April in Paris

April in Paris,
Shanina Conway
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April in Paris, Puzzle by Fred Piscop, edited by Will Shortz
If you subscribe to The New York Times on-line Premium Crosswords, you are probably familiar with the monthly puzzle. For April, the title of the crossword is April in Paris, and this month‘s dazzling little puzzle features Paris in thirty-some clues of the crossword.
Across: 1. Goldberg of “2 Days in Paris”; 8.
Designer for Paris’s Folies-Bergère; 12. Texas county whose seat is Paris; 14. “Jacques BREL is Alive and Well and Living in Paris”; 16. Paris-born Actress Anouk; 18. EURO Disney S.C.A. (Owner of Disneyland Resort Paris); 20. Avenue des Champs-ÉLYSÉES (Paris street); 23. Product sold by Agip in Paris; 30. Paris subway; 33. Kid-lit elephant who visits Paris; 39. Jules, author of the lost novel “Paris in the 20th Century”; 42. Fast way to Paris, once; 43. To whom “We’ll always have Paris” was spoken; 45. Paris-born singer Piaf; 52. Newspaper of Paris; 56. Educ. Certificate earned by Paris Hilton; 62. Shakespearean rival of Paris; 66. Historic theater in Paris’s Left Bank; 69. “ONCE in Paris” (1978 Wayne Rogers movie).
Down: 5.
Paris’s École des Beaux-ARTS; 9. Moulin ROUGE (Paris cabaret); 24. PLASTER of Paris (building material); 26. Claudette of “I Met Him in Paris”; 37. Bribe offerer in “The Judgment of Paris”; 39. Arrondissement in Paris that contains the Eiffel Tower; 41. “Peggy From Paris” playwright George; 44. Ravel composition that debuted in Paris in 1928; 48. Father of Hector and Paris; 49. American in Paris, e.g.; 51. Paris’s ARCH of Triumph; 54. Joan, muralist for the Unesco building in Paris; 55. Airport serving Paris.
VERNE is featured in the center of thie crossword as the author of the lost novel Paris in the 20th Century -- paraphrasing briefly, it was written in
1863 but first published only in 1994, about a young man who lives in a technologically advanced, but culturally backwards future. Often referred to as Verne's "lost" novel, the work, set in August, 1960, paints a grim, dystopian view of the future. In the book, Verne predicted or alluded to a wide variety of modern technological items we, and earlier generations, have come to take for granted. Among them are air conditioning machines, skyscrapers, gasoline-powered automobiles, high-speed trains, calculators, the internet (a worldwide “telegraphic” communications network), electric chairs (criminals “executed by electric charge”); televisions, elevators, fax machines., and a geometric, modern centerpiece Louvre in Paris, indeed, a modern, geometric, glass-and-steel pyramid structure was erected during the late 20th Century in the courtyard plaza of the Louvre. He also predicted the Eiffel Tower. The tower itself was built in 1887; the book was written in 1863.
Paris in the Twentieth Century's main character is 16-year-old Michel Dufrénoy, who graduates with a major in literature and the classics, but finds they have been forgotten in a futuristic world where only technological writing is valued. In a moving but excessively melodramatic climax, the heartbroken Dufrénoy, bereft of friends and loved ones, wanders through the frozen, mechanized, electrical wonders of Paris. The subjectivity becomes steadily more surreal as the dying artist, in a final paroxysm of despair, unconsciously circles an old cemetery before his death.
Verne’s publisher, thought the book's pessimism would damage Verne's then-booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was forgotten, only to be discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was finally published in French in 1994, and in English in 1997.
All's well that ends well, and well... it's April in Paris!
Click on image to enlarge.
Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
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