From the context I think it must be some terrible smell, just a guess...

CD Baby: BOOK OF KNOTS: Book Of Knots-We were trying to find the element of beauty in the midst of all this disgusting decay, so that people would really root for this broken-down old town that smells like rotting docks and dead fish, rather than coming off like a bunch of ...
cdbaby.com/cd/bookofknots


Maybe the old fat man was a docker or else?


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Note added at 1 hr (2006-12-26 13:47:54 GMT)
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http://www.siue.edu/ALESTLE/library/summer1997/jul.23.97/swe...
Everyday could be a nice 72 degrees, with a small dip at night. That wouldn't be so bad, now would it?


But, no, we've got 100 degrees in the shade here, every single day. I leave my apartment in the morning and by the time I get to campus, I'm soaked and smell like a dock worker. This does not help my popularity around town.


I've even started taking two showers a day, just to try a save a little bit of my formerly fresh-smelling self.