December 1, 2020: Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?
Wow, catch this: disgruntled customers are complaining that their scented Yankee Candles have no scent.
This is remarkable for two reasons:
1) in our house, there has never been a scented candle that had too little scent (and most scented candles disappear pretty quickly after being unwrapped),
and
2) It's (probably) because of COVID! It's an artifact of that "lose your sense of smell" symptom! Kate Petrova, at Bryn Mawr, looked at roughly 20,000 candle reviews and counted the average number of stars awarded, and the ratings for scented candles have dropped One Whole Star. The ratings for unscented candles have held steady.
Ms. Petrova, a research assistant who I think should get an honorary doctorate right now, so I can call her "Dr. Petrova," stresses that she did not perform a peer-reviewed study, but just did a quick and dirty "big-data" scrape, but ours is not to quibble. Ours is to celebrate her work.
I smell a rat. No, wait. I can't smell anything.
ReplyDeleteOh, I know you are kidding, but if that were really your only symptom, I'd be so delighted. This post elicited a very long disquisition on different brands of scented candles, from a rarely-corresponding niece. She has alternate theories for the change in ratings shown above, along the lines of "people are home more, burning candles more, candle-makers (chandlers, as you no doubt know!) are skimping on fragrance, etc." In other words, she smelt a rat.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I didn't include "chandlers" in my old-timey jobs round. Or did I? I truly can't remember. When people post: "Lol, question 4!" I'm like, wut? I wrote that 3 months ago. No idea what it said.
DeleteBut I don't think I used "chandler".
Next time.... even MORE obscure old-timey job names! Fletcher! Upholder! Fuller!
ReplyDelete