My friend F gave me her old Mac laptop out of the kindness of her heart. But a problem's crept in . . . well, into my nose and into my house. At first I thought it was the couch that stunk, and I made a note to tell J not to lie down on it after coming back from the gym. Then I leaned closer to the keyboard and got a whiff of powerful body odor. Serious body odor. Undiluted, no-holds-barred body odor. Not-washing-for-a-month body odor. I pictured F carrying the laptop underneath her arm to cafes, to bookstores, to her office; I pictured her huddled on her bed with it; I remembered something she'd once said about having hyperactive sweat glands.
I called J to freak out.
me: F is sweet, but, ah, there's B.O. all over the laptop! She said she'd written her book on it---I understand pouring blood, sweat, and tears into a project, but come on. Should I bring it to Tekserve? I can't stand being near it.
J: I'll look up some information for you. [Ten minutes later.] Okay---do you want the good news or the bad news first?
me: The bad news, please.
J: The bad news is that there's no easy solution to this issue. You can place dryer sheets on the keyboard when you close it. You can also replace the keyboard itself, which will cost between $100 to $200 (keyboard plus installation). But apparently the smell, however muted, will always be there.
me: Oh. And the good news?
J: It's actually common for a certain series of iBooks to have this smell, something to do with the adhesive used in the keyboard---so it's not your friend who'd stunk it up!
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