A “What smells best?” riddle involved a perfume shop in 1934:
Q: What smells best in a perfume shop?
A: Your nose.
The “What smells best?” riddle involved a bakery in 1947:
Q: What smells best in a bakery?
A: Your nose.
The Thanksgiving riddle has been cited in print since at least 2006:
Q: What smells the best at Thanksgiving dinner?
A: Your nose.
30 December 1934, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, “Riddles” by Louise Rash (Age 11), pg. 6, col. 6:
What smells best in a perfume shop?
Your nose.
15 April 1947, Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner, “Riddles,” pg. 4B, col. 4:
What smells best in a bakery?
Your nose.
4 August 1958, Austin (TX) Statesman, “Fun Time—The Riddle Box,” pg. 12, col. 5:
What smells best in a perfume store?
Your nose.
6 March 1974, San Diego (CA) Union, “Fun Time,” D-18, col. 4:
What smells best in a bakery?
Your nose.
19 November 2006, Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), “Riddle Me This,” Flying Horse, pg. ?, col. 5:
Q: What smells the best at Thanksgiving dinner?
A: Your nose.
Google Groups: alt.badgers
Happy for the Giving Thanks day, fraunlevin!
Drew
11/22/06
(...)
What smells the best at a Thanksgiving dinner?
Your nose
Twitter
OCAEC
@OCAEC
Thanksgiving literature (?): What smells best at Thanksgivig dinner? Your nose.
11:22 AM - 13 Nov 2009
Google Books
The Happy Classroom:
From Ha-Ha to A-Ha
By Janet Aaker Smith
Marion, IL: Pieces of Learning
2011
Pg. 87:
What smells the best at a Thanksgiving dinner?
Your nose.
Google Books
Corny Thanksgiving Jokes to Tickle Your Funny Bone
By Linda Bozzo
Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
2013
Pg. 16:
What smells the best at Thanksgiving dinner?
Your nose.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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