Puzzle from the Weekend FT of May 17, 2025
Welcome back, Goliath, to our little weekend corner. I am sorry to have to say that I am unable to make full sense of 2 clues: 10 (BANDIT) and 13 (TRATTORIA), My favourites are 18 (PILGRIMS), 20 (NILE) and 25d (CIGAR).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BARNACLE |
Nude eating salt goose (8)
|
| NACL (salt, i.e. sodium chloride) in (eating) BARE (nude) | ||
| 5 | TAVERN |
Boozer state in Tennessee (6)
|
| AVER (state) in (in) TN (Tennessee) | ||
| 9 | ASPIRATE |
Breathe in like Rackham, say (8)
|
| AS PIRATE (like Rackham, say) referring no doubt to Tintin’s “Red Rackam’s Treasure” (or Le Tresor de Rackham Le Rouge in the original French). | ||
| 10 | BANDIT |
Bit supplied by criminal? (6)
|
| bit=B AND IT (rather BANDIT supplies B AND IT–>bit). Originally I was at a total loss to explain this clue and I must thank KVa for explaining it for us. | ||
| 12 | EXILE |
Banishment oddly not wielded by previous partner (5)
|
| EX (previous partner) + [w]I[e]L[d]E[d] (oddly not wielded) | ||
| 13 | TRATTORIA |
Eatery with laid-back atmosphere and rubbish pastry (9)
|
| AIR (atmosphere) + OT (rubbish?) + TART (pastry) all backwards (laid-back). How can ‘rubbish’ clue OT? Or how can ‘atmosphere’ clue AI with ‘rubbish’ cluing ROT? Post Script: Despite lots of comments, nobody can explain this so I think we have to declare it an error. | ||
| 14 | LAPSES |
Errors discovered in cathedral apse structure (6)
|
| Hidden word (discovered in) | ||
| 16 | ELEGIAC |
Mournful start to emotional Gaelic composition (7)
|
| E[motional] + anagram (composition) of GAELIC | ||
| 19 | IBERIAN |
Topless Russian gets Spaniard (7)
|
| [s]IBERIAN (topless Russian) | ||
| 21 | MADAME |
Nice lady in the morning tucked into cheese from the East (6)
|
| AM (the morning) in (tucked into) EDAM (cheese) backwards (from the East) | ||
| 23 | GENITALIA |
In Copenhagen, Italians keep these covered (9)
|
| Hidden word | ||
| 25 | CORAL |
Pink gold in California (5)
|
| OR (gold) in (in) CAL (California) | ||
| 26 | INTUIT |
Guess Northerner will drink tea, as they say (6)
|
| T (tea as they say) in (will drink) INUIT (Notherner) | ||
| 27 | BUNGALOW |
Half of Berlusconi’s party depressed in residence (8)
|
| BUNGA (half of Berlusconi’s party) + LOW (depressed). How, you may ask, does ‘half of Berlusconi’s party’ clue BUNGA. It has nothing to do with any political party but the phrase Bunga Bunga that the Italian press used to refer to parties that Silvio Berlusconi allegedly threw with prostitutes. | ||
| 28 | SUDOKU |
This country and America turn to protect social game (6)
|
| DO (social) in (to protect) UK (this country) + US (America) | ||
| 29 | BETRAYER |
Judas offering salver filled with booze? On the contrary! (8)
|
| TRAY (salver) in (filled with…on the contrary) BEER (booze) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLAZER |
Jacket on fire? (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | REPLICATE |
Copy and fold once more (9)
|
| RE-PLICATE (fold once more) | ||
| 3 | AGREE |
Desperately eager to consent (5)
|
| Anagram (desperately) of EAGER | ||
| 4 | LITOTES |
Revolting toilets, not the cleanest we’ve seen? (7)
|
| Anagram (revolting) of TOILETS (by example) | ||
| 6 | APARTHEID |
A rapid transformation about the practice of racism (9)
|
| THE (the) in (about) anagram (transformation) of RAPID | ||
| 7/22 | ELDERFLOWER |
More mature river bloomer (11)
|
| ELDER (more mature) + FLOWER (river) | ||
| 8 | NUTHATCH |
Stay in the egg, said American bird? (8)
|
| “not hatch” (stay in the egg as said by American). Is this really how an American might pronounce ‘not’ as ‘nut’? | ||
| 11/21 | TAPE MEASURE |
Record setter needs a certain tool for tailors? (4,7)
|
| TAPE (record) + ME (setter) + A (a) + SURE (certain) | ||
| 15 | SPILT MILK |
Uphill time regularly covered by material that shouldn’t be a tear-jerker (5,4)
|
| [u]P[h]I[l]L T[i]M[e] in (covered by) SILK (material) | ||
| 17 | IMMORALLY |
2001 is back, using words in an unethical way (9)
|
| MMI (2001) backwards (is back) + ORALLY (using words) | ||
| 18 | PILGRIMS |
Religious people get miserable when doused in beer (8)
|
| GRIM (miserable) in (when doused in) PILS (beer) | ||
| 20 | NILE |
It’s chiefly navigated in lower Egypt (4)
|
| N[avigated] I[n] L[ower] E[gypt] | ||
| 24 | NOTED |
Someone other than Davey or Miliband is famous (5)
|
| NOT (someone other than) + ED (Davey or Miliband) | ||
| 25 | CIGAR |
Tragic start gone up in smoke (5)
|
| Reverse (up) hidden word (start gone) |
Thanks Pete
I am afraid I had almost the same note, word for word, on my pink paper about TRATTORIA. Similar for BUNGA in BUNGALOW. I thought the latter may be either the name of B’s political party or the word for party in Italian, but could not find justification for either theory. Also, in SPILT MILK “PILTM” is not “uphill time” regularly – that would be PILIE or UHLTM. I also could not find justification that ASPIRATE is breath in. Breath for sure, but every example in my dictionary seems to have people breathing out. Perhaps the in version is in Chambers?
My favourites were TAVERN and MADAME.
Quite a few words and people I do not know this week, just about breaking the limit
Thanks Golaith and Pete
Edit to me@1: After my comment on BUNGA, I meant to add “thanks for explaining it”. I also meant to add “I had the same issue with BANDIT”
Thanks Goliath for a great set of clues. I parsed TRATTORIA as a reversal of AIR (atmosphere) ROT (rubbish), and TART (pastry) but I too could not account for the shared R. I couldn’t solve PILGRIMS but all else fell into place with ELEGIAC, GENITALIA, LITOTES, and CIGAR earning ticks. Thanks Pete for the blog.
This Goliath puzzle went down a treat! My one quibble though was TRATTORIA for the reasons mentioned. I could see no indication that the ‘r’ of ‘air’ and ‘rot’ was to be shared.
Like Pete, I was stumped by the parsing of BANDIT and wondered which Americans would say ‘nothatch’?
These issues aside, I thought LITOTES was excellent and BETRAYER was one of the neatest examples I’ve seen of these ‘just the opposite’ clues. Those two, along with BUNGALOW and PILGRIMS are full of wit while IMMORALLY shows Goliath’s knack for creatively mixing letters and numerals in his cluing.
Thanks Goliath and Pete.
BANDIT
I think it is bit=B AND IT (rather BANDIT supplies B AND IT–>bit)
NUTHATCH
Can’t think of anything better.
TRATTORIA: The same quibble as others.
Liked BUNGALOW and PILGRIMS
Thanks Goliath and Pete.
That makes sense, KVa.
I agree with KVa@5 about B AND IT.
In 15d, I wondered if we were supposed take characters regularly from ‘uphill time’ including the space, but I didn’t really like it. I still thought the definition was nice.
I had the same problem with 13a, but on Sunday I noticed the clue had been changed online to ‘Eatery rejecting modern technology and rubbish pastry (9)’.
Thanks, Pete Maclean and Goliath.
Thanks for the update, Matthew.
I wouldn’t have thought to go back and check the clues the next day, so it seems a bit sneaky!
TRATTORIA
Thanks Matthew, for the update. Like Diane, I didn’t recheck the clues after
completing the grid.
SPILT MILK
Hadn’t noticed the problem mentioned by Martyn and Matthew while solving the puzzle.
‘Regularly’ for many setters means/meant only even letters of the words to be worked on.
I have seen ‘regularly’ applied to odd letters as well. Every other letter in general.
Maybe apply the even letters ‘rule’ in this case?
Only NUTHATCH needs a bit more justification.
Yes, KVa re SPILT MILK, even letters in one word and odd the next, again without indication! Like Martyn, I’d seen the problem on my first pass then forgot about it, and applied the even/odd formula without thinking.
As I said before, the overall puzzle was very enjoyable but in retrospect, was in need of editing. So, just the knotty, nutty issue of that bird remains … or not, if an American can convince us otherwise!
Thanks Diane. I didn’t put forth my idea properly. Something irregular about this ‘regularly’.
Anyway, no crying over it as you say!
A good puzzle, we all enjoyed. Yes.
Thanks KVa@5 for explaining BANDIT. Thanks Matthew@7 for explaining TRATTORIA.
For NUTHATCH, I can sort of hear some Americans saying not as NUT, particularly if you think about each as a long vowel. In any case, it is not as outrageous as many of the clues we see.
Still not happy with SPILT MILK, but not crying about it as mentioned above. Still no view on ASPIRATE meaning breath in.
Martyn,
Merriam Webster has:
▪︎ To draw (air) into the lungs
▪︎ To draw in by suction [further, the French for vacuum cleaner is ‘aspirateur’].
Was happy, in fact bit of a smile, about b and it, didn’t notice the even-odd problem with pil tm, and yes wondered how not could = nut. Perhaps not terminal like David’s sling, but needing attention (before publication, cf what Matthew @7 found–very sneaky indeed!). Thanks both.
Martyn @12: As an American who’s been all over the country I can’t recall anyone pronouncing ‘not’ as ‘nut’. Of course, this great land has isolated pockets of all sorts of weirdness so I’m not ruling anything out.
Agree that BANDIT is B-and-IT maķing BIT – I liked that clue, along with MADAME, GENITALIA, PILGRIMS and LITOTES (I’m not very good at naming those devices, but guessed it must be an example).
Same problems as others with NUTHATCH and TRATTORIA, and yet again I forgot that it’s spelt ELEGIAC not ELEGAIC, until it produced problems with IMMORALLY.
Thanks for the blog , a few glitches which have largely been cleared up , thanks to Matthew@7 and others .
Very enjoyable overall with some great clues . LITOTES my favourite then BANDIT , this is an Azed trick , quite recently we had pa=panda .
galdys@16
LITOTES
Definition By Example (DBE)?
I enjoyed this, having been presented with a redundant offering in the Guardian. I came here for explanations to BANDIT and TRATTORIA and now at least have resolutions. Thanks Goliath, Pete, Matthew, KVa and everyone else
Sincere apologies for the inadvertent error in TRATTORIA which I should have spotted but unfortunately missed until too late. As some of you have noted, the error was corrected online but not before many had already tackled the puzzle.
Coming to the party late, as usual, but fwiw…
As an American of almost 80 years’ experience, I am aware of no American dialect that would pronounce NUT in a way that sounds like “not”. Perhaps an American might hear a Briton’s very U pronunciation of Nut as Not? That would require a modification of the clue.