards to a personal hero of mine, Wile E. Coyote.  Granted he's a super genius and I love his wherewithal, but honestly given the amount of money he has spent with Acme Products couldn't he could afford to pick up a bucket of KFC chicken?

Dave
March 18th, 2011