16. "Atonement" actress : KEIRA KNIGHTLEY. I remember her from this famous movie series.
23. Aviation pioneer : WILBUR WRIGHT. Ever the salesman, he had hundreds of postcards on the plane he flew at a show in Boston, then sold them to raise money for his next project.
37. Dr. Phil, e.g. : POP PSYCHOLOGIST. His methods have garnered some controversy. But he looks a lot like Wilbur Wright, don't you think?
61. Captains of industry : CORPORATE CZARS. I'm not sure this is an "in the language" phrase. I am more familiar with the term "Energy Czar."
Did you spot the theme when solving? I have to admit, it was not apparent to me until I wrote out the five theme entries above. How clever of David Poole to find two word entries with the same letter beginning both words, but in the second word the letter is silent.
Marti here, to check out the rest.
Across
1. Fast money sources : ATMs. Automated Teller Machine(s). I grit my teeth when I hear someone say they took money from the "ATM machine." (You'll notice a lot of red in the "Across" portion of my write-up…)
5. First name in jazz : ELLA. One song today, and it's a beaut!
9. "The Kite Runner" boy : AMIR.
13. Police jacket acronym : SWAT. Special Weapons and Tactics.
14. Place : LIEU.
15. Peace Nobelist Walesa : LECH.
19. Many a car : SEDAN. Like 21-Across.
20. Abu Dhabi is its cap. : UAE. United Arab Emirates.
21. Cadillac compact : ATS.
28. Dickens pen name : BOZ.
31. Motown team : LIONS.
32. The Joker, to Batman : ENEMY.
33. Kentucky border river : OHIO.
35. Some four-year degs. : BSs. Bachelor of Science(s). And that's no BS!
36. Cinematic FX : CGI. Computer Generated Imagery.
43. "Up, up and away" carrier : TWA. Trans World Airlines.
44. Suffix in taxonomy : -OTA. Basidiomycota, eukaryota and the like.
45. Slobbering toon dog : ODIE.
46. Host : EMCEE.
49. Maker of XX antiperspirants : ARRID.
51. Fire : AXE.
55. Test for srs. : GRE. Graduate Record Exam.
56. Chargers linebacker Manti __ : TEO.
57. Matthew Broderick originally provided his adult voice : SIMBA.
66. Apiarist in a 1997 film : ULEE. Welcome back, old friend.
67. Lady's business? : AVON. Um, excuse me. Isn't that a little un-PC? There are over 12,000 men who also sell AVON products.
68. Work in the cutting room : EDIT.
69. Genesis creator : SEGA. Service Games. (True!)
70. Email : SEND.
71. Circle opening? : SEMI. Semi-circle.
Down
(Nary a bit of red to be found in this bunch!)
1. Petitions : ASKS.
2. Oh-so-dainty, in Devon : TWEE. I was not familiar with this British definition. But I have heard of "TWEE Pop" referring to certain Indie music.
3. Hotel employee : MAID. Because the more PC term "housekeeper" would not fit.
4. Soda fountain freebie : STRAW.
5. Lodge logo animal : ELK.
6. Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer : LIN. Maya Lin's structure evokes an almost universally emotional response from visitors. And we have another architect in our midst at 27-Down. Covent Garden architect Jones : INIGO. He was slightly before Maya Lin's time.
7. Welcoming ring : LEI. Oh, I was thinking of cell phone ring tones. I always love to hear the one that plays when DH calls me.
8. Bodes : AUGURS.
9. Superhero's cover : ALTER EGO.
10. Blanc who voiced Bugs : MEL.
11. When mammoths roamed : ICE AGE.
12. Musician's asset : RHYTHM.
17. Indigo source : ANIL. INIGO's father?
18. Half a bray : HAW.
22. Place for a mud bath? : STY. I almost put "spa" but then I saw the question mark.
24. Chad neighbor : LIBYA. Chad has lots of neighbors. And four of them are five letters. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe...
25. Anjou cousin : BOSC.
26. Still woolly, perhaps : UNSHORN.
28. Conk : BOP.
29. "So that's your game!" : OHO!
30. Speed : ZIP.
34. Went (for) : OPTED.
36. Demand as due : CLAIM.
38. Fragrant climbing plant : SWEET PEA.
39. Another, in Acapulco : OTRO.
40. Director Lupino : IDA.
41. Milne's "Now We Are __" : SIX. A book of children's verses.
42. Where a driver is often needed : TEE. HG, do you always use a driver off the tee?
46. Frittata ingredient : EGG. Yumm!
47. Neiman's partner : MARCUS. Instead of investing in the fledgling Coca-Cola company in 1907, they decided to start a department store, because "sugary pop" was too risky. Hah!
48. Like jambalaya : CREOLE. Yumm! (Anyone else getting hungry?)
49. Old gathering places : AGORAS.
50. Fam. tree member : DESC.endant.
53. Con lead-in : NEO. Neoconservative. No politics!
54. King and queen, but not prince : SIZES. "Beds" was too short.
58. Identified, as an undercover cop : MADE.
59. Beret's lack : BRIM.
60. European wine area : ASTI.
62. Pump spec. : REG.ular.
63. Blvd. relative : AVE.nue. Kissing cousins to sts.
64. Whole bunch : TON.
65. Remnant : END. And that's exactly what this is!
Marti
46 comments:
There once was a theme so abstruse
It made everyone feel quite obtuse;
We might see a start,
Perceive it in part,
But overall, the theme's use was abuse!
Some cruciverbalists went on a picnic.
They laid out by their favorite creek¹ pick.
But while at their ease
They were caught by some fleas --
And that's why puzzlers so love to nitpick!
Just what did KIERA do NIGHTLY?
What wrong did WILBUR RIGHT nicely?
Was POP a bike cycl-ogist?
Do GARDENs in NOME exist?
Is an epidemic of CORPORATE SARS² likely?
¹ pronounced krĭk, not krēk.
² SARS=severe acute respiratory syndrome.
A lovely theme by David Poole, a wonderful explanation by Marti, and a hilarious poem by Owen. Thanks! It reminds of spelling out words in a manner as "K as in "knight", ..."
If you're still up for another puzzle or two, have a look at It Was Thirty Years Ago Today (today = Thursday, May 8) and Cyclops de Mayo (from a few days ago). Hope you enjoy them!
DNF. Couldn't crack SEgA ✜ REg. Genesis? The Creator was God, a.k.a Jehovah, Elohim, The Word; the book was attributed to Moses; the planet was created by some Star Trek movie mad scientist, the band was created by some rockers. And pump specifications are PSI, or gallons of water or something; maybe reps for pumping weights.
Also slowed down by misspelling WILBER, 35a BFA>BSc>BSS, and the 39d=OtRO ✜ 44a=OtA was a WAG.
Marti: I presume you use your personal PIN ID number when you use an automatic ATM machine?
Morning, all!
Fun puzzle today with a lot of lively fill and just the right level of difficulty for a Thursday. I did not figure out the theme even after completing it, but that didn't affect the solve at all.
ATS was unknown to me, so I needed the perps in that small section. It took awhile to recall that Matthew Broderick was the voice of Simba in the original "Lion King" movie, but the information was buried somewhere in my brain and I did eventually dredge it up. BOZ was the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place. Again, I knew it, but it took a bit of digging to unearth it. Without it, I doubt I would have guessed ZIP as a synonym of "speed".
Not up on my taxonomy, WBS about BOZ and I am unfamiliar with TWEE. We also have Sweet Pea after our recent Swee Pea.
Liked seeing MAID and MADE, agree about number of initialisms but have heard the phrase CORPORATE CZARS for years.
While Dr. Phil may look like Wilbur if he shaved, he is more like the Garden Gnome.
Thanks David and Marti.
OwenKL, where on earth do you dredge up those poems every day? They were a fun today and #3 cracked me up - clever!!
(sigggghhhh) Yes, I do use a PIN at the ATM…
Barry and Lemony, me too on BOZ. (I wonder if he took the nickname from BOZ Scaggs?) ;-)
And Lemony, please don't insult the poor gnome!
Good Morning, Marti and friends. I loved this puzzle. I immediately caught on to the Silent Letters after getting Wilbur Wright (interesting info about the postcards) and Keira Knightly. That helped with the Gnomes and Czars.
Garden Gnomes makes me think of The Full Monty
I've got no rhythm, but ELLA sure does.
I liked seeing the clue for Indigo and INIGO in the same puzzle.
Whenever I am in Dallas, I like to walk through Neiman Marcus (aka Needless Mark-Up).
I misread Taxonomy as Taxidermy, not that it would have helped with the answer.
I still have a copy of Now We Are Six.
QOD: It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. ~ Harry S Truman (May 8, 1884 ~ Dec. 26, 1972)
Good morning!
I came here preparing to ask, "Do two words that start with the same letter constitute a theme?" D'oh!
I didn't know IDA Lupino was a director. I remember her best from this TV show of my ute.
I was suffiicently proud just knowing that Chad was in Africa that I didn't think it necessary to know all of the countries surrounding it. I let the perps give me a few letters, or five. I also thought the "First name in jazz" was ETTA. That gave me TAN where LIN needed to be. LAEU looked really weird, though.
Marti, I yukked it up over your ANIL/INIGO comment. Can your phone really ring differently depending on who's calling? I did not know that. My non-smart cell phone is just for emergencies, so it's never turned on. Ergo, it never rings at all.
Good morning everyone.
Oh Marti, you got me drooling all over the frittata and jambalaya. They look delicious.
Well, the perps guided me to a successful END. I could not suss the theme either, before reading Marti's explanation, but it sure is as plain as the nose on my face. Good job David. ULEE gave me hope for completing the bottom. Good workout.
Have a good day.
Hello Puzzlers -
WBS.
What Barry didn't say, but I will: Keira Knightley, yes, please!!
Thanks Marti.
Thank you for the puzzle, David. Thank you for the witty and informative review, Marti.
I thought this puzzle was much easier than the typical Thursday puzzle, but with ample help from the perps again. I did not see the theme until Marti’s review, but I didn’t need it to solve the theme clues. I did need perp help with CORPORATE CZARS.
I had lots of unknowns – AMIR, OTA, TWEE, ANIL, but the perps solved them.
I had SRX before ATS, BAS before BSS, SAT before GRE, SPA before STY (overlooked the ?), HAM before EGG, but the perps saved me.
I remembered BOZ. We just had that recently.
WILBUR WRIGHT was a gimme. I just needed a few perps to be sure who the clue referred to. The WRIGHT Brothers name is ubiquitous in Dayton.
OHIO was a gimme for a Buckeye!
I didn’t see 40D, 41D, 42d because the perps filled them in for me.
43A “Up, Up and Away” carrier reminded me of this song.
Up Up and Away
Good morning, folks. Thank you, David Poole, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Marti for a fine review.
I did not catch the theme until I came here. Very clever.
This one had some real tough words for me. ATS, BOZ, CGI, OTA, GRE, DESC, and INIGO. Thank goodness for the perps and a couple wags.
Liked UNSHORN and HAW. Excellent!
DESC really flummoxed me, but as I read this write-up, it made sense. 4 perps gave it to me.
I have about 275 seedlings started. I am going to Pennsylvania in about 10 days. Have to figure how to carry these easily on the train.
See you tomorrow.
abejo
(close zbothe)
Hi All ~~
I really enjoyed this puzzle and I think I had my most fun trying to figure out the theme. Nothing came to me as I was working it and like desper-otto, I saw the two words starting with the same letter and figured there had to be more than that for a Thursday puzzle. Finally the light dawned - clever!
~ While 1A - ATM and then 3D - MAID filled easily I hesitated at putting them in because I expected something trickier - over-thinking it!
~ One write-over: Otra before OTRO but _GNOMES fixed that; BOZ was new to me.
~ For Motown team I was first thinking of singing groups.
Thanks, David Poole for a very enjoyable puzzle and thanks, Marti, for a most entertaining write-up!
The last two days or so the Mensa site puzzle would not print out for me, although my printer printed everything else just fine. That happened a couple of days last month, too, before it righted itself. I tried solving on the computer. I hate not seeing all the clues at a glance. I soon had to leave home. The paper had arrived by then, so I solved it there. AHH, better!
Great puzzle, great concept, although I didn't see it until Mari pointed it out.
I have seen TWEE in x-words before, before meaning cutesy, as opposed to cute.
ZIP and BOZ were gimmes.
D/O that is my image of IDA, too.
I loved the Kite Runner book and movie, so moving.
Never heard of the Cadillac ATS. $33,000 is out of my price range.
BOZ was almost a gimme. Almost. I remember it, but I always want to spell it with S. That's probably because we've got a cat named BOS -- a Maine Coon with a Big Orange Spot on top of her head. Her full name is Bitch BOSsy. Other cats will wait patiently by the door waiting to go out. BOS will track you down wherever you may be, and will loudly cuss you out, then turn her back and march to the door. You'd best follow!
Howdy folks.
How the heck was i supposed to know Dicken's pen name, or for that matter, that he even had one? I wagged Boe which gave me Rip for 30D, Speed. Looked fine to me. Ditto for 36A & 27D. CGA & Inago looked ok for two complete unknowns.
Everything else was fine (or I lucked out) after I changed 29D from aha to OHO.
Never picked up on the theme, but what else is new for me?
The eraser had a good workout today. Never felt comfortable with many of the fills. KEIRA KNIGHTLEY was one as were SEGA, REG, OTA, & LIN.
In my first line, Boe should be Bop
Good Morning:
I had some trouble in one area, mostly my own doing. Had psychiatrist before psychologist (what was I thinking?), and unshaven before unshorn (never mind the silly image of a man's wooly face!). Anyway, after finally correcting those major goofs, I wagged and perped and got the TADA without help.
Recognized the double letters but not the second one being silent. Thanks, David Poole, for a challenging but doable offering and thanks, Marti, for a witty and informative expo. (hand up for Bos and Wilber.)
Enjoying a lovely Spring day, finally. Enjoy!
Hahtoolah, thanks for the link to ELLA's William Robinson tribute. Great song!
d-otto, yes, you can set different ring tones for each person on your contact list if you want. Any other incoming call defaults to your "standard" ring tone. In my case, that would be an old fashioned phone. (Remember when all phones sounded like that??)
Buckeye Bob, "Up, Up and Away" is a real blast from the past! Thanks for the link.
Hello, Friends! I missed you all yesterday as I tried desperately to post but to no avail. All is well today.
Thank you to Marti and David for a fine commentary and puzzle in that order.
I got a slow start with ETTA before ELLA and though I read and loved The Kite Runner couldn't dredge up AMIR but it came through.
Dudley, I'm still laughing at your KEIRA KNIGHTLEY comment. The movie,Bend it like Beckham, was the first time I saw her.
So much fun today and of course I fell into most of the misdirection traps but somehow I knew Manti TEO.
I don't quite understand 58D, MADE for identified, as an undercover cop. MADE?
Abejo:
Good luck toting those seedlings!
It's so good to be back again. I wish you all a special Thursday!
Lucina, envision a pair of plain-clothes cops on a stakeout. They suddenly realize that the perp they've been watching has ID'd them. One says to the other, "We've been MADE." When I was in high school that word had a totally different meaning...
Marti: Nice write-up.
David: Thank you for a FUN Thursday puzzle.
Lucina: When the "bad-guys" MADE the undercover cop ... bad things happened.
DNF ... since my mammoths lived in the "_ _ _ AGE" ... I like my mammoths Neat. lol
BTW ... I never use a driver on a "Par-3" TEE.
Nothing to drink in the grid (Again!!!).
A "toast" to all at Sunset.
(Yup, there is plenty to "drink" at Villa Incognito.
Cheers!!!
A nice title for this puzzle could have been "Silent Partners".
I could not figure out the theme at all---even after a VERY long period of spelling out the entries in front of me on paper. I needed to check here to learn of it. Thanks, Marti! ---Matt Skoczen
Hey everyone! I finished this puzzle OK, every square filled in correctly, but I had no clue as to the theme. I never noticed the concept of one letter sounded and second letter silent. Too tricky for me but then, that's true of a lot of stuff. For king and queen, I was thinking about cards in a deck but prince isn't included (though a jack is). So my first answer was cards. Didn't work so I struggled in that corner. For some reason, I enjoyed the clue for BRIM. Lots of clever stuff to like even though I missed the theme. Thanks David and Marti.
Is OHO in your normal speaking vocabulary? I mean, I know what it means but I never say it. I do say Aha! from time to time when I discover something I was trying to suss out.
The phones I really enjoy seeing are those old 'candlestick' phones. My grandmother had one along with a party line in the tiny town of Upperville, Virginia. Her phone number was 71W. Craig Ferguson pretends to be answering one from time to time.
Fun puzzle, a good Thursday-level "crunch" Great expo, Marti!
Being ex-Brit, TWEE, BOZ and INIGO were all gimmes. Some good food and drink references and I was a happy solver today.
BOZ was taken from a Dickens family childhood nickname - doesn't make it any easier to remember though!
99% !
Would have been 100% except that I chose BAs instead of BSs for the 4-year degrees. It seemed fine, although I wondered why BOAC ("British Overseas Airways Corporation," with whom I flew in olden times) had anything to do with "Anjou" (unless that was also an acronym for some sporty carrier like "Aire Nationale Jeu d’Oriente Uni") Ah, well...
The rest of this pzl fell into place w/o any lookups, although needing perps and nearly constant over-writes.
I got a kick out of seeing some fave words--AUGERS, AGORAS, BOZ-- and the darling KEIRA KNIGHTLY.
Thanks to David Poole and Marti for a pleasant start to the day,
and a sturdy Huzzah to Owen for the poem--esp. the 2nd stanza!
There once was a poet named Owen
Who labored o’er many a poem.
When stuck for a rhyme,
He pondered a time,
Then always found something to go in.
A Thursday speed run! Have I ever encountered one of these before? Well, it was wonderful--many thanks, David! And you, too, Marti, for the ever delightful expo.
I got part of the theme--the two consonants starting the second word--but not that the first and second words started with the same letter. Thanks for that, Marti.
I just hope this pleasant doable puzzle won't be followed by a couple of bears on Friday and Saturday. But it is, what it is, as we say nowadays.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
desper & Tin:
Thank you for 'splainin' MADE though it still doesn't make sense to me, but yes I understand.
OMKeith:
After reading your remarks I glanced at my take on 25D and realized I had BONC/BNS for some unknown reason. Alas! a dnf!
This AUGURS badly for Friday and Saturday.
Notwithstanding the Brit TWEE,
TWEE also means 'two' in Dutch and Low German. BTW the 'w' is pronounced.
Fun puzzle today. Thank you David Poole. Thank you, too, Marti. Some answers were solved by perps: AMIR, BOZ, OTA, and INIGO.
Had SPA before STY. I knew ATS right away because we're thinking of replacing my 10 year old Explorer with either a Cadillac ATS or CTS.
Tin @ 12:03 - I must have been in La La (No offense, Linda!) land when I did this puzzle because I never even blinked at that dreaded three letter word-I guess my _ _ _
Radar is on the blink! :-)
Desper-otto: I, too, only use my cell phone for emergencies and leave it turned off all the time. So, of course, it never rings. I just don't feel the need to be "connected" all the time.
OwenKL: I forgot to mention that your poem was clever.
For me, this was one of those "put it down & come back" puzzles. Every time I got stuck, I did something else, & when I came back, something else appeared. Like Wilber morphing into Wilbur.
I am totally unfamiliar with the term "Pop Psychologist," & was not sure "Bop" was a word. In the end I had to consult The encylopedia De Internet to find "Boz."
(By the way Bill G. I use "Oho" all the time, right before I exclaim "By Jove!")
50D Fam. tree member did me in. I had -esc, & when I ran out of Kinfolk, I thought, "Mesquite," it's a member of the tree family! (Except I spelled/spelt it wrong...)
(Arrim is a deodorant, isn't it?)
In the end it didn't matter, because I got screwed by Augurs...
I am going to be haunted by this puzzle....
Time to beat a hasty retreat...
Hi Y'all! Fastest Thursday ever! Thanks, David! Your expo was a hoot, Marti! Thanks for "Summertime", one of my all time favorite songs to sing.
Proudest moment was typing in INIGO and not having it turn red. If "Indigo" was his father, maybe close-by ALTER EGO was his mom.
I filled in POPPSY first and wondered what the last name would be. OHO, CHOLOGIST! LOL!
King and Queen? All perps. "Z" was last to fill. OHO! I needed to sleep on that one.
I had no idea what Taxonomy meant. Googled it for a learning moment, but maybe not a remembering one.
Visiting Kill Devil Hill where WILBUR WRIGHT first soared was an unexpectedly thrilling time for me as the mother of a "flyboy". Imagine being WW's mother. She must have been grey early in life.
Chad? I was proud to remember Niger before it turned red. Oh, LIBYA?
OwenKL:
I failed to tell you how much I liked today's poem. Though they're amusing every day, today's was a special laugh-a-thon for me.
Irish Miss:
But you enjoy your Dewar's "On-the-Rocks" ... no need for you to have "_ _ _ Radar".
I've lost count of my DNF's this year because of "that" word ... "_ _ _".
At least my grids, mammoths and Pinch are NEAT!
Cheers!!!
Tinbeni @ 12:03, I was wondering if anyone would mention the par 3s. But I once had a golf pro who told me to always use a tee if it is allowed, even on a par 3. I usually break off the top of a tee and push it in, even with the ground.
So where is Husker Gary today? Out playing golf, I assume?
Anon @ 12:20, good one!
Matt Skoczen, if you couldn’t figure out the theme, well then…
Ol’ Man Keith @ 3:04, bravo!!
PK @ 3:36, ALTER EGO – funny!! And if the mom were one of those “bridezillas” when she married his dad, would that make her an ALTAR EGO?
What a lovely Thursday with a fun, obvious theme that had a silent twist which I had to wait for GNOME to get it.
Musings
-Blogged at 8 am but school filter wouldn’t let me post ‘til now.
-KIERA SEDGEWICK fit too but…
-111 yrs. after WILBUR, Richard Branson is set for the first commercial flight into space
-Tuesday, the ATM took my card, my password, my request for $100 and then went back to the start giving me nothing. I immediately called the bank and they said there was no record of the transaction. The next ATM gave me the hundred but…
-The world needs heroes like LECH every so often
The Kentucky Dam that holds back the Tennessee River before it enters the Ohio is worth seeing
-AXE can be heard now as a substitute for ASK
-I loved Broderick as Leo Bloom and Ferris Beuller but absolutely hated his performance in this!
-If Yoko had raised bees in a movie, we’d see her every day!
-Who knew those glasses could completely disguise Superman?
-Anything over 220 yds gets me to OPT for the driver, Marti.
-King and Queen weren’t SPADES either
CrossEyedDave, we use OHO a lot around here. In honor of the lady who used to sit in the I Love Lucy audience...when something was on the verge of happening you can always here her..."Oho"...
Egad, what a theme. I studied the answers and didn't get it either. "Silent Partners" - good one anon!
See ya-all
oops...hear her...
Wasn't that 'oh oh' that she said?
I would have guessed she said something like "Uh oh" I say and hear that and Aha often but not Oho so much.
If I had a friend who was going for a job interview and tended to say Axe instead of Ask, I would hope that they would try to correct that pronunciation.
Hi all...
I feel dumb now, you guys thought easy PEAsy, I struggled all over. I got everything but dead-center. UNSHeeN (what do I know about Shear tense?) and put MenIn in for 49a. I just looked it up, there's two 'n's in Mennen. I guess I should read my morning deodorant more carefully.
I did fix the M to A to get AGORAS, but I was thinking "Isn't that a fabric?" Oh well, it was a fun DNF anyway from Mr Poole and Marti's writeup and everyones posts are the bonus.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY was all perps. I guess I should watch a move or two made after 1990 (that's not from Pixar).
Owen - WEES. Thanks you for my daily smile.
Marti - your default ringtone sounds like the beginning of the Rockford Files.
At hacking conferences we play "Spot the Spook."* They never acknowledge they've been MADE. So far, no SWAT teams have shown-up.
CED - Funny links. No silent letters in my mind. I pronounce them all or I'd never be able to spell words like G'NOME. Here's how I pronounce KNIGHT (@~1:27).
Cheers, -T
*the STRAW G-Men trying to find a) the best hackers or b) criminals in our STY.
Local offspring Bonnie and Tim invited me out to a Mexican dinner. I think they felt that they had been giving Barbara the lioness's share of their attention. The conversation was stimulating though the food wasn't quite up to standard. Still, like sex, when Mexican food is good, it's really great. When it's not so good, it's still pretty good.
Kiera Knightley has a very pretty face. Though I'm not intimately acquainted with her body, it seems a bit too thin.
OMKeith: Thanks for a really nice poem! Thanks to all who said nice things about my writing!
WEES about the puzzle. Like BillG and others, my first thought for 54d was cards, but when that crashed, I tried to think up some term from chess, but pieces was too long, and men too short.
The theme was a real conundrum, and more than most needed a reveal or unifier. Even after I noticed the "silent partners" I felt there should still be something more. Misty found something with the double consonants, but that's probably a side effect of such words.
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