Pirate plunder / THU 2-20-20 / Sweet and healing medicine of troubles per Horace / Oscar-nominated actor with nearly synonymous first and last names / Where the Ko'olau range is located

Constructor: Joe Deeney

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (not sure of exact solving time as I had to wrestle with rebus squares in my software)



THEME: PIECES OF EIGHT (53A: Pirate plunder ... or a hint to interpreting an appropriate number of squares in this puzzle) — eight "8" squares, I guess ... so it's "eight" phonetically (i.e. "ATE") in the Acrosses and two "O"s in the Downs ... I guess the numeral "8" represents two "O"s one on top of the other ... [sigh]

Theme answers:

• UPLATE / GOOF UP
• THE FOURTH ESTATE / "SCHOOL DAZE"
• HATERS GONNA HATE / TOO SOON / SNOOPS 
• TAILGATE PARTY / TOO SOON
• XRATED / WHIRLPOOLS 
• ON A DATE / FOOLS
• CRATER / WHOOPI

Word of the Day: Chicago's EDEN'S Expressway (67A: Chicago's ___ Expressway) —

The William G. Edens Expressway (also known as the Edens Parkway and the Edens Superhighway) is the main major expressway north from the city of Chicago to Northbrook, Illinois. Only the short portion from the spur ramp to the expressway's end in Highland Park does not carry I-94. It was the first expressway in Chicago and was opened on December 20, 1951. It has three lanes in each direction. The original name of the expressway was the Edens Parkway, named after William G. Edens, a banker and early advocate for paved roads. He was a sponsor of Illinois' first highway bond issue in 1918. (wikipedia)

This was annoying to solve. Why do constructors keep trying to do Soooooo much? I don't mean mere ambition, I mean whistles and bells that just make things a mess. It's "8" in the grid but ATE in the Across and "OO" in the Downs *and* there are 8 theme squares and there's a "pirate" (?) phrase for a revealer?! People will ooh and aah at the "impressive feat of construction," but the solving experience was unpleasant. It was especially unpleasant if, like so many people, you didn't solve it on paper. For me, it was just a dumb "why is ATE crossing OO and really is that the only thing that's happening? and it's just going to *keep* happening!?!?"HATERS GONNA HATE is a fun phrase, and I enjoyed remembering that "SCHOOL DAZE" existed, but the rest of it, no thanks.


Found the ATE/OO thing very early with UPLATE / GOOF UP (two "up" phrases crossing, really? OMG no, SAT UP is right there too, with "UP" crossing the "UP" in GOOF UP— that's all truly horrid). And then it was just a slog, with PIECES OF EIGHT only kinda sorta bringing it all together. I guess the "PIECES" are the 8 squares? I had some trouble seeing PIECES OF EIGHT because I had MOOR instead of COVE at one point (54D: Spot to lay anchor). I had a *lot* of wrong answers. PARKS for POLLS (24A: They close at 9 p.m. in New York); MLS before XFL (59D: Sports org. with the New York Guardians and Seattle Dragons); Nation of ISLES instead of Nation of ISLAM (don't ask, man, I have no idea what my brain was doing there) (30D: Nation of ___). The worst error by far was SLOGS (and then PLODS) for PLOWS (49A: Goes (through) laboriously). What a gangly awkward clue on such a basic word. Because of my wrong answer(s), I couldn't see YIPE (43D: Cry of surprise) (it's YIPES, btw). I also just couldn't get to CLICK (47D: Hit it off), and I really really wasn't expecting a theme square down there, so CRATER and WHOOPI were rough. The rest of the grid wasn't much trouble. It also wasn't much fun.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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