Greek locale once described as the island of overmastering passions / FRI 11-12-21 / Units equivalent to 1/6 of an inch / Home to Mayan ruins like Caracol and Lamanai / Subscripts on Scrabble tiles / Focus of 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Act / Leviticus calls it unclean and not fit for consumption

Constructor: Patrick John Duggan

Relative difficulty: Medium 

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Test cricket (50A: International cricket matches => TESTS) —

Test cricket is the form of the sport of cricket with the longest match duration and is considered the game's highest standard. Rotary Test matches are played between national representative teams that have been granted Test status, as determined and conferred by the International Cricket Council(ICC). It is called Test because the long, gruelling matches are mentally and physically testing. Two teams of 11 players each play a four-innings match, which may last up to five days (or more in the past). It is generally considered the most complete examination of a team's endurance and ability.

The first officially recognised Test match took place between 15 and 19 March 1877 and was played between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). In October 2012, the ICC recast the playing conditions for Test matches, permitting day/night Test matches. The first day/night game took place between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, on 27 November – 1 December 2015. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well if you're just gonna hand it to me...

From this auspicious beginning I ran nearly all the Down crosses in a row (couldn't manage the last one, ADRIFT, off just the "A"), and really thought I'd sail through this thing no problem, but then immediately ran into the one Very thorny part of the grid (which on its own took the puzzle to "Easy" to "Medium" for me). Now the first misstep is entirely my fault. I had the PI- at 20A: Units equivalent to 1/6 of an inch (PICAS), but my eyes only bothered to take in the first part of the clue, through about "1/6," and then my brain went, "well, you want 'units' that start PI-, in five letters, so that's definitely PINTS." So I wrote in PINTS. Hard, hard ouch. Worse than that, though, were my attempts to make *any* sense of LETF- at 23A: Throw or shoot (LET FLY). Basically, all attempts were fruitless and my brain just kept flashing "Error! Error!" Then I couldn't make any sense of 21D: Arcade game feature (CLAW) because nearly all the ones I've ever seen in an actual "arcade" are stand-up video games or pinball machines, so after (coin) SLOT my brain had no offerings. And then there was "IF comma SAY...", by far the hardest thing to parse, even after I'd sorted the whole PICAS/PINTS fiasco. The only expression (I thought) I knew was "I'D SAY..." and that did Not seem a good match for the clue. Because I couldn't get that one, I couldn't get into the NE corner very easily, so ... yeah, the LET FLY / "IF, SAY..." nexus really laid me out there for a bit. But then I recovered and the puzzle reverted to Easy.

The grid is solid and often bright. One-Across helped set an upbeat tone, and the party kept going with BIKINIS and BEER KOOZIEs in BELIZE over there in the eastern portion of the grid. I thought the beer went in a cosy (cozy?), like a "tea cosy" ... was it that American dudes just couldn't ABIDE having their drink of choice being associated with anything as unmanly as "tea" (or the word "cosy"), and had to trick out the spelling with wacky spelling, thus creating an ironic buffer between themselves and utter feminization? Is that it? That sounds like it? Or else KOOZIE is a brand, like XEROX, and I'm all turned around on the subject. Just as I didn't like the clue on LET FLY (which implies something more specific, more long-distance / effortful / long-shot than merely [Throw or shoot]), I didn't care for the one one on SKATE either (48D: Be found not guilty, shockingly). It's the word "shockingly" that feels out of place and misdirective in non-clever ways. I don't think you need it at all, but I guess SKATE implies that the party is probably / definitely guilty, so there's something unjust about the verdict, but that is not (at all) necessarily something that is "shocking." I am never, ever shocked when obviously guilty parties SKATE, especially if they are white guys with guns or or white guys who abuse women or people of color etc. Not shocked by the skating. Stand by for me to be not shocked by the Not Guilty verdict in the [white-right Wisconsin murderer-teen] trial. I thought "shockingly" mean that the word seemed paradoxical. Like it looked like it would suggest guiltiness, but instead it refers to non-guiltiness, that kind of "shocking." That, or I thought the word maybe could also mean something punnily related to "shock" (like ... I dunno, TASE or GASP or something). "Shockingly" just ruins that clue. Also, KEMPT (in the cross) is a dumb word without the UN- prefix. So not happy there. But happy most everywhere else. Good Friday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. Hey there, ELIEL ... long (long) time, no see (5D: Architect Saarinen). How's your boy, EERO? He doesn't come around much anymore, either...

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