Meta explanation: a PITTSBURGHLEFT is a left turn at an intersection with no protected turn lane made as soon as the light turns green, without yielding to oncoming traffic. (Do not try this anywhere except Pittsburgh and its environs. And if you are unfamiliar with this maneuver and you happen to be driving in Pittsburgh, just FYI people absolutely do this.) Four symmetric car makes in the grid - KIA, FORD, JEEP, and GMC - are the "oncoming traffic" here, as hinted by their clues, and four other car makes are making left turns in front of them. Toyota, formed from OTIOSE and GATO, is turning in front of KIA, but the black square at the end of KIA is covering the Y. Cadillac (DACE, CALL) is turning in front of FORD with the I covered by the black square. Honda (TOHO, DAHS) is turning in front of JEEP with its N missing. Mazda (DHARMA, DANI) is turning in front of FORD and missing its Z. The missing letters spell the meta answer, YINZ, which is the Pittsburgh equivalent of "y'all." Thanks for solving!
Really nice work, Emma! Took a minute to figure out the right execution, but the actual mechanism was so much cleaner than all the other stuff I tried first :)
LarsCaine 🤓18:38 · 2024-03-14T12:44:07.515Z
Nice! I had to give up and I'm from SW PA!
TerminatorX 🤓13:52 · 2024-03-14T15:41:48.911Z
I doubt I would have figured it out properly, but once I solved PITTSBURGHLEFT and saw "'word'" in the prompt, "yinz" was about the most logical guess since "jagoff" has 6.
It did occur to me that some yinzers might be able to get the answer without solving the meta, lol. I was torn on putting those quotations marks around "word" for exactly that reason, but ultimately it seemed like the non-yinzers might need the quotes to prevent them from thinking "this can't be the answer this isn't a real word!"
FrankieHeck 🤓14:25 · 2024-03-20T20:54:15.295Z
I was really hoping to get this one, because I live close enough to Pittsburgh to be familiar with the term, but I also gave up and revealed. I was trying to use the entries ILLTRY and TELLTO, and shift the first letter to the left, etc. My husband scared the bejesus out of me last year when he took an unoffered Pittsburgh left in the Philly suburbs, so we now refer to it as a "WaWa Left." Granted, we'd probably still be sitting at that light if he hadn't done it, but the oncoming traffic was not amused.
cool puzzle!! i didn't think to look for 4 missing cars... i kept trying to break up the word of the 4 known cars and have one letter turn left and the rest go straight... very cool mechanism and i learned a new term!
rjy 33:08 · 2024-03-27T19:27:31.839Z
Finally bounced back to this but could not solve. Happy to get the explanation tho - this is a very cool and clever piece of construction. Looking forward to your next offering!
Like rats in ___ (engaged in mutually destructive fighting)
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Horizontales
1A
Like rats in ___ (engaged in mutually destructive fighting)
6A
Not new
10A
Entryway
15A
Gurira of "Black Panther"
16A
8-Down affliction
17A
"Becoming" author
18A
De la Garza of "Law & Order"
19A
Balanced on a knife's edge
21A
Feline, to Francisco
22A
The Buckeyes, briefly
23A
Assistance
24A
"Roger that, boss!"
26A
Port of ___ (stop on a ship's voyage)
28A
Psychiatry guides 1 to 5: Abbr.
32A
Marine hazards resulting from spills
34A
Youngest ever Oscar winner O'Neal
35A
Bud's partner in comedy
36A
Trimmed the fat, so to speak
39A
Illegal traffic maneuver that's nevertheless quite popular in western Pennsylvania (and in this grid)
43A
Plant new trees, perhaps
44A
Suffix with arbor or ether
45A
Buttocks
46A
Warned about
52A
Switch ending
53A
Counterparts of dits
55A
Well-to-do
56A
Word after strawberry or traffic
57A
Hank Schrader's employer in "Breaking Bad"
59A
Recurring character on "Glee" played by Demi Lovato
60A
Worsen
65A
Restroom sign
66A
Nouveau ___ (one Agnes van Rhijn looks down on in "The Gilded Age")
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Airline to Israel
68A
Impressionist Edouard
69A
Invite to one's apartment, perhaps
70A
Knocks over
71A
Univ. units
Verticales
1D
Slowly, to a conductor
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Deli offering
3D
Atonal arrangement for a Russian name [CRYPTIC CLUE] (this is not meta-related, it's just kind of weak fill and I thought the cryptic approach might make it easier)
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Musical works or church doctrines
5D
Sedona or Sportage you may see in oncoming traffic
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Gov. agency that, despite popular belief, has no official motto (which is good because snow really does seem to keep them from their appointed rounds)
7D
Hit
8D
See 16-Across
9D
Windshield attachment
10D
Escape or Focus you may see in oncoming traffic
11D
___-Wan Kenobi
12D
Ming of the Houston Rockets
13D
Relative of an ostrich
14D
Upperclassmen housed in underclassmen dorms, for short
20D
Feel under the weather
22D
Useless
25D
"Worth a shot"
27D
Tingly feeling at the back of the neck
28D
European minnow (anagram of ACED)
29D
Double ___ Oreo
30D
Dog unlikely to win Best in Show
31D
Texting format
33D
Chicago sluggers
34D
Share with, as a story
37D
"The African Queen" scriptwriter
38D
___ Initiative (mysterious organization in "Lost")
39D
Fear of the French in madcap Europe [CRYPTIC CLUE] (this is not meta-related, it's just kind of weak fill and I hoped the cryptic approach might make it easier)
40D
"In that case..."
41D
Hunting cry that's one letter off from a London neighborhood
42D
The Beehive State
43D
66, e.g.
47D
It might take you on a trip
48D
Win over
49D
Actress Wiest or Senator Feinstein
50D
Like a house being fumigated, perhaps
51D
Keats and others
53D
Org. Emily Gilmore is very proud to belong to in "Gilmore Girls"
54D
Color of honey
56D
Wrangler or Renegade you may see in oncoming traffic
58D
Fish caught in pots
60D
Distinctive period
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Greek letters used in physics to indicate "cascade particles"