A Farewell to R's

[joequavis]

Perhaps most folks feel like this, but I feel like I live in The Land of No Accents, so this one was definitely tough for me. I was also looking in all the wrong places. Nudge 1 is what helped, but definitely looked at / needed all of them.

And of course once you see it you wonder how you could possibly not see it!

Great puzzle, Cap'n!

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 4 and four more Muggles have broken the tape:

LindaPRmaven
Naptown Kid
joequavis
Alex R

This brings our total to 67. Great job, everyone!

[AnswerPfinder]

Off the couch! Saw the first step almost immediately, but floundered for a while after that. Nudges helped, though! Nice job @Cap'n Rick !

[Cap'n Rick]

Good morning everyone. The meta answer was "CRIMSON" - the official color of Harvard University.

After completing the grid, solvers needed to locate the 7 symmetrically-placed grid entries that make up that familiar quote re: Boston (i.e. "Park the car in Harvard Yard"). But in this case, the entries appeared the way a person with a Boston accent (as hinted in 24-Down) would pronounce them (i.e. "PAK THE CAW INN HAW VID YOD").

The first letters of the clues associated with the 7 entries spell the meta answer.

Oh, I placed a few other hints around the grid to help with the solve (e.g. 1A - RLESS, 73A - ARGON, 61D - AAH, 16A - Be in the red = OWE). And since I didn't want this meta to be too regional, I placed a "special Southern hint" at 6A - "Certain tide" - which could also reference the University of Alabama "Crimson" Tide or "BAMA" as very subtly indicated in wrapping fashion at 64D.

Thank you everyone who solved. Including @AnswerPfinder and the testers we had a total of 68 solvers. I know it may have been a long and difficult marathon for some, but hopefully you all felt that exhilarating runner's high at the finish.

Until next time,
Cap'n Rick