Gallery of the Uncommon
Instead of gold, incense and myrrh, we got stuck with… rotten cheese!
On the 23 December, when it was already smelling of Christmas, a box arrived at INESC Porto, with no indication of its content, addressed to one of its researchers. As is custom, the package was gently placed in the researcher’s office.
On the following day, the cleaning ladies were running up and down the office, making a fuss due to what they described as "a fetid and sickening stench". Armed with their noses, acting like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and CSI investigators combined, they managed to find out, after quite a while, where the smell came from. The enigma was revealed: it was the box! At that time, the Unit coordinator came to the scene, thus witnessing how the mystery was unfolded. Since it was his knowledge that the researcher to whom the box was for was going to be travelling abroad soon, and since we were practically on Christmas Eve, he called him up on the phone. And then he suggested (and oh, so well suggested, we thought!) that the box be left at the building’s entrance to be collected on the very same day. However, the researcher’s schedule suddenly became very busy and the box was left there... for the entire weekend.
When the 28 December came, five days after the package arrived at the building, the previously mentioned Unit coordinator put his secretary up to speed on the story and warned her for the fact that the package may be somewhat repulsive, due to its… scent! The secretary then decided to check if the box had already been collected and that’s where the building’s security guard comes in. When asked on why the box was still there, the answer was conclusive: "I’m not sure what's inside that box, but i'm pretty sure it’s already dead, miss!"
The secretary then asked the usher to collect the unexpected gift so that it would be placed inside the refrigerator (it might have still been well preserved… who knows?). Since it was quite large, when transported, the “scented” package became too close to the nose, which, let us say, simply magnified its very much acclaimed “perfumed” features.
After several attempts, the secretary gave up trying to insert the package in the (mini) refrigerator and let it rest peacefully inside a closed cupboard in the Unit’s kitchenette. During that afternoon, there were numberless complaints from the collaborators who went into the kitchenette to take their cups of coffee, tea, water and others… and the complaints came in several languages, believe us!!!
Lastly, on the next morning, the secretary, encouraged by the Unit’s coordinator, decided to finally open the box and discover what all the fuss was about. With the sleeves up and felling a bit hesitant, she finally opened the box and found a puzzling sort of matrioskas game (that would be amusing but for the intensifying stench). Inside the box there was a closed paper bag with a different carton box inside, where the poisonous gift remained: in a translucent plastic container, there lay three completely liquefied cheeses. The deterioration was such that the cheeses (and the respective wrappers) were immediately taken away from the facilities for the general well-being of the INESC Porto community.
