international house of random smells

I'm not sure if I wanted this case solved or not, but I guess we can't go back to our ignorance any longer.

Remember that strange maple syrup smell that waffled (no pun intended) through the city, sporadically, over the last year or so? Me too, and yum! And, remember how we all said that the smell must have come from New Jersey, because New Jersey, as we all know, is the home to factories that make random smells and flavors that make you want foods that do not exist in nature? Me too, and yum again!

Well, are we at all surprised that we were right? Reuters broke the big story this afternoon. Hey, I know it's not a story fit for an episode of Murder She Wrote, but mystery solved, I guess.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. It's a little sad and bittersweet to me because I enjoyed the speculating. Is it a dirty bomb or is it a marketing ploy orchestrated by Mrs. Butterworth? Ooo, the excitement.

Somehow, what makes the radar under the "Odd News" section is, to everyone here in the center of the universe, part of what makes living in New York wonderful. I love the idea of telling my family and childhood friends about walking to the subway one evening and stopping dead in my tracks because I smelled pancakes out in the middle of Times Square, because that story will make them think I'm off my rocker. They won't understand. They don't have to. That just means more New York for me.