It seems I was premature in bidding adieu to the stench that had permeated the area over the past several days.
Although I can stand on my porch and detect nothing that unusual in terms of smells, I have been a told a person passing through Hollsopple today (Wednesday) found the stink so revolting she had to roll up the windows in her vehicle.
The unpleasant smell apparently was evident elsewhere in that area.
On the other hand, my brother said the air is good in downtown Johnstown today, at least it is eight floors above street level.
Yesterday, however, he said the smell was so strong as to prompt searches for its source.
Because nature abhors a vacuum, even when it’s merely a lack of information, I’ve been told no shortage of amateur analysts have taken to social media with theories to explain the unpleasant smell.
Among the suspects cited are farmers mixing manure with water to be used as fertilizer because it’s been dry here of late. Doubtful.
Others cite a school allegedly watering a football field with a manure mixture and it running off into a nearby river, neatly ignoring the unlikely nature of the first supposition, and the geographic reality of no river close enough to get such runoff.
State officials are claimed to have floated manure-baited traps on rivers to deal with an abundance of pest flies.
Perhaps a plane of uncertain government sponsorship is trying to poison us?
And so it goes.
I’m just rooting for it to continue long enough to attract national attention and perhaps land the area a segment on History’s Greatest Mysteries.
Sam Ross Jr's site 