Last night, my girlfriend Jill took me on a terrific dinner cruise around Manhattan for my birthday. After a tasty butternut squash soup, a garlic-topped filet mignon, sufficient quantities of Syrah and Cabernet, and an embarrassing attempt at dancing, we stepped off the boat at Pier 81 and clutched our winter coats on what was one of the first certifiably cold evenings of the season.

We noticed almost immediately a strangely strong syrupy smell. The smell was so pervasive that it seemed like it must have been on our clothes, and the fact that we noticed it right after visiting the coat check made me think there was some sort of waffle mishap in the nearby kitchen. The smell followed us around for several blocks as we walked, and while we couldn’t locate the source, its strength made it unlikely that it was more than a few inches from our respective noses.

By the time we returned home, it had dissipated somewhat, but we were perplexed that we never figured out the source. I’m a pretty clumsy eater, and on more than one occasion, I’ve left breakfast with a dollop of syrup clinging somewhere to my clothing. I know that smell. This was far beyond that, as if I’d laundered my clothes with Aunt Jemima instead of Tide.

Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who noticed that smell. This morning, I saw a headline on Drudge Report that said, “Strong, sweet smell reported in Manhattan.” The link brought me to this AP report:

Residents from the southern tip of Manhattan to the Upper West Side nearly 10 miles north called a city hot line to report a strong odor Thursday night that most compared to maple syrup, The New York Times reported Friday.

There were so many calls that the city’s Office of Emergency Management coordinated efforts with the Police and Fire Departments, the Coast Guard and the City Department of Environmental Protection to find the source of the mysterious smell.

[...]

“It’s like maple syrup. With Eggos (waffles). Or pancakes,” Arturo Padilla told The Times as he walked in Lower Manhattan. “It’s pleasant.”

New York City’s cable news channel NY1 has also been reporting the story, but the mystery remains. So what was that sweet smell? If anybody knows, they’re not saying. But one interesting theory is that it’s a test of how fumes disperse in the city. If that’s the case, then I hope it’s our government conducting the test, and it’s not a dry run for something more sinister.