I’ve heard, and have registered my fair share of (more about that later), complaints about the stench associated with Prague’s mass-transit system. That the city in July 2011 test-marketed a public bus which issued blasts of cinnamon-tinged air-freshener at regular intervals—a project that failed to take off and was subsequently discontinued—says it all. Apparently it’s not just foreigners who can’t take the particular Czech aroma. But Americans especially have odor paranoia. We lather, lotion, and spritz our personal smell into oblivion because we’re taught from a young age that it’s taboo. Why else would a market for kid’s deodorant exist? Our annual expenditure on deodorant has climbed to billions of dollars. Medical scientists increasingly believe that we’ve taken our fear of uncleanliness so far it could make actually be a detriment to our health. In other words, all that incessant scrubbing may keep healthy bacteria at bay and throw our immune system out of whack. Perhaps that’s why there’s currently a movement afoot in the U.S. that favors less showering and more spot cleaning. For we Americans living in this pungent European city, maybe the time is right to go native.