# Why Do I Smell Dry Pasta When Clipping Toe Nails? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386 "2002-05-05T13:01:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diff\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Diff\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diff_T)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/1 "2002-05-05T13:01:27Z")
Hey, I am VERY clean, and I worked up the nerve to ask, so lay off!! 🙂 Since I was little I found this to be true… any real reason? ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/2 "2002-05-05T13:07:26Z")
I could see the Straight Dope Cartoonist work wonders with this question. A big pot of toe nails boiling water. Standing over it would be a bare foot chef with a chefs hat on. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/3 "2002-05-05T13:59:17Z")
The few times I’ve noticed any smell in association with my toenail cutting activities, it was because I had a toenail fungus. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/4 "2002-05-05T16:23:41Z")
It’s not pasta, it’s Feetos™. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/5 "2002-05-05T17:37:14Z")
I’m curious. You must have quite a sniffer. What specifically is a “dry pasta smell”. I opened a carton of dry spaghetti (San Georgio) just because of this thread and sniffed it and it was as I had remembered… ie that dry pasta smells more or less like… nothing. Nothing at all. There is no discernable scent even when I had the bundle of cool, dry spaghetti noodles pressed against my upper lip and arrayed at the base of my nose. I’m apparently scent blind. What is this smell all about? Please be descriptive. I feel like Plato’s man in the cave. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/6 "2002-05-05T17:45:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MyFootsZZZ \* > a bare foot chef Would that be a naked chef over a pot of feet? Or perhaps you meant to say “barefoot chef?” ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/7 "2002-05-05T17:58:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Why A Duck \* > It’s not pasta, it’s Feetos™. Not so sure, it could be Fe_e_ttucine. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/8 "2002-05-05T19:12:05Z")
or maybe spaghetti and Feetballs? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/9 "2002-05-05T22:06:31Z")
Spaghetti-toes. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/10 "2002-05-06T02:18:46Z")
- - - Mostca-toe-li-? ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/11 "2002-05-06T13:04:01Z")
Honestly, I was suppressing the urge to ask this board what force of nature can so tightly cram the lint into the gap at the side under the nail. What causes the cheesy smell of it when you eventually get it out of there would have been my secondary question. Can we pin it down on one specific fungus, yeast, bacterium, or whatnot? It does not smell like the normal stinky socks smell caused by your average micrococci and corynebacteria. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/12 "2002-05-06T13:51:01Z")
Any attempt to keep this thread straight will likely prove futilli. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/13 "2002-05-06T13:53:29Z")
**lieu** is such a pessimist, orzo I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-smell-dry-pasta-when-clipping-toe-nails/107386/14 "2002-05-06T13:58:10Z")
BTW, [here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32234&highlight=feetos) a link to the original Feetos thread. Let me be the first to apologize for hijacking this GQ thread. It drives me couscous when people do it to me, and I really didn’t mean for it to get so out of hand.