We’re gonna need a bigger toothpick.
[sub]You’re sick!
Okay, me too.[/sub]
So THAT’s where Bacon Salt[sup]TM[/sup] comes from?
Only their new soylent flavor.
Smerr rike bacon, eh?
I am so happy to be present at the birth of a new Straight Dope meme.
A page full of responses eagerly guessing the answer, and now that I post the part 2 of the story there is barely a peep.
Harumph.
Well, I think it may be one of those ‘you had to be there’ to really find it funny things.
See, I was expecting the answer to somehow relate to the vase, how it was manufactured, what it was used for.
Or possibly the odor related to some interesting consequence of how it made/used – For instance, the smell was from dying mice that were drawn to hide in vase, but the cyanide left from whatever process killed them…
Some neat-o factoid, you see.
Instead, some coworker just put a piece of bacon in it, apparently for no reason other than to jerk around a coworker. Pretty much doesn’t pay off the build-up to the revelation.
With the lights out it’s less dangerous
Here we are now
Where’s the bacon?
I feel hungry, and mendacious
Here we are now
Where’s the bacon?
bacon salt
tofu’s an alt
pork gestalt
it’s my fault
yeah
No, actually, it was most likely related to the way it was manufactured. You see, the “smoke” smell that we associated with bacon had to do with the fact that it had been assisted out in the hollowing out process by charring parts of the wood used to make the vase. The shopkeeper was just baffled by the bacon smell and got upset about it, thinking that it couldn’t possibly have been part of the manufacturing process. Whether or not the shopkeeper knows enough about his wares is another matter. 
Dogs don’t know it’s not…vase?
I win!! I guessed bacon first!!! What prize do I get??? (I’m eating some bacon right now in celebration)
Your prize is… more bacon!