0625-19 NY Times Crossword 25 Jun 19, Tuesday

Constructed by: Alex Eaton-Salners
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Pointillism

There is a note with today’s puzzle:

When the puzzle is done, read the dotted letters line by line from top to bottom to spell a title related to this puzzle’s theme.

Those dotted letters (circled in my grid) spell out “A SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE ISLAND OF LA GRANDE JATTE”, which is a painting by GEORGES SEURAT in the POINTILLISM style. A very unique puzzle …

  • 24A Technique employed in the painting hidden in this puzzle : POINTILLISM
  • 56A Artist who created the painting hidden in this puzzle : GEORGES SEURAT

The “Île de la (Grande) Jatte” is an island in the river Seine in Paris. The name translates as “Island of the (Big) Bowl”. The location features in the famous pointillist oil painting by Georges Seurat titled “Un Dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte)”. We can go see that painting in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 7m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Book of the Bible after John : ACTS

The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the Christian New Testament. It is believed that the author of the Gospel of Luke was the same person who wrote “Acts”.

10 ___ vu : DEJA

“Déjà vu” is French for “already seen”.

14 Russian rejection : NYET

The English word “no” translates into Russian as “nyet” and into German as “nein”.

15 Like about 60% of the world’s population : ASIAN

Most of the world’s population lives in Asia (60%), and Asia is the largest continent in terms of landmass (30% of the world). Asia also has the highest population density (246 people per square mile), and the most populous city on the continent is Shanghai, China.

16 Daredevil Knievel : EVEL

Daredevil Evel Knievel contracted hepatitis C from the many blood transfusions that he needed after injuries incurred during stunts. He had to have a liver transplant as a result, but his health declined after that. Knievel eventually passed away in 2007.

17 Org. for the New York Cosmos : NASL

The New York Cosmos are a Brooklyn-based soccer team that joined the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2013. The current Cosmos team takes its name from the original NY Cosmos founded in 1970 that folded in 1985. Apparently, the “Cosmos” name was chosen with reference to the moniker of the NY Mets baseball team. The concept was that the baseball team was “metropolitan”, and the new soccer team was to be “cosmopolitan”.

22 Prez before J.F.K. : DDE

President Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) was replaced in office by President John F. Kennedy (JFK).

23 Bygone car model named for a horse : PINTO

The Pinto is a small car that was made by the Ford company from 1971 to 1980. The Pinto was named for the type of horse. Allegations were made in 1997 that the neck of the car’s fuel tank could easily break off in a collision leading to a deadly fire. However, the allegations were never really shown to be valid.

24 Technique employed in the painting hidden in this puzzle : POINTILLISM

Pointillism is a style of painting that grew out of Impressionism. The pointillist technique calls for the artist to use small, distinct dots of bold color to build up the image. Pointillism was developed in the late 1800s by the great French painter, Georges Seurat. You can go see his magnificent work “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” at The Art Institute of Chicago the next time you’re in town.

27 What’s far from fair? : AN I

If we take the letters in the “far” from the letters in the word “fair” we are left with “an I”.

29 ___ Fighters (rock band) : FOO

Foo Fighters are described as an alternative rock band, one formed in 1994 by the drummer from Nirvana, Dave Grohl. The term “Foo fighters” originally applied to unidentified flying objects reported by allied airmen during WWII. Spooky …

30 Counterpart of long. : LAT

Lines of latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

  • Arctic Circle
  • Tropic of Cancer
  • Equator
  • Tropic of Capricorn
  • Antarctic Circle

31 One side of Niagara Falls: Abbr. : ONT

The Canadian province of Ontario takes its name from the Great Lake. In turn, Lake Ontario’s name is thought to be derived from “Ontari:io”, a Huron word meaning “great lake”. Ontario is home to the nation’s capital of Ottawa as well as Toronto, Canada’s most populous city (and the capital of the province).

The mighty Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, and forms part of the border between the US and Canada. The river is only about 35 miles long, so some describe it as a “strait”. It has a drop in elevation of 325 feet along its length, with 165 feet of that drop taking place at Niagara Falls.

36 Dijon darling : CHERIE

Dijon is a city in eastern France in the Burgundy region. Dijon is famous for its mustard, a particularly strong variation of the condiment. The European Union doesn’t protect the name “Dijon” so anyone can use it on a label. That seems fair enough to me, given that 90% of the mustard made in and around Dijon is produced using mustard seed imported from Canada!

38 “Star Trek: T.N.G.” character with empathic abilities : TROI

Deanna Troi is a character on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” who is played by the lovely Marina Sirtis. Sirtis is a naturalized American citizen and has what I would call a soft American accent on the show. However, she was born in the East End of London and has a natural accent off-stage that is more like that of a true Cockney.

46 Suffix with elephant : -INE

Something elephantine resembles an elephant, or more figuratively is huge and clumsy.

48 Takes too much, in brief : ODS

Overdose (OD)

49 What a Heisman winner might hope to become : NFL STAR

The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding college football player each season. The trophy was first awarded in 1935, and the following year was given the name Heisman after the death of John Heisman, a noted college football player and football director.

52 “Le Comte ___” (Rossini opera) : ORY

Gioachino Rossini was a prolific and very successful composer from Pesaro, Italy. During his lifetime, Rossini was lauded as the most successful composer of operas in history. His best-known opera today is probably “The Barber of Seville”. His best-known piece of music is probably the finale of the overture from his opera “William Tell”.

56 Artist who created the painting hidden in this puzzle : GEORGES SEURAT

Georges Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist. His most famous work is “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884”, a work in the pointillist style that can be viewed in the Art Institute of Chicago. If you’ve seen the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, it features quite prominently in a wonderful, wonderful scene shot at the gallery. The painting features ordinary people enjoying a day at a park, and is the inspiration for the 1984 musical by Stephen Sondheim called “Sunday in the Park with George”.

61 Crime scene clue : PRINT

In the world of criminology, there are three classes of fingerprints:

  • Patent prints are those which are obvious, easily spotted by the naked eye.
  • Impressed prints are those made when the fingertips apply pressure to a soft material or surface, such as the skin.
  • Latent prints are those that are invisible to the naked eye, but which can be detected using special equipment and materials.

62 Rapa ___ (Easter Island) : NUI

“Rapa Nui” is the Polynesian name for what we are more likely to call “Easter Island”. The European name was coined by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came across the island on Easter Sunday in the year 1722. Chilean-owned Easter Island is inhabited and is a location that is remarkably distant from neighboring civilization. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, which is almost 1300 miles away.

63 Willem of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” : DAFOE

Willem Dafoe is an American actor, from Wisconsin. He was born just plain “William” Dafoe, but didn’t like being called “Billy”. So, he changed his name to “Willem”, which was the pronunciation of his name by his Scottish babysitter.

65 Tower-building game : JENGA

Jenga is a simple but very entertaining game, one in which one stacks wooden blocks as high as possible until the resulting tower collapses. “Jenga” is the Swahili word for “to build”

66 ___ Radio Hour (NPR program) : TED

“TED Radio Hour” is an NPR podcast hosted by Guy Raz that uses excerpts from prior TED Talks to examine various subjects of interest.

69 French religious title: Abbr. : STE

“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a “femme” (woman).

70 Specialty : FORTE

A person’s forte is his or her strength. The term “forte” came into English via French from the Latin “fortis” meaning strong. “Forte” is also a musical direction meaning “loud”.

Down

1 Green Gables girl : ANNE

“Anne of Green Gables” is a 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that she set in the fictional Prince Edward Island community of Avonlea. Montgomery wrote several sequels to “Anne”, with them all being set on Prince Edward Island (PEI), from where the author hailed.

2 Ink cartridge color : CYAN

Four-color printing uses four different color inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The black ink is also known as the “key”. The first letter of the colors (with black being ”key”) give the more common name for four-color printing, namely CMYK.

4 Pope who negotiated with Attila the Hun : ST LEO

The first pope named Leo is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for meeting with the feared Attila the Hun and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe.

10 Cold cut purveyors : DELIS

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

12 Rocker Joan : JETT

Joan Jett is the stage name of rock guitarist and singer Joan Marie Larkin. She is best known as a member of the band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, which formed in 1979.

25 Koh-i-___ diamond : NOOR

The Koh-i-Noor is one of the world’s largest cut diamonds, and weighs over 100 carats. It is thought that the diamond came from Kollur Mine in Andhra Pradesh, India. Originally owned by a series of Mughal Emperors, the Koh-i-Noor eventually fell into the hands of the Queen Victoria during the days of the British Raj. The diamond is now part of the British Crown Jewels that can been seen by the public in the Tower of London. Understandably, ownership of the Koh-i-Noor is in dispute, with India, Pakistan, Afghanistan as well as Britain all making claim to being the rightful owner.

26 Doily material : LACE

There was a draper in London in the seventeenth century named Doiley, and he gave his name to the lace fabric that he sold, which in turn gave its name to the ornamental mat that we call a “doily”. I can’t stand doilies …

27 Elroy’s dog on “The Jetsons” : ASTRO

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1963 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are Rosie the household robot and Astro the pet dog.

28 Missile detection org. : NORAD

The North American Defense Command (NORAD) isn’t just a US operation but is a cooperative arrangement between Canada and the United States. The two countries entered into an agreement to establish NORAD in 1958, mainly due to the concern that there would be little or no warning of a missile attack from the Soviet Union that came over the North Pole. NORAD also tracks Santa Claus coming from the North Pole every Christmas, and these days publishes Santa’s location on Christmas Eve on its website. The tracking of Santa started into 1955 when a local Sears store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper with a phone number that could be used to call Santa Claus. The newspaper accidentally printed the number for the Continental Air Defense Command (a precursor to NORAD). The officer on duty instructed his staff to give all children who called a “current location” for Santa. Today, NORAD gets about 120,000 phone queries about Santa’s location every year, and the website gets about 20 million visitors.

32 Forty-___ (old prospector) : NINER

The California gold rush actually started in 1848. The first to exploit the find were those people already in California. By 1849 the word had spread and gold-seekers started to arrive from all over the world. The “out-of-towners” who arrived in 1849 became known as forty-niners.

33 All-in-one undergarment : TEDDY

The item of lingerie known as a teddy can also be called “camiknickers”. The alternative name was used when the one-piece garment was introduced in the twenties, a combination of a camisole and panties (aka “knickers”).

35 Game cube : DIE

The numbers on dice are arranged so that the opposite faces add up to seven. Given this arrangement, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 all meet at a common vertex. There are two ways of arranging the 1, 2 and 3 around the common vertex, a so called right-handed die (clockwise 1-2-3) or a left-handed die (counterclockwise 1-2-3). Traditionally, dice used in Western cultures are right-handed, whereas Chinese dice are left-handed. Quite interesting …

37 Chess rating system : ELO

The Elo rating system is used to compare the skill levels of competing chess players. The system is named for a Hungarian-born professor of physics called Arpad Elo, who was also a master-level chess player active in the US Chess Federation.

55 “Well done!” : BRAVO!

To express appreciation for a male performer at an operatic performance, traditionally one calls out “bravo!”. Appreciation for a female performer is shown by using “brava!”, and for more than one performer by using “bravi!”

57 German article : EINE

“Eine” is the German indefinite article used with feminine nouns.

58 Plum pudding ingredient : SUET

Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called suet. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be rendered or purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call lard. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as tallow.

Christmas pudding is a traditional holiday dish, served mainly in Britain and Ireland. It is also referred to as plum pudding, even though aren’t any plums included in the list of ingredients. “Plums” was a term that used to mean “raisins”, which are included. One of the appetizing ingredients is suet, animal fat. There’s also a lot of alcohol, which allows the pudding to be aged for months if desired. I must admit, I love Christmas pudding, soaked in brandy that’s set alight. And a little brandy butter on the side …

60 Civil wrong : TORT

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

61 Cover of night? : PJS

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

64 Hurricane’s center : EYE

A severe tropical storm is called a hurricane when it occurs in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, a typhoon in the Northwest Pacific, and a cyclone in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Tropical storms form over warm water, picking up energy from the evaporation from the ocean surface.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Book of the Bible after John : ACTS
5 Like some high-end cigars : CUBAN
10 ___ vu : DEJA
14 Russian rejection : NYET
15 Like about 60% of the world’s population : ASIAN
16 Daredevil Knievel : EVEL
17 Org. for the New York Cosmos : NASL
18 Alternative to a hedge : FENCE
19 Answer to “Shall we?” : LET’S
20 “Come in!” : ENTER!
22 Prez before J.F.K. : DDE
23 Bygone car model named for a horse : PINTO
24 Technique employed in the painting hidden in this puzzle : POINTILLISM
27 What’s far from fair? : AN I
29 ___ Fighters (rock band) : FOO
30 Counterpart of long. : LAT
31 One side of Niagara Falls: Abbr. : ONT
34 Had as a customer : SOLD TO
36 Dijon darling : CHERIE
38 “Star Trek: T.N.G.” character with empathic abilities : TROI
39 Bump up in pay : RAISE
43 Impart : LEND
44 $15/hour and others : RATES
46 Suffix with elephant : -INE
47 Got ready to be photographed : POSED
48 Takes too much, in brief : ODS
49 What a Heisman winner might hope to become : NFL STAR
52 “Le Comte ___” (Rossini opera) : ORY
53 Weaving machine : LOOM
54 First small bit of progress : A TO B
56 Artist who created the painting hidden in this puzzle : GEORGES SEURAT
61 Crime scene clue : PRINT
62 Rapa ___ (Easter Island) : NUI
63 Willem of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” : DAFOE
65 Tower-building game : JENGA
66 ___ Radio Hour (NPR program) : TED
67 Egg shell? : OVARY
68 “Awesome!” : SWEET!
69 French religious title: Abbr. : STE
70 Specialty : FORTE

Down

1 Green Gables girl : ANNE
2 Ink cartridge color : CYAN
3 Aviators trying out new planes : TEST PILOTS
4 Pope who negotiated with Attila the Hun : ST LEO
5 Half-___ (coffee order) : CAF
6 Did, once upon a time : USED TO
7 Dot on a Hindu woman’s forehead : BINDI
8 Smallish battery : AA CELL
9 Fla.-to-Me. direction : NNE
10 Cold cut purveyors : DELIS
11 With still greater intensity : EVEN MORE SO
12 Rocker Joan : JETT
13 Plus : ALSO
21 Falling-out : RIFT
23 Essential part : PITH
25 Koh-i-___ diamond : NOOR
26 Doily material : LACE
27 Elroy’s dog on “The Jetsons” : ASTRO
28 Missile detection org. : NORAD
32 Forty-___ (old prospector) : NINER
33 All-in-one undergarment : TEDDY
35 Game cube : DIE
37 Chess rating system : ELO
40 Minor maladies : AILMENTS
41 Counterparts of outs : INS
42 Save for later : SET ASIDE
45 Dismiss with derision : SNORT AT
47 Self-satisfied about : PROUD OF
50 Harbor hazard : FOG
51 Took in some takeout, say : ATE
53 What the French pronounce “Louis” with that the English do not : LONG E
55 “Well done!” : BRAVO!
56 Increased : GREW
57 German article : EINE
58 Plum pudding ingredient : SUET
59 Beyond the horizon : AFAR
60 Civil wrong : TORT
61 Cover of night? : PJS
64 Hurricane’s center : EYE