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Ahhh, That Sweet Smell of New York

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<i> from Associated Press</i>

Finally, a book you can really bury your nose in.

“New York Smells” is a collection of 21 post cards complete with scratch and sniff stickers that give off the city’s odors, including grassy Central Park, funky Fulton Fish Market and a stinking mound of Big Apple garbage.

Another sticker provides the smell of Wall Street--fresh-minted cash. There’s plenty of food represented: salami from Katz’s Deli, dill pickles from the Lower East Side and roast duck from Chinatown.

Among other stickers are the smells of fetid New York Harbor and the subway at rush hour--an offensive, if unidentifiable, odor.

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“When I first came here, I experienced olfactory overload,” said author Caroline McKeldin, who moved from Baltimore three years ago. “But nobody ever documented the smells. New Yorkers are inured to them.”

Some smells were deemed too offensive to put in the book. “There’s the New York land mine--dog doo,” McKeldin said.

While the book is just coming out in time for Christmas, McKeldin said she’s already working on the sequel: “It’s called ‘New York Stinks.’ ”

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