He who smelt it, dealt it.

If you are in and around Manhattan today you may have noticed it:

Across the Hudson River, Jersey City, N.J., mayor’s spokeswoman Maria Pignataro said officials there were told the odor was due to a gas leak in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, just north of Greenwich Village.

It’s on all the news channels right now but, watching it the funny thing is watching all the companies and elected officials deny responsibility. Con Edison says they don’t have a leak (pushing the speculation the source is New Jersey) and the Jersey City mayor says her people have informed her the source was in Manhattan.

Numerous people have called 911 to report the odor. Con Edison, the Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating. The Fire Department began getting calls about the odor around 9 a.m., said spokesman Tim Hinchey. PATH service has been suspended into the 33rd Street station, although the service was still running to the World Trade Center Station. F and V subway service has been suspended at 23rd Street.

It’s funny if only because you can imagine the localities as people in a room where someone has farted.

The odor of natural gas was reported across Midtown Manhattan, prompting hundreds of calls to emergency workers. Eyewitness News is told the smell was first reported in the vicinity of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Earlier this morning around 9:00 a.m. hundreds of calls poured into city emergency officials. Apparently the calls are coming from Chelsea, Battery Park west, Madison Square Park, and there are also reports of the gas smell outside of our studio on 66th and Columbus. A very similar smell was also reported in Downtown Jersey City.

I just enjoy watching all these newscasters speak endlessly about the awful smell. If you view it in that context (someone farting) it’s really, really funny.