New ‘attitude’ interview question: “Describe a situation where the smell of rotting potatoes is really funny.”

A couple of weeks ago I bought some pork and left it in the fridge for a day. Then after a busy day I pulled it out and grilled it in the oven with some mushrooms. It was quite tasty! It wasn’t till the next morning that I realised I had not disposed of the pork container (plastic bottom and ‘pad’ it sits on) that I had put in the sink. Though it was a bit smelly, it was localized in the sink and I knew I could easily remedy the situation.

That was until I picked it up without realizing there was more liquid in the thing than I thought. Sure enough, a small amount of the smelly water spilled on the counter and floor. I quickly wiped everything down and disposed of the waste into a sealed garbage bag. All was good. Or so I thought…

A few days ago I went to get something out of the cutlery drawer and was stopped in my tracks by an odd smell where I had wiped down the counter and found a faint trace. Sure enough I went nuts cleaning the kitchen. The next morning I smelled it again and pulled EVERYTHING out of the drawer and cleaned like crazy again. The weather in Vancouver was sunny and warmish, so I did a further general clean — including another scrubbing of the floor — with a strong detergent and opened up all the windows while I was…