Was the Salton Sea Really to Blame for Monday's L.A. Stench?

I know I'm not the only one who smelled it on Monday morning. When I noticed a vague sulfur-like smell in the air outside this morning, I considered calling the Gas Company, figuring it might be our house. But I turns out I was off by about 100 miles, as the L.A. Times reports:

Southern California awoke Monday morning to a foul odor that wouldn't go away. Residents clogged 911 lines with calls, prompting health officials from Ventura County to Palm Springs to send investigators looking for everything from a toxic spill to a sewer plant leak.

The prime suspect, however, lay more than 100 miles away from Los Angeles. The leading theory is that the stink was caused by the annual die-off of fish in the Salton Sea. Officials believe Sunday evening's thunderstorms and strong winds churned up the water and pushed that dead-fish smell to points west overnight.

I dunno. Not to get all conspiracy-minded on you, but that sounds like too convenient of an excuse. "It's very unusual that any odor would be this widespread, from the Coachella to Los Angeles County," Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, told the L.A. Times. "We're talking well over 100 miles. I can't recall ever confirming an odor traveling that distance."

Adds Andrew Schlange, general manager of the Salton Sea Authority: "The problem is [the odor] would have to have migrated 50 to 100 miles, without it being dissipated by mixing with other air. It doesn't seem possible," he said. "I've been in Southern California my whole life, and I'm not aware of any time in the past where the odor from the Salton Sea has migrated as far as people are telling us."

Hmm. Any other theories out there?

Is Los Angeles the Best-Smelling City in America?

Is Los Angeles the best-smelling city in L.A.? Perhaps the folks surrounded by skunks in the hills would diagree, but GQ makes a strong argument:

The clear, alluring track of its scent is arresting. There's the ocean breeze from Santa Monica that can travel as far East as Silver Lake; a dry desert air that comes West over Downtown and South Central; the astringent balm of eucalyptus, pine, honeysuckle, and jasmine from the hills; and car exhaust from catalytic converters, which is, in its strange industrial way, beautiful. It's like the jolt of a drug: shifting, comforting, cool like a blanket. The lonely smell of the marine layer burns off and you get this flashy perfume of hot asphalt, engines, and sun block that you can find nowhere but in L.A.

Do you agree with GQ? Is L.A. sweeter than any other metropolis?

(Thanks to birthday boy Joe for the pointer.)