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Something strange is going on-- last night the whole city smelled like maple syrup! Gothamist has gotten reports from all over Manhattan-- and we smelled the strange, sweet odor as far south as Chambers Street. Gothamist Contribute also has some reports:
The whole city smells like maple syrup and everyone knows it! Tell us why.Maple syrup dirty bomb? Commence panic! Is there a huge, maple syrup slick in the East River that we don't know about? [Related: You Can't Make It Up also noticed the smell!.]
October 28, 2005 02:38 AMSame smell is pervading the Greenwich Village / NYU area -- both outdoors and in, I smelled it in my apt earlier and thought a neighbor was making french toast or something but it's clearly something bigger. Maple syrup dirty bomb???
October 28, 2005 02:09 AMI'm on W. 96th St. and I can smell it, too. I thought there was some food hidden in my room somewhere.
October 28, 2005 01:04 AMThe air smells of maple syrup in the Upper West Side. Anonymous individual sources questioned at street corners around Harlem agree that for some reason it smells very sweet and syrupy. Everyone speculates that a pancake truck or maple syrup factory has caught on fire. Perhaps Gothamist can investigate? (around Columbia Uni area + Harlem area)
October 28, 2005 12:50 AM
Update: The New York Times doesn't know what it is, either!
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!
Update: NY1 says: "Officials from the Office of Emergency Management have been running tests all night to try to figure out just what the smell is. A spokesman says air samples aren't showing anything hazardous, the source of the smell is still not clear."
Image is clearly from 1010 WINS, whose graphics department deserves a prize [via commenter notlaughing]
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holy shit, I love you guys! I thought I was having a stroke last night. I could smell it in Brooklyn too. I could not figure out where it was coming from. I thought it was someone cooking near my house. But then I left, and smelled it the entire night. What the hell was that?
I smelt it in East Harlem
I smelled it too. I was racking my brains all day trying to figure out how I got maple syrup on my hands! I live in the East Village and work in Chelsea.
A Canadian terrorist attack?
We had a very similar smell even out here in Hackensack, NJ. The wind must have carried it over?
whoa! we smelled it all night in Hell's Kitchen! we were going nuts trying to figure out where it was coming from...
definitely caught a whif in Carroll Gardens last night, but not Windsor Terrace.
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 before, and I was obsessed with figuring out where it was! Thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy.
So I come out of the woolworth building and smell caramel... and then there's like eight fire trucks, a couple of police cars and random assorted emergency services parked up and down the stretch of broadway by the city hall subway stop, so I assume that whatever they're dealing with has something to do with the smell (maybe it did...?)
But then I could smell it again around astor place, so maybe it didn't.
We could definately smell it in Long Island City, but assumed it was the candle factory in Greenpoint.
i too smelled it in east village & then in harlem last night -- glad to know that i wasn't going (too) crazy -- kept asking my boyfriend about it...
The maple sugar smell is a terrorist plot to incapacitate our city by inducing insuin shock on a massive scale hitherto unknown.
this is ridiculous. smelled it all last evening in park slope/BK...
I don't like it at all!! Why is the smell in so many different areas around the City. I think this is being taken too lightly!
Sorry everybody...I left the windows open last night while I was making a batch of my famous maple sugar rice krispie treats
Smelled it in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn last night. I thought it was coming from an old cup of coffee. Guess not.
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. Very light, but it kept driving me crazy. I assumed I was having some sort of brain tumor-induced olfactory hallucination. Eventually, I concluded it was probably my Bath & Body Works Pumpkin Body Butter and fell asleep. Anyone still smelling it today?
There are reports that the people smelled the maple syrup smell in different states.
This is VERY strange!
I thought I was crazy last night- I was smelling it all night in my apartment on the UWS (100th & Amsterdam). I'm so glad to know it wasn't just me!
It also smells liek maple syrup in NJ: Fort Lee, CLiffside Park, Teterboro, Hasbrouck Heights......
Well...i'm on Forest Ave in Staten Island and it sure smells like syrup here too.
I was just thinking about all the talk about the Old Domino Sugar Factory. I was wondering if they broke some new ground?
Does anyone have any idea of what is going on? Why are emergency responses state and Federal still testing the air if this is just a normal occurrence? Any answers?
OK...I smelled this in Hoboken. I thought a neighbor was baking something yummy & I was jealous!
I smelled it in the Central Village and figured I needed a shower. This makes me feel better... sort of.
i was in a basement theatre and could smell it. (west village.)
it was just an alien invasion from the planet pancake.
Just in time for Halloween - the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has farted!
I don't know why this is being taken lightly, either. For example, Pat Kiernan and Molly Kroon were laughing about it this morning on NY1.
However, is there anyone who thinks that this could have been caused by anything other than a major chemical release? A Google search for "maple syrup like odor" produces 'Benzoic Acid', C6H5COOH for those who might care.
Also:
BENZOIC ACID information from Flinn Scientific, Inc. P.O. Box 219 Batavia, IL
White crystalline powder with a maple syrup-like odor.
Slightly toxic by ingestion. Severe irritant. Avoid contact with skin, eyes and respiratory tract. Combustible solid.
Flinn at a Glance:
Health-1
Flammability-1
Reactivity-1
Exposure-1
Storage-0
0 is low hazard; 3 is high hazard
So it doesn't seem to be particulary hazardous (IF this is even what is causing the smell).
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 stabilizer in photographic processing and as a catalyst. Wide range of benzoic esters are used as solvents, dying carrier, disinfectant additive, penetrating agent and pesticides and manufacturing other compounds.
So maybe (very wild guess) someone was using it as an antifreeze in something, but it boiled off into the atmosphere? Do we have any industrial chemists in here?
Its EGGO-Terrorism!
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?
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 Begins. Hence this morning everyone's waking up and craving pancakes and maple syrup!
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 Bldg is kind of cute). I'm pretty damn scared. 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 subtle. I kept thinking it was something I'd gotten on my clothes, not something wafting in from outside. I work in an ad agency, and someone joked that maybe this was a really great promotion for IHOP. If that's the case, I'm abandoning this sick industry immediately.
I smelled it in Brooklyn Heights! made me hungry for pancakes and waffles.
well, if we're all a victim of a terrorist attack, at least it was a cloud of maple syrup smell and not a cloud of feces stank.
I smelled it in Bayonne last night too. I thought it was a great improvement over the usual smells.
smelled it in fort greene, brooklyn and commented to my girlfriend, "did someone have a waffle bonfire?" what is it???!!!!
It's kind of funny, but at the same time, I don't think that this completely a laughing matter. I'm sure that behind the scenes, the NYPD was seriously checking this out because some chemical weapons have a sweet or fruity smell, not chemical smelling at all.
Same smell in Park Slope. I kept smelling my robe and thinking "When did I spill waffles all over myself?"
I got a whiff of it in the Lower East Side around 9pm. Maybe the film crew on Rivington was having a pancake dinner?
I kid you not....Maple syrup urine disease
" Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is caused by the inability to metabolize the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. The disease is called MSUD because urine from affected people smells like maple syrup."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000373.htm
Smelled it in the South Slope, too.
I walked across the pulaski bridge towards home in greenpoint last night (past the aformentioned candle factory) and I was actually like, thank god they are brewing a new scent other than the highway reststop strawberry they usually make. It did smell distinctly like maple syrup- I had assumed it was a new fall scent.
How weird (and also scary if there are chemical implications)
seriously, if it is benzoic acid (or something else serious), wouldn't that be a way to test powder dispersion within a large city?
i smelled it on and off all day, but it was specifically strongest in our bathroom last night. (we assumed the neighbors were cooking in their kitchen thru the wall.)
i hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but if the smell was coming through the water pipes, that's really not so good...
i feel cheated, I didn't smell anything in greenpoint!!! :(
maybe it's because I'm a little stuffed up, but nobody I knew mentioned anything. I guess the normal gross funk that encases greenpoint overpowered the sugary maple syrup treat last night....
grrr
I smelled it at Columbia University last night, although I thought it smelled like a frappachino or something from Starbucks.
Maybe its like Ghostbusters but instead of Stay Puff Marshmallow man its a giant Mrs. Buttersworth like the picture. Just in time for Halloween.
I kid you not....Maple syrup urine disease
" Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is caused by the inability to metabolize the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. The disease is called MSUD because urine from affected people smells like maple syrup."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000373.htm
I smelled it in Park Slope around 8:00pm.
Oh my god, I thought I was insane last night, I definitely smelled it in Battery Park City!
Holy freaking shit!! I smelled in our building on W.14th all the way up to 21st and then inside my aparmtnet on the UES. I'm glad I'm not going crazy!!!
I smelled it last night around 9:30. I was walking east towards the LES. I just figured it was the Domino's Sugar Plant making all sorts of treats for the holidays.
I amazingly thought absolutely nothing of it except why did I smell like maple syrup. For some weird reason, I knew I hadn't actually eaten any, but I guess I didn't care enough to think that it could be coming from anywhere else. But holy crap ... the whole city? 83rd and Broadway smelled it, that's for sure!
Smelled it in Newark about an hour ago. It smells better than the usual Passaic stench.
I live in Park Slope. I've yet to make pancakes in my apartment. That's why I was puzzled about the smell. Last night I thought it was odd. Now I'm somewhat nervous.
So weird. Last night I said to my husband, "Doesn't it smell like hazelnut coffee in here?" I had no idea until just now that the whole city apparently smelled like that (despite the fact that I couldn't quite accurately identify the smell).
Wasn't Vermont doing some kind of tourism campaign in NY recently? Perhaps this is a subliminal trick to get people to take a long drive for some pancakes with GENUINE Vermont maple syrup....
Just a nitpick: Mrs. Butterworth's, as shown in the 1010 WINS graphic, isn't real maple syrup. There's just no comparison between the real thing and those phony pancake syrups.
Great point from Brightliner! I did actually think that smell was more cheap, pseudo maple syrup (Yankee Candle-y "maple") smell than real woodsy-cabin, expensive stuff in the glass/metal decanter.
i too smelt the syrupy goodness in Chinatown near City Hall. i was just happy it wasn't the usual smells of garbage and fish. i think it's part of a guerilla marketing campaign. i ended up eating maple-flavored oatmeal this morning. Quaker and Aunt Jemima must be stoked.
On the Domino Sugar Factory comment...don't people live there now? no longer really a factory?
I smelled it too! I can't believe this. I was in my apartment near Columbia U. I thought someone was making pancakes..it was such a strong odor. This is kind of scary.
Definitely smelled it in downtown Brooklyn all night. Never thought it was a bad thing though - better than most aromas that can waft around this city.
Ya, my fiance and I were walking to the cash machine on the Upper East Side, and I was like... "Something smells sweet, like those Canadian Maple Syrup candies you get at the Duty Free." And he was like, "Ya, you're right, I love those. Hmmmm... Where is that coming from?" We looked around for a bakery, or a dunken donuts, and didn't see one in sight. Then my fiance says, "I bet it's from the Starbucks up on the corner." And I was like, "Ya, probably." We walked up to the corner, and were a bit confused, and then just attributed it to all the empty syrup bottles in the trash on the curb. We didn't really speak of it sense... Very curious, indeed... Funny how it was all over NYC!?!?!?
I smelled the maple syrup last night beginning at around 10:00pm inside my apartment in Hoboken, NJ! I thought that I was smelling remnants of blueberry pancakes that I had made the last two weekends in a row, until I realized that I hadn't had any syrup for the pancakes! My husband thought that I was crazy with my syrup reception, until he read about it online today!
If it wasn't malicious or a test dont you all think someone would have claimed responsibility by now????
What I find interesting is that this morning I was not in the slightest bit hung over after consuming my fair share of sauce last night. If this has anything to do with last night’s air quality, I think I could get use to the sweet smell of maple.
I first noticed the smell as I was driving home from the Upper West Side (around 75th) when I arrived in Central Harlem (135h and Lenox) it was still strong and I assumed it was the bunch of flowers I was given (you know the maple syrup smelling kind). Maybe the maple syrup smell is some widespread project aimed at making us smarter. Or dumber. It's a government conspiracy aimed at distracting us from society's ills and corruption by creating an overwhelming need for breakfast foods. If only the X-files was still around - they could do their own "Ripped from the Headlines"...
My coworkers and I smelled it, and we live all over the city: Central Harlem, Morningside Heights, and Hell's Kitchen. I agree, it smelled like fake maple syrup. The smell permeated my apartment, even with no windows open.
Will the city actually release the information if they figure out it was something dangerous or it was someone using a harmless substance to test air patterns?
Oh ya! So crazy how subliminal that smell was, cause I just realized, I picked up some dunken donuts this morning, and guess what flavor? "BINGO!" Maple, with Halloweenie sprinkles on top. Crazy!
freaky. i was just trying to locate the source of the smell in my apartment when i read this,
Geezus, I smelled it in Park Slope as well.
i just heard from my mother that she smelled this sometime around 3-4 AM all the way up in greenwich. said she thought someone was up making pancakes, then saw it reported on TV.
bizarre. it really does sound like something from a comic book like batman or the x-men.
holy sh*t! i thought i was crazy but it was true. i thought i spilled syrup somewhere in my apartment, had a hankering for pancakes and i dont even like them.
Smelled it in Park Slope last night around 10:30 but thought I was just tired and decided to go to bed.
smelled it in Union Square, saw lots of fire trucks there too, around, 10 p.m. Someone needs to get to the bottom of this.
I bet it was a big test of Odor Screen
I smelled it in Morningside Heights and I thought I was going crazy! Thought I caught a wiff this morning too.
He who smelt it, dealt it.
You guys are all hilarious! I have been emailing this link to everyone and have gotten similar accounts. Someone even thought the smell was coming from their cell phone. I thought some candy factory had a fire or somebody was just baking their asses off. Someone does really need to get to the bottom of this. The fact that our worthless city officials still don't know what the source is disturbs me (but certainly does'nt suprise me considering they are preoccupied trying to hike up subway fares and playing politics down at ground zero) Just a thought.
has anything like this ever happened? And why dont we know what caused it by now?
there is no doubt in my mind that this is something we should be concerned about as far as terorism is concerned. we need to get real - we live in new york city! the keebler factory did not explode, releasing sugary smells in the air! and since the OEM has still not been able to determine the cause is troubling. terrorists are not going to do anything obvious, especially in new york.....did anyone ever think a plane was going to fly into a building? i truly urge everyone to remain vigilant of any other suspicious activities.
i smelled it in williamsburg/brooklyn
it smelled like butterscotch, really faintly, like someone was baking
I smelled it last night in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill. I hope we find out what it was. Maybe it came from the chemical plants along the NJ turnpike.
so, should I buy a gas mask?
Smelled it in Park Slope-
a friend at the OEM (Office for Emergency Management) says it's safe, though. But she/they don't know what it is
i was on 34th and 8th outside a movie theater when I smelled it and i thought that instead of pumping the smell of popcorn onto the streets, as theaters will do to entice people to see a movie (it works btw) they substituted a really sweet candy, hmmmm I guess I was wrong.
i smelt it all afternoon and evening, thought i was going mad or had some sinus illness. i smelt it at work on 33rd st, then in the subway - then home in the financial district.
it's a smell i've caught whiff of before - someone suggested in the past that it was anti-freeze.
i smelt it all afternoon and evening, thought i was going mad or had some sinus illness. i smelt it at work on 33rd st, then in the subway - then home in the financial district.
it's a smell i've caught whiff of before - someone suggested in the past that it was anti-freeze.
I smelled it on the border of Ditmas Park and Midwood in BK. On one hand, it's sort of amusing, but on the other very scary that presumably one source can spread a smell over a huge area, that according to this thread seems to have stretched from Jersey to Connecticut to BK. Wonder if there's any relation to the fact that Halloween is coming up? Could be terrorist "testing" or could be U.S. government testing to see what terrorists could do. Who knows. I do hope the gov can get to the bottom of it.
smelt it on the street, in the LES last night. just assumed it was coming from a restaurant...
it would make sense if this was a test of some kind. the city & police run all kinds of crazy drills around the city all the time. it would also explain the reason why no one has claimed responsibility, as well as why cops & emergency workers were spotted by commenters at two major train stations.
didnt we also have a strange unexplained gas smell in queens & long island last summer??
just suppposing the air is filled with a sweet smell and it's a good thing....if bad things can happen, good things can happen too...maybe the sweetness is hard to accept, but smell it, it's out there.....
Even if the city found something serious out about the smell, they probably wouldn't even tell us...they don't want the whole city freaked out going nuts
I don't get why the news media isn't more on top of it. I guess because it wasn't a BAD smell (I thought to myself, "I must go buy some maple and brown sugar flavored instant oatmeal tomorrow, for it is delicious").
I'm definitely freaked out about the possibility of terrorist baddies testing how far and fast an airborne toxin can spread, and more freaked out about how the story's dying and so few people seem at all alarmed!!!
Wow - I just found out about this story because the fake news on SNL made a joke about it. I'm FREAKING OUT because I was smelling that hardcore in my apartment in Hell's Kitchen the other night (seems like most of the Manhattan smell locations were on the west side). I just assumed it was my building's heat that was making the smell because I turned it on for the first time that night and it's my first winter in the building. I was wondering if my apartment was going to smell like that from now on. Guess not.
I am truly concerned that this may be terror related somehow. Perhaps it's something that will slowly kill or otherwise harm us. Then again it could have been non-terror related too - but either way WE SHOULD KNOW WHY. They are not taking this seriously at all as far as I can tell. I hope the election doesn't have anything to do with it. If anybody has any answers please post them here!!!
PS - anybody else feel like they are coming down with something. Maybe I'm just coming down with something - but if all of us feel like we're coming down with something that could mean trouble.
I may be late in logging this message, but I only just now learned that what I smelled Thursday night was not just in my apartment and not my imagination! Holy Moly! I was sitting here in my living room, at 28th & 2nd Ave. in Manhattan and this Maple Syrup smell just kept wafting through the apartment. It disturbed me because it was intrusive I couldn't explain it. I wondered if I was imagining it. As for what might have caused the smell, I have a different take on it than the speculation I've read. I don't think it was a chemical spill or a terrorist test. My vote is that it was a secret government experiment to see how quickly and extensively a gaseous substance would spread under certain conditions. Perhaps the NYPD or Dept. of Homeland Defense conducted a test to study the possible effects of a terrorist release of toxins??? It would seem that an industrial accident would be easy enough to trace and I doubt that terrorist would risk being detected with a widespread test right in the most important city in world. However, clearly it was SOMETHING. Either nature farted or it was a government test.
I was on a subway car about a week before this incident where I and other passengers on the train smelled a strong odor of maple syrup. We were talking about how strange this was and actually started to look around for a "spill". I am not making this up.
This smell has come down from God.
It is has to do with the holy month of Ramadan for mulsims
The last 10 days of the month of Ramadan are called the "Nights of Power" where god sits the first sky the closest to earth and look over his worshipers and answer their prayers.
At that God also sends angles for all of whose spend the night praying and asking forgiveness.
The angles spray the the sky with fruity smell -maple like kind of smell"
Hope that helps
Thank you
Nick
What you are smelling is a whale's vagina!
I'm from Michigan, so I'm anxious to know if anyone still smells this, and where. My husband knows a great deal about cars, and told me that antifreeze, when heated (especially during combustion, the main reason antifreeze would ever be heated) smells just like pancakes. He said the most common cause is if the heater core malfunctions, you'll smell it when you're driving and get a craving for pancakes.
I smelled it walking home from a friend's apt in Stuyvesant town to my place on 28th and 2nd.
The only thing I could think of at the time was that it must have been the combination of the SIX Dunkin Donuts that I pass on the way home all making something at the same time, and the smell, which smelled caramelly and sweet to me, almost made me go in and buy theyre carameled blended-coffee drink were it not for the 40 degree weather.
I'm glad I found that this was more than Dunking Donuts because I smelled it all the way home and was actually rather lightheaded by the time I got back from taking in huge breaths every time to see if the smell was STILL there, which it always was!
I smelled it walking home from a friend's apt in Stuyvesant town to my place on 28th and 2nd.
The only thing I could think of at the time was that it must have been the combination of the SIX Dunkin Donuts that I pass on the way home all making something at the same time, and the smell, which smelled caramelly and sweet to me, almost made me go in and buy their carameled blended-coffee drink were it not for the 40 degree weather.
I'm glad I found that this was more than Dunking Donuts because I smelled it all the way home and was actually rather lightheaded by the time I got back from taking in huge breaths every time to see if the smell was STILL there, which it always was!
I smelled it walking home from a friend's apt in Stuyvesant town to my place on 28th and 2nd.
The only thing I could think of at the time was that it must have been the combination of the SIX Dunkin Donuts that I pass on the way home all making something at the same time, and the smell, which smelled caramelly and sweet to me, almost made me go in and buy their carameled blended-coffee drink were it not for the 40 degree weather.
I'm glad I found that this was more than Dunkin Donuts because I smelled it all the way home and was actually rather lightheaded by the time I got back from taking in huge whiffs every breath to see if the smell was STILL there, which it always was!
Still puzzling over this. I live in Des Moines Iowa and Friday evening upon returning home my wife told me she was craving waffles all day long after experiencing a smell on her way to work (Friday 6:30AM) to downtown Des Moines, Iowa. I showed her the story I seen on the Drudge web site and she exclaimed that was the same smell!! Folks, something is going on and it wasn't just in the NYC area........very strange.
I could smell it all the way out here in DALLAS TX!!?!
(just kidding)
very strange.
I could smell it all the way out here in DALLAS TX!!?!
(just kidding)
very strange.
I took a CPR/First aid certification... and the guys who taught it were these EMTs who have seen and know everything about safety... and I remember them saying that if you're going down to the train and you smell cinnamon rolls or cookies, turn around and get out... that "they" attach a pleasant smell to harmful substances to make you linger and inhale it further... I thought about all that when the maple syrup thing came up and thought holy crap... anything is possible... i still smell it here and there. does anyone else?
We smelled it overnight on the UWS. Thing is, I recall smelling it on the commute home one night over a week before in the subway around the B/F/D at 42nd. Only one other poster has claimed smelling it earlier - and it also was in a subway. Anyone else?
Re "apparently" smelling it in Astoria - I just heard about this smell (I went out of town Friday morning, didn't watch news or come online until now), but you could DEFINITELY smell it in Astoria - I checked my Trillian logs just to be sure it happened to me on the same night. I said to a friend around midnight, "I just got the strongest whiff of syrup," and we then talked about other stuff for awhile. Every couple of minutes, I was all "Man! Syrup again!" I live near Steinway & 20th Ave., waaaaay up there.
Re "apparently" smelling it in Astoria - I just heard about this smell (I went out of town Friday morning, didn't watch news or come online until now), but you could DEFINITELY smell it in Astoria - I checked my Trillian logs just to be sure it happened to me on the same night. I said to a friend around midnight, "I just got the strongest whiff of syrup," and we then talked about other stuff for awhile. Every couple of minutes, I was all "Man! Syrup again!" I live near Steinway & 20th Ave., waaaaay up there.
The weird thing was that on Sunday, 11:30 am I was fishing Plum Gut off of Orient Point on the north east fork of Long Island when I definitely caught a whiff of "the Smell". It freaked me out because it was so far from the city, and it was unmistakable. I haven't heard anyone compare the smell to sweet pipe tobacco. But that's what first came to mind at first whiff. I first smelled it Thursday evening in Astoria. Near Ditmars and Steinway. Is anyone using archived weather data like wind speed and direction to track down the source? I thought it might be some food additive chemical company in New Jersey.
i smelled it again on monday, and posted on craigslist to see if anyone else had the same experience, but no response. has anyone here smelled it again after the initial experience last thursday?
Here's a possible explanation.
The chemical responsible for the maple syrup aroma in your Aunt Jemima's is called methyl cyclopentenolone, or MCP for short. When used in really small proportions (10 parts per million or so), it imparts a maple-like flavor and aroma to foods. It is approved by the FDA for use in food, so the danger of smelling it is up for debate.
It seems to be a volatile solid at room temperature. 'Volatile' just means that it evaporates readily (thus the smell), not that it is unstable or explosive.
By googling "methyl cyclopentenolone" and searching for manufacturers, you'll find that many of them are in China.
New Jersey has a large chemical industry, some of which serves the American food industry. A lot of chemicals come and go from the ports there.
Maybe a big container of MCP ruptured when being loaded off a ship from China. The stuff might just be powerful-smelling enough to set up a maple stink in the city, if the winds were right. A westerly wind would have taken the odor across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Incidentally, benzoic acid is also in a lot of food we eat. It is a common preservative, usually as a sodium salt called sodium benzoate. It doesn't smell or taste like maple, so far as I can tell. Most soft drinks contain lots of it.
Someone on a ufo web site Reported seeing several Unknown Objects above the skies before that maple night.Was there more people who seen anything that night? Was there a Burning Pancake Factory?Government Cover Up? A Religious Experience? Ends of Times? Who Knows! I Think we Can Handle the Truth after all New Yorkers and the world have gone Through.
it seems that strange maple syrup smell that wafted through the city in late october is back. i'm in the 23rd and bdway area and it's pretty strong. did they ever figure out what it was???
it's definitely back. i smelled it the whole way on a walk from greene and grand to broadway and bond. soho is full of maple!
upper west side too
I smelled it today as well. 3:00 PM on the Columbia campus.
It's baaaaack!
I was down at Harlem, on December 1st of this year. And I was going for my usual power walk from 145th Street, to my local Pathmark in Harlem. I smelled the syrup immediately, and I thought that maybe Mrs. Butterworth, or Aunt Jemimah had committed suicide by drowning themselves in the Harlem River.
The so-called News People don't seem to know what the smell is either.
It may seem harmless at first guys, but you never know. I've heard of dangerous chemicals that give off sweet smells, whether natural or added by man. Such as the Natural Gas smell. Try not to inhale too much. Someone out there knows what it is, and may or may not tell us sooner or later.
If they don't, we may have a new Urban Legend for this new Millennium.
I do remember smelling this in the mid '70s when I lived near Columbia Univ. I'm glad we don't have this problem in Brooklyn. It used to drive me nuts.
I smelled the maple syrup in manhattan on W 57th and again in brooklyn!
Yesterday at around 2:30pm i was coming out of school and i smelled pancakes. Everyone on school was like "oh they making pancakes". But then i saw the news and i saw something weird was going on
I smelled something like maple syrup in the Bronx (Kingsbridge road area) at about 4:30pm that day. I didn't think much of it until I saw the news reports about it the next morning.
I just heard about it.Weird.I hope we're not being invaded by some gigantic extraterrestial pancake lovers.lol.
The smell is caused by a component, (benzoic acid), of a new anti-freeze solution they spray on sidewalks and streets to keep ice from coating them.
I smelled maple syrup in the air thursday in Edgewater NJ.
We smell it at 5:27 p.m. on 12/12 in a building on East 60th Street.
Little Falls NJ, we smell it now... 11pm
Ok People, it was quite apparent what is going on... the US government does not rule out the threat of potential deployment of nuclear products by enemies of the United States.
As the duty of the US government to protect the people. The 2nd line of defense is to preserve; in case attack is inevitable.... So they study the NYC area for testing simulated cloud patterns of dispersal if something were to happen(Similar concept of chemical release...but they tested with some placebo). Don't worry, it's just an effort to better study the US terrain and potential pattern of effected by possible future actions...and thus know what population is at risk and how many to treat,etc...An attempt to gain Central Intelligence of ourselves!!!
So Get over it. The worst thing that will happen??? Maple syrup stock will go up on the NYSE and/or there will be a run on maple syrup in the NYC area for a while...
My suggestion(monroe doctrine!!!):
Eat some good pancakes next time you smell it!
PS- Mrs. butterworth sucks, try some grade A canadian maple syrup!!
My friend and I smelled it 12/29 on 51st and Madison around 5pm. I reported it to 311. Defnitely freaks me out. But you know the saying "when you hear hoof beats, don't think zebras".... I think odds are it is not terror related. It just reduces one's sense of control to not know what it is.
The smell is back. 9pm on Jan. 26 - on the UWS. Anyone else smell it?
ARGH! YES!! I'm at 107th between WEA/RSD and I totally just thought my heater was on the fritz . . . let's hear from some other people around here, please quell my nervousness??
The theory so far that I find most comforting is the ol' government checking the air currents for our safety thought. But I'm pretty sure the government doesn't really care about my safety.
It's interesting, too, the way the smell works. I notice it in sporadic whiffs... just slight, then gone. Then again. Enough to make me think I'm nuts. Burning some of the stinky hippie incense I normally hate helps me not notice it as bad.
Yes, the syrupy smell is quite strong here on the UWS. Any theories?
Smell it in Astoria. AGAIN. It's making me crazy. It feels like I am covered in it.
I KID YOU NOT.... MAPLE SYRUP URINE DISEASE
Quoting jay (posted: October 28, 2005)... this seemslike the most reasonable explanation. The sweetness made me suspect it was something like that. Ugh...
"I kid you not....Maple syrup urine disease
" Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is caused by the inability to metabolize the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine. The disease is called MSUD because urine from affected people smells like maple syrup."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000373.htm"
seems to support URINE theory...
Posted: Oct 28, 2005 by rion
seriously, if it is benzoic acid (or something else serious), wouldn't that be a way to test powder dispersion within a large city?
i smelled it on and off all day, BUT IT WAS SPECIFICALLY STRONGER IN OUR BATHROOM last night. (we assumed the neighbors were cooking in their kitchen thru the wall.)
i hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but if the smell was coming through the water pipes, that's really not so good...
is it back again ?
I always smell it on 33rd street between 10th and 11th.
Sometimes less sometimes VERY strong. Maybe an underground smell factory hired by vermont maple syrup company ; - )
With the arrival of spring and the concurrent decrease in air pressure, Field Office Research will begin our maple syrup odor experiments once again in sections of New York City. We intend to go public with a series of press releases this year, as unfortunately, our intentions have been questioned to the point of absurd distortion.
www.fieldofficeresearch.com
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I noticed an odor similar to maple syrup emanating from air cleaners/ air conditioners which had been haevily used for many months, then not used for a few months, then used again. This situation occurred both with a traditional hepa air cleaner and with a Living air Ionic air Cleaner. This smell might have somehting to do with renewed use of air filters or fans which have been dormant for some time.?
I noticed an odor similar to maple syrup emanating from air cleaners/ air conditioners which had been heavily used for many months, then not used for a few months, then used again. This situation occurred both with a traditional hepa air cleaner and with a Living air Ionic air Cleaner. This smell might have something to do with renewed use of air filters or fans which have been dormant for some time.?
comments re maple syrup odor?
Howard
hsmd@comcast.net
PS noone in our home has MSUD
I cannot tell you how frustrated I am that this mystery of late 2005 has not yet been solved. I think about it a lot. I smelled it on West 137th street near Riverside that day, and so did everyone else outside. It was VERY, VERY strong, to the point that no one could really think about anything else. (Well, one person said it make him want fried chicken and waffles, so maybe what you thought about depended more on what you use syrup with.) Anyone with theories of localized sources, such as air filters or bakeries, and anyone who thinks that it could be a series of coincidences, obviously wasn't walking around the City that night. Even in the days after the World Trade Center attacks, when the massive smoke clouds covered much of the City, you could only really smell the smoke in certain areas depending on where the wind was blowing. But this smell seemed to blanket the entire City. It was so strong and pervasive, it defies explanation. If someone was 'testing' whether or not airborne substances could be spread easily throughout an entire metropolis, clearly they got their answer. Though I do still want waffles, I must admit that I'm also really concerned.
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Smells liek Maple Syrup again. Me and a few
co workers noticed the smell around 143rd st and 8th ave.
We got to that area around 7:00 pm and
left around 2:00 and it still smelled. What the
hell is it? And where is it coming from. Could it
be a chemical that smells just like Maple Syrup.
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the smell was a marketing campain for blunt wrappers that smell like maple syrup!!
Basically nothing noteworthy happening right now, but eh. Today was a complete loss. I haven't been up to much recently. I've pretty much been doing nothing worth mentioning.
I'm way down on the border of Texas/Mexico, and I went outside just now to let my dog go to the restroom when I smelled a strange sweet smell. Syrupy for sure...like maybe cotton candy. When I came in to research it online, I found this page. Wonder if it's the same?
Ok, folks, this smell is stron in Indianapolis, Indiana. What the hell is it??