"Are you fed up with feng shui? Perhaps you should try smudging, the latest craze in New York for unhappy apartment owners....A leading Manhattan estate agent, Barbara Corcoran, recently called in a smudger when she could not sell an apartment on Fifth Avenue. 'It started as an act of total desperation,' she said, 'But we had a smudger come in and chase away those evil spirits.' Next morning, a prospective buyer made a full-price offer."
—Joan Smith, "Everybody believes in something: goddess, guru or gobbledegook ," The Guardian (London)