Alan Connor finds bad meaning bad in his pick of the week's best - and heaviest - cryptic clues
Across and down, out and about
You can hear Guardian crossword editor Hugh Stephenson talking to Lynne Truss about the paper's setters - and solvers - and previously unbroadcast sections of an interview with Crispa in a Radio 4 crossword documentary that's available until the weekend. Hurry!
The news in clues
"The world desperately needs a better way of coping with countries that owe more than they could ever repay," wrote the Observer's economics editor yesterday. Ever keen to help, Dac had a suggestion in Wednesday's Independent, disguised as a clue...
19d Greece should receive payment, Germanyconceded (7)
...for another word, GRANTED. On Thursday, Radian was more locally topical...
16ac BucketcontainsragsDadfolded (4,4,3,4)
...with RAIN CATSAND DOGS across the middle and words like PELT, POUR and NIMBUS sprinkled elsewhere.
Culture clue
Tramp rocked out earlier this year with a Pink Floyd puzzle; this time the lightly worn theme was another heavy behemoth. No knowledge of the band's oeuvre beyond STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN was necessary, with "Led Zeppelin IV" providing part of an anagram for REPONDEZ S'IL VOUS PLAIT and the front men doing similar duty...
4d/5ac Composition ofPage/Plant - discinanartwork (9,8)
...for LANDSCAPE PAINTING. Hats off, as the Zep so nearly said, to Tramp.
Latter patter
Once you'd cracked the Sunday Times's seven down...
7d Fiftynutsinacutfruitcake (7)
...for LUNATIC and twigged that Dean Mayer was up to his unconventional tricks with his clue...
4d Island? Oops! (1,5,9)
...for I STAND CORRECTED, you could get to work on combining them...
21d 4by turninginto7 (2,3)
...for MY BAD, given in Chambers as "a phrase used to acknowledge that one has made a mistake". Random House says that the expression is thought to have first been used as a quick way of apologising in American inner-city basketball and Edinburgh professor Geoffrey Pullum reports that some think it's traceable to a single player: the 2.31-metre (7ft 7in) Sudanese centre Manute Bol.
The Austen adaptation Clueless certainly didn't harm the spread of MY BAD, which unapologetically takes "bad" from adjective to noun, but MY BAD itself has not yet achieved noun status, unlike its venerable cousin that is the subject this week's challenge. Reader, how would you clue MEA CULPA?
Cluing competition
Thanks for your clues for NICE, especially Thomas99 for acknowledging the old sense of the word with "Silly old dear".
A nice short word prompted some nice short clues, like harlobarlo's "Attractive bikini - cellulite showing?", JollySwagman's "Kind of Ulster protestant" and mojoseeker's "Fine rock we hear".
Natjim and ixioned went the other way, with the Cannes reference of "Endings revealed of The Third Man, Il Caso Mattei, Union Pacific and Sex, Lies and Videotape, down the road from where they won" and the impossibly lettered "Understanding Nietzsche as rediscovered when the reworked final letters are discounted".
I also enjoyed jonemm's use of "cookie" to indicate a container in "Picnic expression - 'Cookie or biscuit?'" (and wondered whether "easter egg" could do the same job), and drawfull's only-works-as-a-down "Might I be seen in the south of France?"
The runners-up are steveran's Brucie allusion in "Attractive holding to see you doubled, strictly speaking" and ravenrider's acrostic "Nothing is completely evil in the beginning - that's pleasant"; the winner is jazbang's terse "Peachy cordial". Kudos to Jaz - please leave this week's entries and your pick of the broadsheet cryptics below.
Clue of the week
Nominated by reader Gleety, two pop-culture references in one Dac clue...
26ac Dustytown of Flanders (11)
...for SPRINGFIELD. Absotively posilutely charming.