Panini is plural, NOT SINGULAR. Why must we continue to make this error?!! We just continue to be ignorant, arrogant Americans, for no apparent reason.
I have been under the impression that the sandwich (singular) with grill marks is a panino and the plural is panini. Or in English do we just say it with an English bias?
1
Hey everyone, thank you for the warm welcome! I honestly had no idea how this puzzle would play, especially on a Monday, so I really appreciated reading your feedback. I like that many folks were able to solve the puzzle even when not directly familiar with a couple of the theme entries (e.g. MARKUP LANGUAGE, secret MENU), and found reading about them to be worthwhile.
Additionally, many of my crossword-neophyte friends and family were able to successfully complete the puzzle, and that made me happy as well.
I was concerned that some of the theme entries might not be very accessible, particularly when stacked. Circling the "inner secrets" struck me as a good way of providing extra hints / confirmation of a successful solve.
Will and Co. deserve the credit for the actual clue for the revealer... "Keep this between us" nicely reinforces the 'secret' nature of the concealed words.
See you next time!
4
I don't think I understand the rationale underlying the SECRET MENU.
Anyway, it's no SECRET A GENT in ship's clothing would be one of the MENU expect to have a muSTASH as well as navel baring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPm4eiiD08
And it's no SECRET that if you want to bring certain large African mammals into the country, you will need to obtain a HIPPO LICENSE.
A great opening act, Mr Kalish, and I e-specially enjoyed your little central tangle of E-CIG, E-VITA and E-RICA. Am looking forward to seeing E-VAN in this venue "otra E-VES"
1
Now the missing comment virus has hit me. My comment on the pannini controversy disappeared during the night. (You'll just have to take my word that it was extremely clever and droll.) So what gives with this new system?
BTW, congrats to Evan on his debut.
2
It was a great reply, Wags. I thought the virus had been cured -- there's a 16-reply thread, intact and in order, in the Sunday comments -- but it has returned. Stay tuned.
*sobbing*
Congratulations on your debut, Evan, and welcome to the constructors' stable. Well done. Rather more satisfying than the usual Monday.
Loved "A Fish Called Wanda," and liked being reminded of it. Also, I had an aunt named Wanda -- not a very common name.
Very late to WP today, just recovering from a heat ordeal. My A/C got taken away to the hardware hospital on Thursday and only came home today. It took a while for the now-working machine to cool my apartment off enough for me to use my brain, plus I hadn't been able to eat or sleep for several days. But I am now in a comfortable place, and I have eaten and am looking forward to a good night's sleep. And Jessica will be able to curl up with me for a good snuggle.
I hope that everyone else is surviving this nightmarish weather, staying indoors, keeping hydrated, all that good stuff.
Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle Evan, and of course all concerned. Maybe someday I'll find out exactly what an In-N-Out Burger is.
1
You were answering my question while I was asking it. Also, I replied to your In-N-Out query in that thread. (Had to go to a medical appointment this morning; have another one tomorrow morning. Morning is better.)
Deadline,
You're quite active here today. Did you get your A/C back, or did you take your computer into the shower?
This was a fun Monday puzzle. Congratulations Evan Kaliyah on your first NYT crossword!
I thought the theme was entertaining. Secret SANTA was a forced “fun” thing every year at my office. (Glad I’m retired, I’m just not that jolly.)
A couple of months ago, I visited a website with secret MENUs. Mostly fast food places which... meh.
Loved A Fish Called WANDA! Haven’t seen it in years but remember it as one of the most hilarious movies I’ve ever seen. Thanks for the reminder!
“What a relief” to me is “wHEW,” and “PHEW” is “what stinks?!” It’s probably a southern thang.
;)
2
To me PHEW and wHEW are interchangeable and PEW or simply P U mean odoriferous.
The earliest surviving treatise on Sanskrit grammar is by the great Indian scholar, Panini.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Indian-Writer-A-commemorative-Postag...
Careful what you wish for.
2
This Panini might be more appropriate for a late-week puzzle.
Nice debut puzzle, Evan! Like many others, I'd never heard of a "secret menu." I intend to investigate further!
Got hung up a bit having COKE at 7D, MAUL at 32D, CASES at 34A, and ROAM at 50D. Still, managed to beat 10 mins. -- my Monday goal. My last entry was the H in HODA. Interesting name!
Hello, ACAI! I mistakingly stuck with you yesterday for way too long! Boo, AGGIES!! (I'm a former Longhorn.)
BTW, for a Monday puzzle, I think the clue for 42A should warn "(abbreviation)."
*Former* Longhorn? I thought it was for life.
BTW, 42A is in the dictionary as a word, not an abbr.
Hi, Barry. Let's just say that I'm not such a rah-rah person anymore. :) I'm surprised about ECIG. Thanks for your clarification.
Seriously, a single sandwich corresponds to "panino," so if you're looking for the plural use the clue "sandwiches."
A pet peeve for me is encountering restaurant menus and signs that use "gelati" and "panini" to express the singular. In a country where we used to have no trouble with plurals of borrowed words (like beau/beaux), what's the sudden challenge?
Yes, Lorie, I'm with you regarding panini. Also ice cream: My nine year-old granddaughter corrected me on Fathers Day when I said, "Let's walk across the street for gelati." She was sure I meant gelato. It was a wonderful teachable moment!
Unfortunately, Merriam-Webster is not with you, Lorie, Keith and the others who commented previously:
Definition of panini
plural panini or paninis
: a usually grilled sandwich made with Italian bread
NOTE: Panini is a plural form in Italian but is commonly used as both a singular and a plural in English. Its use as a singular has given rise the variant plural form paninis. The use of panino as a singular form in English has become relatively uncommon as panini has become established as the usual singular.
(end of M-W definition)
That ship has sailed, and by the way, you have a stray spaghetto on your sweater.
4
I'm much more peeved by the restaurants (mostly sandwich shops or delis, actually, with those blackboard signs outside) that head category lists as "Soup's" and "Sandwich's."
1
The NERD in me enjoyed PRIME NUMBER, TELNET, and especially MARKUP LANGUAGE. As for the MA’AM vs. madam debate, I have a student now who is ex-military and he “Yes, ma’am”s and “no, ma’am”s me all the time.
1
If you ever want him to stop calling you ma'am, just tell him you work for a living.
I thought TELNET was great, not unfortunate at all.
3
If you parse the last four letters of 16A you get a fra diavolo entree.
That 62A clue is not always accurate. One of the nerdiest people I knew in graduate school was a muscle-bound weighlifter/wrestller.
PuzzAzz'd this one and suspected Evan of being our newest constructor. Didn't figure out how the circled words related until the reveal.
Keep 'em coming, Mr. K!
1
Our local Santa Fe Brewery taphouse has a not-so-secret, but unwritten offering, a Nutty Prison Chick, which is a combination of Nut Brown Ale, State Pen Porter, and Chicken Killer. New servers learn the mix quickly.
Well, shiv 'er me timbers, DagR! That mix sounds as if it would corrode iron.
Hey, Evan, now it's no SECRET that your cruciverbalist talent is known to everyone. Congratulations on your most impressive debut! Revel in all your New York Times newly published glory today ... you surely deserve it.
5
Flew through this one. Fastest ever Monday for me. No real issues to report. Only carp is that MA’AM is slang, MADAM is the correct counterpart for “sir”.
"Yes, sir." "Yes, ma'am."
"Yes madam" is not an appropriate response to a teacher, say.
Counterparts are not exclusive.
6
I had initially entered DAME before MA'AM
Even the Queen of England is addressed as 'MA'AM' after the initial greeting. See "The King's Speech" for a clip....
Congratulations Evan for a great debut. The "markup language" one threw me. Am glad Deb explained it. Never had a clue what "html" stood for. It's great to have debut words/phrases, too. Provides extra zest. Nice nod to Jeff Chen who has helped so many start their cruciverbalism careers.
6
I remember that once -- long, long ago -- I looked up what HTML stood for.
Was I supposed to remember?
Yes, indeed, though I personally have never known text to be hyper.
A more interesting than usual Monday puzzle. Thanks, Evan.
I was a little overconfident today, and ignoring the crosses, entered TIGER for 66A to finish the puzzle. Up popped the dreaded "you must be mistaken" alert, followed by fantic checking and finally getting TABBY (how did I not know this?)
So longer time than usual, but now I do know about "secret menus" too. Thanks, Evan!
For the first few minutes, I thought the theme was going to be Xmas in July.
1
After a hard weekend in which I never came close, I got to "Queen Bee" (ugh, sexist!) with a mere 25 words.
The last word was a one-letter word that I knew had to be as such, since the math told me I had to reach 97 points, and I had 96. (Genius is 70% of the total points.)
It was a word that didn't conform to the spelling patterns of any of the other four-letter words (i.e. it had a unique vowel pattern).
1
Goof to know. I'm on 24 words, so I'll go find the 25th now you have given me a hint. Agree about the weekend; Saturday was especially tough with a slew of the archaic and arcane. Sunday was more more doable.
Back to today, I recorded 5 standard words that were not accepted: TUFTY, OUTFLY, HOTTY (sexist – but since we had an archaic word for a prostitute on Saturday [KRULL], why not?], LOTH, and FLUTY.
And 4 more rejections with varying degrees of Britishness, so not so surprising: TOFF, TOFFY, FOOTY, TOTTY (= HOTTY, but in a more general sense)
1
Sorry, GOOF was a typo, not meant as an insult.
Anyway, I found the 25th word, so I am Queen for the day too. Your hint actually led me off track; I had neglected a simple 4-letter word. Was your last word "a certain cross-dressing Archbishop?"?
P.S. I don't agree with QUEEN BEE being sexist. There is no KING BEE (well, except for a few minutes post-coitus – certainly no time for a coronation).
Better to be a queen than a drone, no? All Hail to Queen Steve!!
Secret menu...
As I gather from last night's research, unlike untranslated menu items in Chinese restaurants not intended for lo fan, or off menu ordering at many fine and not-so-fine establishments, the key element of the "secret menu" is that it is *not* a secret.
1
This was excellent fun for a Monday puzzle. Roomie and I use these to get our brain (collective and joint) started before work, and this was one I could breeze through while not feeling like it was dumbed down. Instead, as a new puzzler, it felt like I was using all the knowledge I'd collected so far and throwing it all down in a whirl. So satisfying!
13
Always a pleasure to welcome a new constructor to the fold, and I thought this was a quite impressive debut with the high concentration of theme material.
Like others, I'd not heard of secret MENU; maybe I'll look it up some time. Maybe not.
And... I learned how to correctly pronounce bruschetta. Nice bonus.
Martin (if you read this) - I think I knew you worked on mainframes, but did you actually work for IBM? (or 'one BM' as we often referred to it). Just curious. Oh, have you ever heard of TRMS or $AVRS (product names)?
I worked for CDC, an erstwhile competitor of IBM in the seventies. That was exclusively mainframe. I left in 1980 to join a startup to write software for what would become PCs. After a circuitous path of acquisition, I wound up at IBM. I retired from IBM after 10 years.
By then, the hardware was pretty ecumenical but I had a bit of contact with the mainframe groups. I do know those report management products. I believe I ran across them first during my stint with Computer Associates. I've had experience with z/OS since it was System/360 in 1966 on quite a few 360 models. I've been coding since 1965.
1
Let me guess -- Fortran?
Dr. W, IBM assembler for me, and later Java and C++ and other stuff when I was writing the initial web interfaces for our products.
My first job in commercial programming was writing the online interface for $AVRS. Then I and two other guys designed and coded TRMS. After that worked almost exclusively on those products and associated utilities (VTAM Print, etc.) for the rest of my career (about 28 years altogether).
I didn't start into programming until the early 80's and was a systems programmer at a couple of banks before I moved on to commercial programming. A little bit of 360 before everything moved on to 370.
A very nice debut. I’m getting to like Monday and Tuesday puzzles more and more - the editors don’t feel so compelled to add questionable convoluted clueing.
2
Congratulations on an impressive debut, Mr. Kalish!
A bit stickier than a usual Monday but, according to the comments at least, we are up to the task.
Like Paul, I am intrigued by the secret menu and plan on asking for one every chance I get!
Terrific debut! Had sort of heard of the SECRET MENU at Chinese restaurants, but didn't realize it was real enough to make it to the puzzle. Other cuisines too? TIL.
In 'n' Out Burger has a not-so-secret menu. Taco Bell once did.
For those who haven't heard of a secret menu but who have access to a Starbucks, here's a list of the yummy secret drinks you can ask for, including the recipes, if it's your barista's first day:
https://starbuckssecretmenu.net/
1
Thanks for this, Deb! Love how often I can say TIL from you. So backatcha, PLEASE don’t ever put good chocolate in the freezer! It forms a white sugar or fat bloom which -while it doesn’t actually hurt the chocolate - is akin to putting an ice cube in a fine glass of Chardonnay.
2
At least the Skittles frappucino doesn't actually have Skittles in it.
1
Thanks for the tip, JoHarp!
Looks like I'm going to have to buy a safe for the good chocolate.
I lived in Hawaii for many years, but I have not been back in a long time. What would get me back there?
Would it be the sun, sand, and surf? Would it be the incredible scenery? Would it be the fresh tropical breeze with that unique scent in the air? Would it be the diversity of the welcoming and beautiful people? Would it be that every Friday is "Aloha Friday"? Nope.
You see, I am much more into food. Would it be some limu ahi poke? Some laulau, haupia, sweet potato, and lomi salmon? How about a plate lunch with teri chicken, two scoops rice and mac salad? A real loco moco? Nah. Forget about it.
It would really be all about one thing, and that would be fresh poi.
Where I live in Tucson, poi is simply not readily available (as you might imagine). Sure, you can go to the Asian market and get some frozen, but after you thaw it out and reconstitute it, it's just sour (not the way I like it). You can order a jar of the freeze-dried stuff, but the consistency is consistently off. You can go to a local Hawaiian plate lunch place, where they get fish and poi shipped in from Hawaii (via Las Vegas), but it's pretty pricey.
I would take a trip back to Hawaii for the fresh poi. It's off to Safeway for a pound bag of the good stuff. Poke a hole in the plastic and suck it right out -- now that's a real lunch. I'd even go back to the Safeway where we'd see Imelda Marcos shop at 3am (the bodyguards did the shopping btw).
Fresh poi. Now that would be worth the trip.
7
It's an ambitious grid, with six theme answers, the smallest being 11 letters, and it's cleanly accomplished. Congratulations on your debut, Evan!
I investigated the popularity of Evan's "secret" phrases by placing them in quotes in Google. Most popular was secret agent (ll.8M hits), followed by secret Santa (9.9), secret menu (2.6), secret stash (2.4), and secret plan (1.4). Just for fun I plugged in "secret life" and it had a whopping 32M hits. So then I tried to embed "life" into a phrase, spread over two words, but came up with nothing common (maybe you can do better). I did smile at the image of a ravioLI FEdora.
3
How about Khalif El-Salaam, a professional (?!) frisbee player.
http://www.seattlecascades.com/khalif-elsalaam/
Actually, I like the ravioli fedora.
2
CHILI FEAST (10)
ECOLI FEVER (10)
HOLI FESTIVAL (12)
deLI FEd
(Like the zaftig bodega cat?)
2
A very fine debut, indeed! I need to read up on secret menus.
5
Although I'm often in a foggy mental state until at least a few swallows of coffee, I had no trouble with this entertaining debut Monday offering. I did need the reveal to get the theme, and like others didn't know about a SECRET MENU. It did bring back memories of looking forward to having Bistecca alla Fiorentina having read that it was a speciality of Florence. It wasn't on the menu but we asked the waiter if it was possible to have that and were told that it was no problem. It was delicious.
I definitely needed the downs for a lot of this puzzle, making it more interesting than some Monday puzzles. Congratulations Evan, hope it's just the start.
2
Fun puzzle! Agree with comment that 45D should be “panino.” As for comparisons to “jeye-roe” and “broo-shetta,” I’ve used the correct pronunciations from Oakland to Kansas City to Schenectady and never received a “weird” look. If the restaurant can’t pronounce the dish correctly, can they make it correctly? There is no excuse for perpetuating bad translations.
7
I'll bet you even knew how to pronounce Schenectady.
ski neck TAY dee?
I can spell Dakota,
Duluth and Minnesota,
But I can't spell
Schenectady...
Really nice puzzle, Evan. Congratulations!
1
Nice debut Evan Kalish. More nuanced than most Monday puzzles.
7
Pretty tough as an Across-only, didn’t think I’d get there and would’ve had no prayer if not for the circles.
I got stuck on 14A.
I'm surprised that there are no Comments re the possible UNPC interpretation of 15A....
Give it some time, it takes a while to get those outrage engines fully revved up.
2
You’re absolutely right. If that’s not a micro-aggression, I’d like to know what is!
3
Hmmm...three posts about no posts.
Who's the obsessed here?
Nice debut! I thought the secret MENU was something computer-related at first, too, but I've come across the special menus at Chinese restaurants (tags posted on the walls, in Chinese, for the really delicious specials) so that makes sense.
Nice Monday puzzle, Evan, congratulations on the debut!
4
Why was comments for the Sunday puzzle discontinued
It's still there. Since the Monday puzzle is out, the link goes to Monday comments. Go to Wordplay to find the Sunday comments.
1
Here's another negative side-effect of the new, ultra-convoluted method for navigating Wordplay - because one now MUST go through the Wordplay portal page, one MUST see the titles and images for puzzles that may or may not have been solved already. This is especially frustrating on weekends, where there has always been some laxity in how each person chooses to deal with the puzzles. In the old system, one could simply click on the direct link to the puzzle, straight from the column for Wordplay.
Progress?
David,
Progress? Perhaps. While we wait for navigation improvements, let's keep our fingers crossed about Comments fixes.
1. I haven't seen any duplicate replies (or 4x or 8x replies) in the past couple of days.
2. There is a thread with 9 replies today and none of the replies have disappeared. There was a thread in the Sunday comments with 15 replies, all of which are still there.
Maybe the "new IT team" can get it all straightened out.
Nice start! Only one constructive comment from one food enthusiast to another. The clue for 45D specifies a word that is singular, but the answer, "panini" from Italian is actually a plural. The singular is "panino."
6
TAMALE TRAP!
In Italy, panino; in the USA, panini.
3
John, I've raised this issue here before and always get told it is American usage. But it still sticks in the craw, like a week-old panino.
6
John, "tamale trap" was coined by commenter Steve L. for expecting correct original language spelling for words that have been taken into the English language. In Spanish, the plural is tamales, the singular is tamal. In English, the singular is tamale.
When I retired from a major computer company a couple of years ago, I was awarded a lovely parting gift from a fairly large selection. I chose a PANINI maker rather than a cheap gold watch.
9
Wise choice. I have a lot of respect for that.
1
Thank you. I thought so too. ;-)
1
Congratulations for making it into The Times, Evan. I found this a very pleasant Monday offering, and I even learned a new phrase. You will know how much time I spend eating fast food and on social media when I say I'd never heard of a secret menu.
4
Never heard of a SECRET MENU either and still can’t say I know what one is. I thought maybe it was something in a computer program - a la “Easter eggs” in games. What do I know?
I ordered a McKinley Mac from Mickey D’s secret menu once when I was feeling particularly starved. They take a Big Mac and replace the thinnish patties with the big patties from a Quarter Pounder. Alcohol may or not have been involved...
3
Over 40 years ago, working in McDonald's, we knew how to make a grilled cheese for the vegetarians in the crowd. It involved two slices of cheese on an inverted hamburger bun. No one could tell there was crust on the inside of the sandwich.
It was never on the menu board; it was a SECRET MENU item.