Solution to Evan Birnholz's April 6 crossword, ‘Fork in the Road'
Today's odd puzzle features eight clues with parenthetical car makes, and the answers turn diagonally up or down in the direction of the corresponding circled car models, then ending on a new line.
But that's not all. Each car is paired with another such that they cross each other at specific circled squares:
The intersections of these cars spell out RAMP, which is the revealer at 107D: [What each circled model in this puzzle ascends or descends, and what's spelled by the letters where the models cross].
Just as I have been doing more and more recently, I drew once again from the asymmetrical well to make this puzzle. Once I decided on tying the diverging theme answers together with RAMP, and given that I wanted the start of each theme answer to be a legitimate word on its own, that basically forced asymmetry into the grid. Even a year or two ago this might have bothered me enough that I would have shelved the puzzle and redesigned it entirely, but I think I'm just ready to fully accept that symmetry can be discarded on demand. The puzzle may not have existed otherwise.
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