Meh 14

I think 4 would be OK as an &lit perhaps - as Iona was a centre for missionaries.

@Sam, yes 4 literally has IONA in the centre of missionaries, and Iona is a sacred island off the coast of Scotland (c.f. http://www.philipcoppens.com/iona.html). Not sure what DA refers to, I'm always struggling to follow his genius.

1. Forgive my ignorance, but can we not have 'mislaid' as the signpost for 'mislaid sir'? Mislaid suggests that the letters of 'sir' have been placed differently, but since we know that the answer is longer than three letters, we realise to also include the preceding word in the anagram.

2. I'm happy for this to count as a reference to TERPRET, only because it is preceded by 'popular' which I guess can be reference to the IN part; i.e. if you are popular then you are with the "in crowd". In this way, the examples of POTATO and GRAMMAR can also be clued only if the P and G part is clued appropriately to suggest that 'palindrome' references a "palindromatic part" and not a complete word.

Sorry DA, but I'm with Sam and setter - Iona was a great clue.

LEND A HAND I'm not so bothered about - one sense of HAND refers to a person, the other refers to an activity, and while the former meaning may have come from the latter, I think the word has established itself sufficiently to be its own. Now, if you want to whinge about 'loan' clueing 'lend', I'm all ears!

POETRY - well, the clue ain't, but it works, doesn't it?

Thanks Sam, had no idea about the Iona mission. Consider the Meh-ness rescinded.

And welcome AC. Re Clue (1), I agree that MISLAID is a fair signpost, but not if it's part of the anagram fodder. Or is that the double duty that Cinephile is attempting, do we think?

Re Clue (2), following that logic, a word like FOREVER can be clued as 'Always dubious of palindrome' which I'd forever begrudge.

Gday Anthony - re (7), yes it works, but prosaically, to put it mildly. A poet writes poetry, sure. But it's like clueing GARDENER with 'Botanical patch, um, for Peter Cundall, say'.

Or is my skin a bit thin this morning?

1. Agreed - this needs a signpost.
2. This one's just slightly meh for me.
3. This is a shocker. The definition of a palindrome includes the fact that it is an actual word for a start. But even if 'terpret' was a word, does that mean palindrome is valid clueing for 'dad', 'mum', 'pop' et al? I think not.
4. Great clue.
5. Ribes is a genus of shrubs including the red and blackcurrant. Which is possibly how they came up with the name Ribena.
6. Meh - for same reasons as DA
7. See 6.

1. Can "not like" (attached to being) be both signpost (albeit a dubious one) and definition?

Jury may be out on this device, Mauve. Cinephile (aka Araucaria) could well have attempted a double-duty signpost, relying on the coincidental lynchpin of 'like'. I see your logic, but I reckon the logic is a tad crack'd, albeit inventive. (Which I'll never resent.)

2. I learnt something. onerous is from the origin onus - I didn't know that - spot on DA - bad clue

3. definite meh, for exactly the reasons you articulate DA

4. fair enough (if not good even) given Sam's explanation

5. currants are from the plant genus ribes, so it's ribes pruned. Or pruned might refer to science, with ribe attached (although describing "sc" as science pruned is a bit of a stretch) I'm pretty sure it wouldn't refer to ribena though, which would be a nullaborish stretch.

6. I don't understand your problem with this one, DA. I see it as "help"=definition, "a farm labourer"="a hand", "after loan"=after "lend". What problem am I missing?

7. I also really like this one. The definition "Yes" is very unlikely to be a synonym for "yes", so it must refer to the surface meaning of the wordplay. Cool, I say.

1. True DA, and also the double-duty isn't clean, because the definition "not like" is within the signpost "not like being"

7. I retract my "cool" for this clue because any poet could have been substituted for Wordsworth, and he's already used Wordsworth=poet, so to use him for poetry as well is uncool.

3. Suxus. That is total dross.

4. Yucko. What the heck is a pruned currant anyway?

7. I think would be great as an &lit if the "Yes" were removed, given:
Lines = railway = RY

1 is so-so - I don't really like the surface reading but I think MISLAID's double duty is OK. Others (Ximeneans) will differ.

2. I agree with DA - same origin, no fun.

3. Garbage clue. It's like quick clueing REDIVIDER as Palindrome (9)

4 should have the ?! for an &lit. It's a very good clue IMO.

And so is 5. OK clue.

Re 6 - I thought exactly the same thing when I solved that cryptic. There's no inventive step here.

7 I get the thrust of, but the poet - poetry connection is, yes, Meh.

With respect to #1, I think that "being" was the intended signpost, attempting to indicate the constituents. Somewhat thin, I'll grant.

Using 'interpret' in palindrome context makes me think of "Do nine men interpret? Nine men, I nod", and thus to Weird Al Yankovic.

#4 is great, given the historical context and that 'Iona' is actually the centre part (unlike Aceh or Timor in those examples).

Without the 'has' getting in the way I would have tried to rescue #5 as SC = science pruned, RIBE = singular of RIBES, which is the kind of cheekiness I would expect from Araucaria. (This clue approach would work much better for SCRIBES.) But the combination of SC for science and RIBES being pruned does just end up being a little meh for me.

As far as #7 goes, I'm with RobT: This should have been an &lit with just " lines!" Wordsworth would be the poet of choice for the confusion that his name brings to the solving process. It's not great, for the reasons you observe, but it's the unnecessary 'yes' that tips this over into mehness.

Something to get the alternative clues rolling:

3. Translate "no" into prettier style (9)
7. Attempt of Edgar! (6)

[I was tempted to use 'essay' instead of 'attempt' in 7, but I'm not sure I like the effect.]

So 'ionerous' means 'burdened by one's mission'??

1. DISSIMILAR: Unlike Rear Admiral, I miss ideal occupation

I can only agree with you re onerous, DA. EP kinda got my goat this week with several similar etymological disasters. Been a tough day so I'm going to offer some cinematic silliness: A rodent of unusual size is quite a lot to bear.(and a neologism for apologists - etymollifiers)

2. ONEROUS: Trying sole with sour cream

4. IONA: Island girl told to go away?

5. SCRIBE: Oddly sacked over joke score

Doesn't the question mark in 1 act an indicator? I don't think it is serving any other purpose is it?

@xobhcnul, agree that the question mark doesn't seem to be serving any purpose. But I've never seen a q mark on its own used as an anagram indicator. Needs something else I think.

Tweak to my alternative no.4 above-

IONA: Island girl told (rudely) to go away

(not sure this passes DA's good taste test)