# Something funky in Murfreesboro, TN. Stupid law? Or justice at last? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769 "2003-08-26T16:15:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/1 "2003-08-26T16:15:59Z")
[The AP story](http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030826/D7T5MKL80.html) > [@](#): > > MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) - City officials say one smelly employee is responsible for a new policy that requires all city employees to smell nice when reporting for work. > > The Murfreesboro City Council adopted the good hygiene policy Thursday: > > “No employee shall have an odor generally offensive to others when reporting to work. An offensive body odor may result from a lack of good hygiene, from an excessive application of a fragrant aftershave or cologne or from other cause.” > … > The definition of body odor was left intentionally vague. City Councilman Toby Gilley said the standard would be the same one a U.S. Supreme Court justice used to identify pornography. :eek: I’m afraid to ask! What does porn have to do with smells? Porn is a visual medium, you don’t sniff porn(well, I guess you could, but that’s pretty useless innit?). Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/2 "2003-08-26T16:17:07Z")
I believe the quote was something to the effect of “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” Or, in this case, smell it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/3 "2003-08-26T17:36:26Z")
“Community Standards”? ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/4 "2003-08-26T17:58:44Z")
This is great. Please make it apply to public transportation, too. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/5 "2003-08-26T18:03:00Z")
Good luck finding any public transportation in M’boro! ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/6 "2003-08-26T18:07:06Z")
**Ferret Herder**'s got it – Gilley is referencing Justice Black’s comment when confronted by the Supreme Court’s inability to concretely define pornography. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/7 "2003-08-26T20:57:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vibrotronica \* > \*\*Good luck finding any public transportation in M’boro! \*\* No public transport in a city of 70k people? WTF? I browsed their [site](http://www.ci.murfreesboro.tn.us/), and apparently it’s true. Sad. (Ya. Hijack. I know.) ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/8 "2003-08-26T21:14:03Z")
Another hijack. That’s where the diamonds are, huh? BTW, there are so many cool usernames on here! “Gimme an **F**!” ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/9 "2003-08-26T22:16:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fishcheer15 \* > \*\*No public transport in a city of 70k people? WTF? > > I browsed their [site](http://www.ci.murfreesboro.tn.us/), and apparently it’s true. Sad. > > (Ya. Hijack. I know.) \*\* Well there’s a few busses that run around, and then a few more that go around the MTSU campus. Traffic here is horrible, too. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/10 "2003-08-26T22:22:51Z")
Hmmm…are we sure **Bosda** wasn’t the one who prompted this law? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/11 "2003-08-26T23:05:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brynda \* > \*\*Hmmm…are we sure **Bosda** wasn’t the one who prompted this law? > > 🙂 \*\* May the Irish Curse of Mary O’Meara and her nine, blind, starving orphan children pursue you over the rivers and lakes, the hills and the streams, the mountains, seas and fields until God Almighty Himself couldn’t find you with a radio telescope. :mad: 😛 In fact, this is very much news to me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/12 "2003-08-26T23:14:31Z")
if6was9, the diamonds are in murfreesboro,arkansas. same name but a bit down and over. [http://www.yournet.com/crater.html](http://www.yournet.com/crater.html) i heard about the odor law on the news. they stressed that the sniffing would occur on arrival at work. that must be a relief to workers who may glow or perspire, or deal with dumpsters in their professions. as we learned on qeftsg: spray, delay, walk away. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/13 "2003-08-26T23:17:27Z")
Hmmm… no mention of it in the local paper? > [@](#): > > Murfreesboro City Council meets tonight > > Murfreesboro’s City Council is scheduled to conduct four public hearings when it meets today at 7 p.m. > > One will be an annexation request for 59 acres along Halls Hill Pike. A zoning request hearing accompanies it. > > The council previously had a public hearing on annexation for more than 263 acres on Salem Highway. The zoning request from developer Clair VanderSchaaf will be heard today. There was no public comment offered during the earlier council hearing. > > The fourth hearing is a rezoning of nine acres on St. Andrews Parkway from commercial fringe to multifamily residential._Copyright by the Daily News Journal_ Curious. No mention the day after, either. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/14 "2003-08-26T23:19:00Z")
However, there _does_ seem to be a Flash Mob operating in the area… ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/15 "2003-08-27T00:12:56Z")
Murfreesboro seems to get quite a bit of attention for a small town. A couple of weeks ago the nude motorcycle rally was all over the news, and now this. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/16 "2003-08-27T01:35:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cliffy \* > \*\ ***Ferret Herder**'s got it – Gilley is referencing Justice Black’s comment when confronted by the Supreme Court’s inability to concretely define pornography. > > –Cliffy \*\* Right context, but it was Justice Potter Stewart, not Justice Black, [Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964)](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=378&invol=184). Stewart J.'s concurring decision read, in full: > [@](#): > > It is possible to read the Court’s opinion in _Roth v. United States_ and _Alberts v. California_, 354 U.S. 476 , in a variety of ways. In saying this, I imply no criticism of the Court, which in those cases was faced with the task of trying to define what may be indefinable. I have reached the conclusion, which I think is confirmed at least by negative implication in the Court’s decisions since _Roth_ and _Alberts_, that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. **But I know it when I see it,** and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. Black J. would have gone further, and taken the absolutist position that any movie is protected by the First Amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/17 "2003-08-27T02:51:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Berkut \* > \*\*Murfreesboro seems to get quite a bit of attention for a small town. > > A couple of weeks ago the nude motorcycle rally was all over the news, and now this. \*\* _Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?_ I never heard about that! **Bosda** , why the hell didn’t you tell me about it? You bastard! It would have been the _perfect_ time and place for a Dopefest! And I think I know the guy who inspired the law. Worked with him about 10 years ago in an unairconditioned warehouse and wouldn’t bathe. When confronted about it, he said, “Why should I take a shower? I’m just going to work.” Of course, this is also the same guy who, when I accused him of having sheep in his family tree responded with, “Well, sheep are useful.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/18 "2003-08-27T06:11:40Z")
Oh Tucker, I’m pretty sure the vast majority of the bikers there weren’t of the variety you care to see naked. In fact the one pic I saw looked like naked Santa on a Harley. And you shoulda seen her boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/19 "2003-08-27T22:14:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Carnage \* > \*\*Oh Tucker, I’m pretty sure the vast majority of the bikers there weren’t of the variety you care to see naked. In fact the one pic I saw looked like naked Santa on a Harley. And you shoulda seen her boyfriend. \*\* What? You’re saying that you don’t need a good laugh? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-funky-in-murfreesboro-tn-stupid-law-or-justice-at-last/197769/20 "2003-09-03T14:59:39Z")
See here– [http://tennessean.com/local/archives/03/09/38529339.shtml?Element\_ID=38529339](http://tennessean.com/local/archives/03/09/38529339.shtml?Element_ID=38529339) So, there is a smell ordinence!