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The mysterious maple syrup smell made its first 2009 appearance early in the month, with dozens of smellings spanning Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. And now, as if to say good bye to January, we've had two smelling clusters: One on Tuesday night, concentrated around Hell's Kitchen and the eastern part of NJ, and the other last night, mostly in upper Manhattan and even in the Bronx. So... Yonkers, watch your back, the Maple Syrup Smell is coming for you?! Click on the map below for what our readers told us:
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We've also had some individual maple syrup scenting in the past few weeks—one day, it's from someone in a Midtown skyscraper, another day it's in Brooklyn or it's at a downtown office building. Which leads us to suspect that it's a combination of chemical cleaning agents and/or a salt substitute used by the Department of Sanitation to melt snow, as a commenter mentioned. We're open to additional conspiracy theories (UFOs?), so let us know. And we'll also call the DEP again tomorrow.
Past smellings: October 2005, March 2006, November 2006, November 2007, May 2008 and January 5, 2009. Plus a November 2007 cameo on 30 Rock.
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Regarding the conspiracy theory I agree. I believe this all started with Madoff back in the early 70's and it is a Jewish Bolshevik attempt to take over the upper west side. By making the rent controlled apartments uninhabitable due to the Aunt Jemima smell therefore taking them over and renting them to people moving out of Williamsburg at market rate.
Note this is only a theory of mine. Nothing definite yet.
I have smelled it two mornings in a row around 830AM in front of MSG.
Leave the smell out of the Hudson Valley. It belongs in NJ and the city. :)
a professor of mine mentioned last week that there are companies who manufacture scents to cover the natural smells of anything from treatment plants to burger kings, meant to ask if that might be the case here.
Must be a lot of flatulent tourists from Vermont in town.
what if we're inhaling chemicals that cause a super cancer, sexual side effect, or birth defect? that would really be less than ideal.
i don't know, there are some sexual side effects that would be fairly ideal ;-)
I live in Inwood and I definitely smelled maple syrup last night.
Ok guys, this isn't so hard... Prevailing wind on the 30th in the region was WestSouthWest (WSW). For the 27th it was NorthNorthWest (NNW).
This means that it is (a) coming from NJ
(b) Most likely coming from somewhere in Fort Lee or the Palisades Park area on the map.
I mean, this has been going on for years... There can't be that many emitters in that 3 square mile radius.
My money's on Teterboro.
Yeah I'm guessing there is a syrup factory or it's one of the many "Food Science" companies in jersey. It's where most artifical flavoring is made."NAFFS - National Association of Flavors and Food-Ingredient Systems, Inc." is based in jersey. I think it's one of them.
I was in Fort Lee last night and the smell was really strong! It comes from different places at different times though.
I'm smelling it now at 135th and 8th
Someone told me the other day that it's just the city's way of testing how far a "bad gas" or somethign of that nature would move around the city. They said it's some non-toxic just "smell" that happens to be Maple Syrup.
Not sure if that's true though.
It's Armageddon. Delicious, maple-y Armageddon.
The De-Icer that gives off the Maple Syrup Odor is called "Magic Salt". It is being used in place of regular Salt by homeowners because it does not harm the concrete or road surfaces.
"Magic Salt: Magic Salt is rock salt treated with magnesium chloride and a sugar byproduct. It has received the EPA Design for the Environment label, which recognizes that the product is considered to be safe for the environment. It's the only de-icer to get the approval."
Hasn't it been snowing whenever one of these maple syrup maps appear?
Thank god, I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and the only strange odor I smell on a regular basis is the sewage treatment plant.
I realized that the Maple Syrup smell is a close relative of the smell of contact cleaner, aka Deoxit, what you DJs use on your electronic sockets and such. I have some, sprayed a little, and went "Oh yeahhH!!!!!"
good god, please stop 'reporting' on this inane topic. maple syrup smell. great, we got it.
Oh stifle. Some people are interested in this. Don't read it if you don't like it. Sheesh.
thanks for that brilliant advice.
Are people interested in this? I have assumed it is some sort of joke that I just do not get.
This is proof that the maple syrup smell I noticed last night is in fact NOT part of the various signs that I am going insane.
I smelled it last night in West Harlem and immediately texted the words "maple syrup" to my friend who lives 10 blocks south... he was getting it too.
I had no idea how nasty-sweet and strong(!) the Maple Syrup Smell was until I smelled it for myself for the first time tonight. I could smell it at around 6:30pm from West 231st and Broadway to at least West 238th Street. It faded a bit as I walked west, but I feel like I can still smell it now that I'm indoors. Yuck. It completely obliterates the Stella D'Oro cookie smell we're all used to being greeted with on Broadway. I might never eat pancakes again.
smelled it last night and smell it again tonight in washington heights. indoors and outdoors.
187 and broadway