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Something sweet in the air mystifies New York

The night air all over Manhattan was brisk, with a hint of winter and a dash of something sweetly out of the ordinary. Some thought it smelled like maple syrup. Some said caramel, or a freshly baked pie, or Bit-O-Honey candy bars.

From downtown Manhattan to the Upper East Side, Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and parts of Staten Island, the question was the same on Thursday night and into early Friday: What was that smell?

The aroma not only revived memories of childhood, but in a city scared by terrorism, it raised vague worries about an attack deviously cloaked in the smell of grandma's kitchen.

Late on Friday, nearly 24 hours after the smell had spread through the city, sparking hundreds of bewildered calls to the city's 311 emergency hot line, officials said that they had determined that the smell had not been hazardous and that it had dissipated as quickly, and mysteriously, as it had appeared.

Even after chasing down anonymous tips and chasing up several blind alleys, however, they did not know where it had come from.

The odor was first detected around 8pm on Thursday in Lower Manhattan. It seemed to spread quickly uptown and into parts of the other boroughs -- so quickly that officials expressed concern. The city's Office of Emergency Management sent out feelers to the police and fire departments, state emergency response agencies in New York and New Jersey, and the US Coast Guard, which communicated with tugboats and container ships at sea to determine whether the odor was being detected there.

Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, coolly told reporters on Friday that tests and air monitoring had revealed "nothing of a hazardous nature."

"It's believed to be some sort of food substance, but we can't substantiate that at this time," Kelly said.

The chase led the city's environmental bloodhounds to some interesting places. Investigators working on a tip checked the Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven in SoHo, but the owner insisted he had not been the culprit. His staff had spent the afternoon roasting almonds, he said. And anyway, chocolate, for those who really know, smells bitter, not sweet.

If there was anyone in New York who could recognize the aroma of maple syrup, it would be a Canadian like Jeff Breithaupt, 42, cultural affairs officer at the Canadian Consulate in New York. He said he was out running on the Upper East Side on Friday night when the smell came to him. Right away, he thought it was caramel candy.

A labor organizer, Rekha Eanni, said she could not characterize the exact smell, but after getting out of a night class at New York University she was overcome with a craving for pumpkin pie. When she got home there was no pie, so she did something she never does.

"I made myself a pretty big bowl of vanilla ice cream with honey and cornflakes," she said.
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