Terminal Bliss actress Chandler / WED 8-3-11 / Tevye's good / Tackle-to-mast rope on ships / Teleflora competitor / Toledo tidbit

Constructor: Paul Guttormsson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Ts — every answer contains at least one "T" and every clue starts with "T"


Word of the Day: OTTO Harbach (13D: "The Touch of Your Hand" lyricist Harbach) —

Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach (August 18, 1873 – January 24, 1963) was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies. Some of his more famous lyrics are for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine". (wikipedia)

• • •

Lesson to be learned from this puzzle: just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you should. What kind of joy can anyone get out of a grid loaded with Ts? More to the point, what about Ts justifies the absolutely substandard grid required to make the T gimmick come off? I I saw all the T clues and the two-part T.T. long answers, and thought "Why?" Then I saw the additional layer—the fact that every answer has at least one T. Then I thought, "Dear lord, WHY?!" If you want to know why there is nothing remotely interesting about this grid except two of the three long answers—*that's* why? "Gotta make sure every word has a T!" But ... it's T. It's not a desirable letter. ETTA (56D: "Tell Mama" singer James) and ETTU and ATTA in same 4x4 section of grid? How can this appeal to anyone except the constructor (marveling at his T-cramming abilities)? Painful all around, everywhere I looked. Finished quickly, but not successfully—turns out I put in the sensible verb RENDS at 21D: Tears instead of the much odder noun RENTS. At that point, I really didn't care. So I had DOV instead of TOV (36A: Tevye's "good"). Seemed reasonable.


Theme answers:

• all of them, I guess
  

Greatest clue was 10A: Turkey club? (NATO). Don't know if it's original, but I like it. Worst clue was 52A: Trap or record preceder (SET A). If you are serving up crud (e.g. this partial), then don't dress it in a tutu. Just put some jeans on the thing and let it go. By which I mean, a simple fill-in-the-blank clue will do. "Preceder" implies one word, but I get two, and one of them is "A." Ugh. I get that the phrase is one thing, hence a "preceder," but you see how I am talking about SET A instead of (in an ideal world) ignoring it? Innocuous clues for terrible fill—that should be the rule. Never heard of ESTEE Chandler (40D: "Terminal Bliss" actress Chandler) or OTTO Harbach. Also, never heard of "Terminal Bliss" or "The Touch of Your Hand." ESTEE Chandler hasn't acted in who knows how long and doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (could've clued her via "Teen Wolf Too"). OTTO Harbach seems to be quite a bit more famous, though "The Touch of Your Hand" isn't even mentioned on *his* Wikipedia page (he was lyricist for "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," among other things). But the T god must be served.


Bullets:

• 6A: TV/radio host John (TESH) — former "Entertainment Tonight" co-host.
  
• 23A: Tackle-to-mast rope on a ship (TYE) — more less-than-winning fill.
  
• 53A: Teleflora competitor (FTD) — Teleflora sounds more like a Telemundo competitor.
  
• 68A: Two-color horse (PINTO) — also, exploding car of old.

["People don't understand why I do certain things..."]

• 6D: Toledo tidbit (TAPA) — always hurts to see this answer in the singular, however valid.
  
• 12D: Two-time All-Star Martinez (TINO) — briefly forgot his name and went with TITO. Why not? It's got another "T" in it, after all, so it must be good.
  
• 26D: Title for Sulu on "Star Trek": Abbr. (LIEUT.) — forgot this, if I ever knew it.
  
• 35D: "The Closer" airer (TNT) — never seen an episode. Couldn't tell you the premise. Only know of its existence from watching ... what? "Conan?" NBA Playoffs?
  

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld