www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/10/28/maple_sugar_smell_mystery.php
Something strange is going on-- last night the whole city smelled like ma ple syrup! Gothamist has gotten reports from all over Manhattan-- and we smelled the strange, sweet odor as far south as Chambers Street. Gotham ist Contribute also has some reports: The whole city smells like maple syrup and everyone knows it! Tell us wh y October 28, 2005 02:38 AM Same smell is pervading the Greenwich Village / NYU area -- both outdoor s and in, I smelled it in my apt earlier and thought a neighbor was mak ing french toast or something but it's clearly something bigger. I thought there was some foo d hidden in my room somewhere. October 28, 2005 01:04 AM The air smells of maple syrup in the Upper West Side. Anonymous individu al sources questioned at street corners around Harlem agree that for so me reason it smells very sweet and syrupy. Everyone speculates that a p ancake truck or maple syrup factory has caught on fire. Is there a huge, maple syrup slic k in the East River that we don't know about?
Update: News Channel 4 just said they have no idea what it was, but that they didn't think it was dangerous! Update: Apparently it could be smelled all the way in Astoria!
NY1 says: "Officials from the Office of Emergency Management have been running tests all night to try to figure out just what the sme ll is. A spokesman says air samples aren't showing anything hazardous, t he source of the smell is still not clear."
from Metroblogging NYC This is so crazy, that I just had to post a link here. Am I the only pers on in the entire tri-state area who didn't smell maple syrup last night?
James at October 28, 2005 07:33 AM I smelt it in East Harlem Posted by: Sam at October 28, 2005 07:41 AM I smelled it too. I was racking my brains all day trying to figure out ho w I got maple syrup on my hands! Posted by: mike at October 28, 2005 08:01 AM A Canadian terrorist attack? Posted by: Anon at October 28, 2005 08:05 AM We had a very similar smell even out here in Hackensack, NJ. we were going nuts tryin g to figure out where it was coming from... Posted by: mike c at October 28, 2005 08:30 AM definitely caught a whif in Carroll Gardens last night, but not Windsor T errace. Posted by: jeff at October 28, 2005 08:33 AM Wow, I thought it was just me. I smelled maple syrup last night inside my apartment - I thought I had spilled some syrup from breakfast the day b efore, and I was obsessed with figuring out where it was! Posted by: Gaz at October 28, 2005 08:33 AM So I come out of the woolworth building and smell caramel... Posted by: Emily at October 28, 2005 08:35 AM We could definately smell it in Long Island City, but assumed it was the candle factory in Greenpoint. Posted by: Lee Fleming at October 28, 2005 08:36 AM i too smelled it in east village & then in harlem last night -- glad to k now that i wasn't going (too) crazy -- kept asking my boyfriend about it ... Posted by: rem at October 28, 2005 08:53 AM The maple sugar smell is a terrorist plot to incapacitate our city by ind ucing insuin shock on a massive scale hitherto unknown. Posted by: Carl Marks at October 28, 2005 08:54 AM this is ridiculous. Why is the smell in so many different areas arou nd the City. I left the windows open last night while I was making a batch of my famous maple sugar rice krispie treats Posted by: auntjemima at October 28, 2005 09:08 AM Smelled it in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn last night.
jimmie at October 28, 2005 09:09 AM Gothamist, you MUST get to the bottom of this! I totally kept catching a whiff of maple syrup last night while I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep in Long Island City. I assumed I was having some sort of brain tumor-induced olfactory hallucin ation. Eventually, I concluded it was probably my Bath & Body Works Pump kin Body Butter and fell asleep. Posted by: LICGal at October 28, 2005 09:13 AM There are reports that the people smelled the maple syrup smell in differ ent states. Posted by: christine at October 28, 2005 09:20 AM I thought I was crazy last night- I was smelling it all night in my apart ment on the UWS (100th & Amsterdam). Posted by: Erin at October 28, 2005 09:20 AM It also smells liek maple syrup in NJ: Fort Lee, CLiffside Park, Teterbor o, Hasbrouck Heights...... i'm on Forest Ave in Staten Island and it sure smells like syrup h ere too. Posted by: eddie at October 28, 2005 09:25 AM I was just thinking about all the talk about the Old Domino Sugar Factory . Posted by: Eddie at October 28, 2005 09:28 AM Does anyone have any idea of what is going on? Why are emergency response s state and Federal still testing the air if this is just a normal occur rence? I thought a neighbor was baking something yummy & I was jealous! Posted by: Sandy at October 28, 2005 10:01 AM I smelled it in the Central Village and figured I needed a shower. Posted by: Matt at October 28, 2005 10:03 AM i was in a basement theatre and could smell it.
brp at October 28, 2005 10:04 AM it was just an alien invasion from the planet pancake. Posted by: smitty at October 28, 2005 10:05 AM Just in time for Halloween - the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has farted! Posted by: andy at October 28, 2005 10:05 AM I don't know why this is being taken lightly, either. For example, Pat Ki ernan and Molly Kroon were laughing about it this morning on NY1. However, is there anyone who thinks that this could have been caused by a nything other than a major chemical release? A Google search for "maple syrup like odor" produces 'Benzoic Acid', C6H5COOH for those who might c are. Also: BENZOIC ACID information from Flinn Scientific, Inc. PO Box 219 Batavia , IL White crystalline powder with a maple syrup-like odor. Flinn at a Glance: Health-1 Flammability-1 Reactivity-1 Exposure-1 Storage-0 0 is low hazard; Also, the industrial uses are: The industrial applications are as a corrosion inhibitor, as an additive to automotive engine antifreeze coolants and in other waterborne systems , as a nucleating agents for polyolefin, as a dye intermediate, as a sta bilizer in photographic processing and as a catalyst. Wide range of benz oic esters are used as solvents, dying carrier, disinfectant additive, p enetrating agent and pesticides and manufacturing other compounds. So maybe (very wild guess) someone was using it as an antifreeze in somet hing, but it boiled off into the atmosphere? Posted by: Sanjay Shirke at October 28, 2005 10:06 AM Its EGGO-Terrorism! Posted by: Jeff at October 28, 2005 10:11 AM Does anyone think this is a test by terrorists, using a non-toxic/easily located gas? Say, to see how effectively they could gas the entire city from one bomb site? Posted by: jh at October 28, 2005 10:13 AM my theory is that some sinister maple syrup corporation or the IHOP chain decided to pump maple syrup flavoured water into the sewage system, and last night the water vaporised and blanketed the city, a la Batman Begi ns. Hence this morning everyone's waking up and craving pancakes and map le syrup!
notchy at October 28, 2005 10:14 AM I've been wondering, too, why everyone finds this so entertaining (though I must admit the 1010Wins graphic of Aunt Jemima and the Empire State B ldg is kind of cute). I've lived all over the NY metro area, and you smell factory smells/spills all the time from weird sources. But nothing like this, so pervasive -- yet it was also very su btle. I kept thinking it was something I'd gotten on my clothes, not som ething wafting in from outside. I work in an ad agency, and someone joke d that maybe this was a really great promotion for IHOP. If that's the c ase, I'm abandoning this sick industry immediately. Posted by: notlaughing at October 28, 2005 10:14 AM I smelled it in Brooklyn Heights! Posted by: Vane at October 28, 2005 10:17 AM well, if we're all a victim of a terrorist attack, at least it was a clou d of maple syrup smell and not a cloud of feces stank. Posted by: smitty at October 28, 2005 10:25 AM I farted.
Homer Fink at October 28, 2005 10:26 AM I smelled it in Bayonne last night too. I thought it was a great improvem ent over the usual smells. Posted by: metalchick666 at October 28, 2005 10:42 AM smelled it in fort greene, brooklyn and commented to my girlfriend...
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