Decomposed body found in a sewer in Uptown (Chicago, Maywood: hardwood floor, floor)

[west lawn kid]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Seems like a bad idea. I'd hate to have to explain that one to the cops somwhere down the road...

It's not illegal to own a skull, well as long as you didn't kill the person to get

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by west lawn kid

It's not illegal to own a skull, well as long as you didn't kill the person to get

Ummm not if you steal it from a cemetery,funeral home,crematory,etc...

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by KirstenT

I posted this on some other threads -but am reposting it here too, because now I know -- it's a ROTTING BODY! :-) We moved to Chicago a month ago and live in Lakeview. The smells are so bad in our apartment we don't know what to do. The whole neighborhood, and not just our apartment, smells like a combination of rotten banana, stinky feet, and peppermint. It's gross and I can't get it out of my nose. The other night it was so bad I actually thought I was either pregnant or had a brain tumor. I went to the store and got a sinus rinse and nose spray, and no joke, I then went to the doctor and got a Z-pack of penicillin in case I actually did have a sinus infection. The smell was lessened, but guess what? It's still here. I wish someone would just explain: It's the lake dumby! Or that: It's the sewage smell coming up into your 11th floor apartment from the pipes. But when the air conditioner is on, or the fan in the conditioning unit, or the window is open, it seems to be coming from outside. Is this just how Chicago smells? I really don't like it and it makes me feel like throwing up. If it was just musty decaying of old leaves I think I could handle it, but the smell is sickly sweet and festering like something died. Could it be carpet glue? And yes, I smell it in the water - like dirty feet. I got a Britta filter pitcher and that's helped. Anyone else? And no, you are all not crazy, and I hope I'm not either!

I don't know what to tell you. The only strange smell I've noticed in Chicago is the chocolate factory in River North. The city doesn't have a distinctive city-wide smell at all, and there's nothing special about Lake View that would make it smell a certain way. But with all of the rain this fall, a lot of leaves have rotted in the streets--and that has sort of a musty woody smell about it that I've noticed only in the past few weeks.

[BigLake]

Originally Posted by KirstenT

I posted this on some other threads -but am reposting it here too, because now I know -- it's a ROTTING BODY! :-) We moved to Chicago a month ago and live in Lakeview. The smells are so bad in our apartment we don't know what to do. The whole neighborhood, and not just our apartment, smells like a combination of rotten banana, stinky feet, and peppermint. It's gross and I can't get it out of my nose. The other night it was so bad I actually thought I was either pregnant or had a brain tumor. I went to the store and got a sinus rinse and nose spray, and no joke, I then went to the doctor and got a Z-pack of penicillin in case I actually did have a sinus infection. The smell was lessened, but guess what? It's still here. I wish someone would just explain: It's the lake dumby! Or that: It's the sewage smell coming up into your 11th floor apartment from the pipes. But when the air conditioner is on, or the fan in the conditioning unit, or the window is open, it seems to be coming from outside. Is this just how Chicago smells? I really don't like it and it makes me feel like throwing up. If it was just musty decaying of old leaves I think I could handle it, but the smell is sickly sweet and festering like something died. Could it be carpet glue? And yes, I smell it in the water - like dirty feet. I got a Britta filter pitcher and that's helped. Anyone else? And no, you are all not crazy, and I hope I'm not either!

What neighborhood do you live in!? I used to own a banana company, but it went out of business. I didn't know what to do with the banana refuse, so I just left the chaff and husks to lie in the sweltering sun.

Then, I got the bright idea. As the bananas were fermenting in the sun -- I looked down and got-- what I thought at the time-- was a fantastic idea. Banana wine! Now I'm an entrepreneur without a lot of $, so I invited over some homeless people to the shack where I had the bananas, asked them to take off their shoes (the homeless, not the bananas) and help me mash the bananas with their bare feet. The results were middling; no wine, but we did adapt the paste/slurry as a makeshift car window cleaner. Early results were not promising.

Now my cousin is (is not) William Wrigley, so I decided to take what was leftover of the bananas and see if he could market the slurry as an emulsifier, furnace filter adhesive, a gum, or a toy. He said, "Hey Dumbass, Wrigley didn't make its way to prosperity through stupid ideas. Here, have a stick of gum."

That moment changed me. I decided from that point on to devote my life to gum and sticky substances. I went back to the banana factory, got rid of the contents (actually gave to locals for distribution at their discretion), and built a huge peppermint stick. I initially wanted to have a spindle with cars on it but it seemed derivative. Well, not such a good idea anyway. It rained one day and well, you know... sticky, pungent Christmas.

I'm wondering if all these shenanigans have anything to do with the smell in your neighborhood. I now work at Blommer Chocolate Factory, so I hope your not one of those people.

[chicagojoe23]

Originally Posted by lincolnparker

I think the last time I saw a dead body was in a sketchy neighborhood in Baltimore

Oddly enough, the first time I saw a dead body was in Uptown in the late 1980s.

[sittingduck41]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Ummm not if you steal it from a cemetery,funeral home,crematory,etc...

That would be stealing as opposed to owning.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by KirstenT

I posted this on some other threads -but am reposting it here too, because now I know -- it's a ROTTING BODY! :-) We moved to Chicago a month ago and live in Lakeview. The smells are so bad in our apartment we don't know what to do. The whole neighborhood, and not just our apartment, smells like a combination of rotten banana, stinky feet, and peppermint. It's gross and I can't get it out of my nose. The other night it was so bad I actually thought I was either pregnant or had a brain tumor. I went to the store and got a sinus rinse and nose spray, and no joke, I then went to the doctor and got a Z-pack of penicillin in case I actually did have a sinus infection. The smell was lessened, but guess what? It's still here. I wish someone would just explain: It's the lake dumby! Or that: It's the sewage smell coming up into your 11th floor apartment from the pipes. But when the air conditioner is on, or the fan in the conditioning unit, or the window is open, it seems to be coming from outside. Is this just how Chicago smells? I really don't like it and it makes me feel like throwing up. If it was just musty decaying of old leaves I think I could handle it, but the smell is sickly sweet and festering like something died. Could it be carpet glue? And yes, I smell it in the water - like dirty feet. I got a Britta filter pitcher and that's helped. Anyone else? And no, you are all not crazy, and I hope I'm not either!

I'm going to guess it's definitely something funky with your apartment. Chicago is actually very "scent free" compared to other dense urban areas. Mostly due to its analness about sanitation, etc.

I've been in Lakeview/Uptown going on 5 years, and I've actually never once heard anyone make a comment or noticed any smells - except for that very random once in awhile funky smell you'll get anywhere...

[Lookout Kid]

I once had a roommate that smelled nothing but spaghetti for three weeks straight, and then lost his sense of smell entirely. This could be all in her head.

[Venom]

Damn, that's scary.
Loosing smell.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by chicagojoe23

Oddly enough, the first time I saw a dead body was in Uptown in the late 1980s.

The first and only dead body I've ever seen (outside ones I expected to see, at funeral homes, of course) was in Rogers Park under the metra tracks west of Clark Street in 1999. It was winter, and a transient had died of exposure. I was walking to work in West Ridge and the police were just getting there when I walked by.