I learned about it from Mike Rowe’s DIRTY JOBS. In one episode he visited a forensic body farm and, surrounded by ripe cadavers in various states of decomposition, he was instructed to smile any time he felt his gorge rising.

Not long after I was cleaning out the container that held my garbage cans, which itself had become a symphony of rot. Several times I tried the smile trick, and it worked—tho I’m glad none of the neighbors could see me!