AWNY 5: Smell

French Toast by Turtblu on Flickr.

It’s back! That delightfully mysterious scent of maple syrup, flavored coffee, or roasted nuts (depending on who you ask) has returned around much of Manhattan. The first olfactory reports began coming on Thursday night. The inexplicable sweet smell has descended over the city at various times in the past, and though disconcerting, is better than the sulphury odor that wafted over from Jersey around this time last year.

NY1 reports that calls have been coming in to 311 and 911 from Manhattan residents concerned about the smell. The aroma has been reported from Lower Manhattan all the way up to Harlem.

As always, air tests show nothing dangerous, but officials cannot determine the possible cause of the aroma. Maybe years from now, while we’re all slaving away under our new pancake-alien overlords, we’ll look back and wonder why we did not put together the sweet-smelling pieces of their global domination plan sooner.