In March, Shannon Rapp co-wrote a puzzle published here. Now she's found
another collaborator, Heather Stanger McIntire, who's making her first appearance here. Shannon must have a SECRET
MENU of constructors to select from!
37. Unpublicized restaurant offering, or a feature of the answer to each starred clue: SECRET MENU. SECRET MENUs are mostly a fast-food thing, and most aren't all that secret. They're just off-menu offerings, but they help build brand loyalty because the customer feels like an insider when ordering one.
In today's puzzle, the MENU offerings are not from restaurants, but seen on websites. Some of them may be hidden under a "hamburger menu" - three bars in the upper corner of the screen that sorta resemble a burger. When clicked, it opens to show more choices like those clued below.
18. *Brunch choice: FRENCH OMELET. HOME takes one back the the HOME page of a website. Clicking on the company's logo will often do the same thing.
24. *Apprenticeship in the ways of The Force: JEDI TRAINING. Pressing EDIT enters "EDIT mode," where one can make changes to content.
54. *Negro Leagues player in the Baseball Hall of Fame: SATCHEL PAIGE. Clicking HELP often suggests things that are of no HELP.
61. *"I Just Called To Say I Love You" singer: STEVIE WONDER. VIEW buttons enable switching between layouts on a monitor, such as half or full screen.
At first, I thought the word "MENU" would be hidden or scrambled in the entries. Failing in that, I dug deeper. Because it's a proper Thursday, nothing was circled so I actually had to work for my "aha" moment. As usual when there are five long themers, we're left with a lot of abbrev. even with an extra-wide grid.
Let's see what else is on the menu:
Across:
1. Texting format initials: SMS. Short Message Service is the standard, text-only communication technology used by mobile phones.
4. Eel in maki sushi: UNAGI. There are many types of sushi. Maki sushi is the common variety made by rolling vinegared rice and other fillings in a sheet of nori seaweed. I prefer nigiri or sashimi.
9. Language of Sri Lanka: TAMIL. TAMIL is an ancient language with a documented history spanning over 2,000 years. It is spoken by approximately 80 to 90 million people worldwide, and serves as an official language in India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
14. "Long," in Hawaiian: LOA. LOA can also mean "tall" or "very/much" - all apt descriptions of Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano.
15. Sure to end badly: NO WIN.
16. __ Cortina 2026: MILANO. The sister cities that hosted this year's Winter Olympics in Italy.
17. Under the weather: ILL.
18. [theme]
20. Only major U.S. city founded by a woman: MIAMI. Julia Tuttle (1849–1898) was a savvy businesswoman who convinced tycoon Henry Flagler (John D. Rockefeller's partner) to extend his railroad to the area. Known as the "Mother of Miami," she used citrus blossoms from her property to prove the region was frost-free, securing the development. But let's not forget the "Other Mother of Miami," Mary Brickell (1836-1922), who donated significant parcels of her 2000 acres to make it happen. Tuttle, Brickell and Flagler are all immortalized by major namesake roads in South Florida.
22. Roadside org.: AAA. American Automobile Association. We used to visit their travel agency and get customized TripTiks (flip maps) before setting out on a long trip. Then the internet and GPS came along...
23. Draped silk dress: SARI.
24. [theme]
29. Digital exec: CTO. A Chief Technology Officer is the executive in charge of IT.
30. Purple bloom: IRIS.
31. World Series mo.: OCT. OCTober is also a month when all four major US sports are playing at the same time. Sometimes, they all have games on the same day, known as a "Sports Equinox."
32. Comedy series featuring Lily Tomlin: LAUGH-IN. LAUGH-IN debuted in 1968 and quickly became the most popular show on television. "And that's the truth."
 |
| Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann |
34. Grown boys: MEN.
35. Educational acronym: STEM. STEM is an interdisciplinary approach to learning that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, rather than teaching them as separate subjects. It focuses on hands-on, real-world applications to teach critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation, preparing students for technology-driven careers that hopefully are still needed in an Ai world.
36. Opera solos: ARIAS.
37. [theme]
41. Call dibs on: CLAIM.
44. Charger, e.g.: AUTO. The fastest I've ever been in an AUTO was in a friend's 1966 Dodge Charger on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. We hit 120 mph and it felt like the car was going to leave the ground. It probably did. He was nuts and it had me rethinking my life's choices.
 |
| The Dodge Charger was introduced in 1966 |
45. Navigation tech: GPS. Global Positioning System - the modern day TripTik. Back in the last century, my service van was full of maps, but I learned my way around. Nowadays, people blindly follow directions from point A to B and never acquire navigational skills.
48. Tolkien characters who like to eat six meals a day: HOBBITS. Most sources list seven meals: Breakfast; Second Breakfast; Elevenses; Lunch; Afternoon Tea; Dinner; and Supper.
51. Locavore's org.: CSA. My first thought was that Locavore might be a Confederate general like Longstreet. Different CSA. A localvore is someone who tries to eat foods grown or produced locally and promotes Community Supported Agriculture.
52. Small cut: SLIT.
53. Result of advancing in the field?: RBI. Runs Batted In, although it could have just been RUN.
54. [theme]
57. Key West, e.g.: ISLE. If you take U.S. 1 from Key West, you'll end up at the Canadian border in Maine 1,300 miles later - no map needed.
 |
| Mile 0 in Key West |
59. __ shu pork: MOO. MOO shu pork is a popular stir-fry dish featuring thinly sliced pork, scrambled eggs, and vegetables. I like to wrap them up like a Chinese fajita.
60. Oyster opener: OTTER.
61. [theme]
66. Sock part: TOE. Here's a windsock with an open TOE.
67. Barbershop parts: TENORS. Part of a barbershop quartet. I used to sing solo - so low that nobody heard me.
68. Leg day exercise: LUNGE.
69. Music producer Brian: ENO.
70. Snacks stuffed with "stuf": OREOS. There are as many varieties of OREOS as ways to clue them.
71. Couple of bucks?: STAGS. Not just some doe.
72. Web feed initials: RSS. Really Simple Syndication is a technology that allows you to automatically receive updates from your favorite websites. Instead of manually checking multiple sites for new content, an RSS feed delivers the latest headlines and articles directly to you.
Down:
1. Jerky brand: SLIM JIM. I thought jerky was made from meat? LOL While SLIM JIM does make some jerky, they are famous for their "Smoked Snack Sticks" which are a highly processed food.
2. "Tartuffe" playwright: MOLIERE. MOLIÈRE was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature.
3. First sultan of Syria and Egypt: SALADIN. SALADIN was a 12th-century Kurdish military and political leader who founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He successfully unified the Muslim Near East to reclaim Jerusalem and repel the Third Crusade. I don't remember him for some reason.
4. Not well-matched: UNFIT.
5. Swe. neighbor: NOR. NORway and Sweden are neighbors who only feud during Eurovision.
6. Astonishment: AWE.
7. Martini liquor: GIN.
8. Like some ruins in Peru: INCAN. The most famous is Machu Picchu from the 15th century.
9. "Beetlejuice" director Burton: TIM. TIM is known for his distinctive style that blends dark fantasy and gothic horror with whimsical elements in movies such as Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
10. Bitter beers: ALES. Bitter tears: WAILS.
11. Last book of the Old Testament: MALACHI. This is the end of the work as we know it.
12. Laziness: INERTIA. INERTIA is the natural tendency for an object at rest to stay at rest. I think I'll mow the lawn tomorrow...
13. Skin soothers: LOTIONS. What!? Not ALOE?
16. Disney film set in Polynesia: MOANA. Set in ancient Polynesia, the film follows MOANA, the strong-willed daughter of a village chief, who is chosen by the ocean to restore a mystical relic.
19. Call, as a cab: HAIL. Ride, as in a cab: HELL.
21. Sue Grafton's "__ for Malice": M IS. Easy peasy. All of her 25 "alphabet novels" start with the same letter as the crime-related word in the title. Very ambitious, but she died in 2017 before writing Z is for Zero. Her daughter said, "As far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y."
25. Campus mil. unit: ROTC. The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a college program that trains students to become commissioned officers in the U.S. Armed Forces.
26. Laptop brand: ACER.
27. "I feel seen": IT ME. Another unknown bit of internet slang, typically used when you identify perfectly with a meme or a character. It is a shortened version of "that's me" or "this is me." It bad.
28. Fertilizer from bats: GUANO. Because of bats' specialized diet, their droppings are exceptionally rich in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium—essential plant nutrients.
33. Mentor of Minions: GRU. GRU is a grouchy, quick-witted, and cynical supervillain and the boss of the Minions. He is voiced by Steve Carell.
35. Big rigs: SEMIS. SEMI is shorthand for a semi-truck. SEMI refers to the trailer because it only has axles in the rear. The motorized cab part is the tractor, hence a tractor-trailer.
37. Sis, for one: SIB. A sister is a SIBling.
38. Speed reader?: TACH. A TACHometer measures engine speed, while RADAR is used to read the speed of SEMIS.
39. Inspiring figure: MUSE.
40. Footnote abbr.: ET AL. The abbreviation of et alia, meaning "and others."
41. Artist known for fabric-wrapped installations: CHRISTO. I enjoyed seeing his Surrounded Islands in Biscayne Bay by Miami in 1983. I remember hearing a parody of Prince's "Little Red Corvette" called "Little Pink Islands."
 |
| "Little pink islands, CHRISTO your art's a gas..." |
42. Maine course: LOBSTER. Fun clue. You can also dive for LOBSTER just 1,300 miles off course in Key West.
43. Central Texas city: ABILENE.
45. Sparkly stuff: GLITTER.
46. City birds: PIGEONS.
47. Sound investments?: STEREOS. When I went to college, everyone brought STEREOS like they do computers today. I've upgraded through the years, and now have Legacy Focus speakers like these. They are big, but when your eyes are closed, singers sound like they are live, standing in the middle of the room! Ear buds just don't cut it.
49. Makes less wild: TAMES.
50. Put away: STOW.
52. Didn't play: SAT.
55. Loses steam?: COOLS. Just add more wood to the stove to keep your sauna steaming.
56. Sauna openings?: PORES. In a sauna, sweat pours out of PORES. This helps loosen dirt and oil trapped within the skin and improves circulation.
58. Kitchen initialism: EVOO. Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
62. Tax agcy.: IRS. The
63. Fan: NUT.
64. "The Code Breaker" subj.: DNA. Walter Isaacson's biography of Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her pivotal role in the development a revolutionary DNA-editing technology.
65. Pasta ingredient: EGG. Pasta is basically wheat flour and EGGS, with a little EVOO and salt added.
Be good. RB
21 comments:
Wow, that was tough!
You had to know art history, world history and geography, technology, etc. to solve this puzzle.
Plus I had no idea what the reveal referred to until I came on this site.
FIR, somehow, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
No zipping this morning, just a steady slide to the bottom. After getting the themers I looked for what they might have in common. Never realized that SECRET MENU was supposed to be the reveal, not a themer. Failed again. Still, all the boxes were filled correctly, so I'm putting this one in the win column. LAUGH-IN and Wild Wild West were two of the most popular TV shows on our aircraft carrier back in the day. We got 'em via a bicycle network of video tapes passed from ship to ship. Thanx, Heather, Shannon, and Rusty.
FIW, missing my WAG @ hALACHI x TAhIL. Forgot to look for the theme.
Bitter beer can harm your social life, as documented in this Keystone Light beer commercial from 1995.
If I never again see IT ME, I will have seen it one too many times.
Thanks to Heather for the Thursday-tough puzzle, and to Rusty Brain for explaining it all. 'Cept I'm not too sure about your explanation of SEMI. I think that it's a semitrailer because the front of the trailer mounts on the tractor, and isn't towed behind like the family Airstream.
FIR. This had a little bite to it. One expects Thursday puzzles to be on the hard side, but this was just a bit over the top.
I completely failed to see the theme. I stared at the starred answers for quite a while, but it was hopeless. I had to come here to have it explained.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 7:29 to get the saME NUmbers.
(Oops, not that kind of a secret menu.)
Once again, seemed like a themeless puzzle while solving.
I've never heard of a "French omelet," the sultan, or "tamil". Couldn't tell you the gender, name, or any other identifier of almost any major (or minor) city. I seem to remember learning that Ponce de Leon visited Miami, but I guess he "found" it, but didn't "found" it.
Strong candidates for worst clues of the month:
"First sultan of Syria and Egypt/Saladin"
"'I feel seen'/itme"
I found this CW rather easy, no names I didn’t know. Some nice clues like the ones for OTTER, LOBSTER, PORES.
However, I never found the SECRET MENU words. As for IT ME, at first I thought it had to be wrong, but perps insisted it was correct, so I left it.
Great review RB. I appreciate your explanation of the one part of this fun puzzle I missed.
Blah on ITME. That's awful
It makes sense that yesterday's Monday-level puzzle would be followed by a Tuesday-level offering.
An easy romp with helpful perps where needed. An overall absence of cleverness* made for an easy, though boring experience.
*an argument could be made that the theme was clever, but I paid no attention to the theme while solving.
Any constructor who would use something as ludicrous and stupid as it me, is not for me! FIW as since I’m slow on internet technology and don’t know Hawaiian, I forgot Saliere wrote music, not plays!!! But it me takes the cake even though I had it right.
Thurs-Fri-Sat are my preferred crossword days, and Heather and Shannon didn't let me down today. I admit that two of the four starred theme answers were gimmes: 18-A, since I used to live in France--and 54-A, since I love baseball.
Nitpicks: I'm not entirely clear why a 16 x 15 grid was felt necessary. It's not like the constructors had an indispensable 16-grid spanner. And I'm with others regarding the repugnant ITM.
Non-nitpick: For 3-D I wanted to enter PALADIN, not SALADIN. Paladin was the gun-for-hire played by Richard Boone in the TV adult western "Have Gun Will Travel." The song went "Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam..." He was a literate, sophisticated San Franciscan spouting Shakespeare while eradicating bad guys and helping civilize the West.
Thanks, Shannon and Heather, for your enjoyable and satisfying challenge today. And thanks, RB, for neatly steering us around the stumbling blocks.
See, ITME was so repugnant I couldn"t even write it down!
One correction, I didn’t know GRU, but perps helped.
Musings
-I made it right through the puzzle but was determined to find the gimmick. I saw HOME quickly and then finally EDIT, ET AL appeared. Yay me!
-Golf league president sent SMS’s to all of us seniors Monday night but I think he regretted it as Tuesday’s wind chill was in the 30’s with the wind sock parallel to the ground.
-After seeing UNAGI for years in cwd’s, I only recently looked up how it is pronounced. Henry Cho has a funny bit about his Korean father asking a waitress for a “quickie”. Henry corrected him by saying, “Dad that quiche word is pronounced “keesh”.
-George Steinbrenner famously called Reggie Jackson Mr. October for his phenomenal play in World Series games. He called our frequent cwd Yankee, A-ROD, Mr. April because he was a failure in October.
-The TV in our student lounge had a huge audience for Laugh In and Batman
-CSA is a definite late-week abbr. with a good confederate option. RSS has no good option and IT ME is just an "any port in a storm" fill.
-Result of advancing in the field?: RBI, it can be but not always and not usually
-SLIM JIM abutting MOLIERE seemed to be “not well-matched” :-)
-Our town now has a bypass to keep SEMIS from using U.S. 77 through downtown. The truckers hate it and the city is now trying to figure out how to force truckers to go around.
-My wife’s maiden name was CHRISTO. Her cousin played QB for the Huskers and his name was Monte.
-Nice tour, Rusty!
Good Morning:
I enjoyed the solve but I’m always frustrated when I can’t decipher the theme. Today is a case in point. Maybe it’s because I’m still disgruntled by having to wait until next Wednesday for the A/C to be repaired. On the positive side, though, the heat wave has ended and temps are far more tolerable. Not seeing the theme, however, takes some joy out of an otherwise successful solve, not to mention the second guessing of your crossword solving skills. That said, the theme was very clever and well-executed. Too bad It Me wasn’t executed, too.
Thanks, Heather and Shannon, and thanks, RB, for the badly-needed and excellent explanation of the theme and overall review.
Have a great day.
LOL! I had to watch an Ad to watch your Ad!
Ah! that brings me back to my yoot!
Well, I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who couldn't find the secretive theme.
IMHO, I would have very much appreciated circles in this puzzle. This seems like the type of puzzle that circles were made for...
silly theme link
It me, bit me...
From yesterday before yesterday,
CanadianEh pointed out that Amanda Cook visited the Blog very late two days ago regarding the power clashing puzzle!
Her words again if anyone missed it:
Amanda Cook
Hi, all -- Amanda here! Sorry I'm just now seeing your comments. I've had a lot going on lately and truthfully forgot I had this puzzle out today until very late last night. For the theme, I was thinking of CLASHING as simply "colliding." In each thematic entry, the two POWER words have clashed/collided, and their juxtaposition forms a new phrase. Reading some of your comments, though, perhaps POWER COUPLE would have been a better revealer! Ah well -- you live and you learn, and sometimes you don't see a better option until after the fact.
I liked this puzzle.
Slim Jims are on all gas station menus. It’s been ages since I’ve eaten one.
I put Hindi. The perps corrected it to Tamil.
Laugh In was a funny series. I had a crush on Goldie Hawn and always liked Arte Johnsons cameos.
ITME was this weeks nose wrinkler.
I aced the fill but couldn’t suss the theme. Thanks RB for pointing it out.
Who else found the SECRET MENU items? I struggled hard to figure it out. But I would have felt the puzzle was unfinished without doing so. You may feel different.
I laughed and agreed with RB. "Itme", it bad. Thanks for figuring out the theme Rusty. I had no idea. I never knew Miami was founded by a woman, very interesting. "Locavore had me stumped. I definitely had a tough go of it. I enjoyed the recap more than the puzzle.
I'm glad somebody else figured out the SECRET MENU link because my mind was on food, not computers. But was an easier than usual Thursday puzzle to FIR., except the ITME fill.
I've never heard of a FRENCH OMELET but it was an easy guess.
SOLIERE. CSA, and SALADIN were other unknowns but the perps handled them.
OTTER was filled by perps and then I had the V8 moment.
"Fertilizer from bats"- well most people have another name for it but maybe they are "GUANO-crazy". I have smelled the bats flying from under the bridge in Austin, TX. I can't imagine anybody harvesting bat guano without a gas mask or an external oxygen supply.
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