When many of my German-speaking friends tried to translate this article into English, they all were puzzled with one word which appeared in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Here is the sentence in German: "Es war zwar night die Oper, sondern das patinöse "Plaza" am Central Park,...", which translates into English as "It wasn't the Opera, but the patinöse Plaza at Central Park, ...". Now, what the heck is patinöse?!

One of my friends who is actually from Austria was so curious about this word that she called the newspaper and asked them to give her the email address of the author of the article - Claus Pandi. Here is what she wrote me in an email after she got a response from him:

Hi Raphael!

The journalist from the Austrian newspaper replied to my email today. He said that the word is a "creation" of his (!!) - very funny man - and that it derives from the word "Patina". Attached is a description of the different meanings of "patina".

I think if you take the meaning of the word figuratively, he was trying to say in his article that the Plaza is still a very elegant location, but has gathered some "dust" over the years, in other words: not really a compliment for the Plaza.

No wonder all of my German-speaking friends could not figure this word out! I am glad now the mystery is solved.