Most cells in this puzzle contain two letters — use the rebus function to enter them. All other cells contain one letter — “Mack from Europe” gives a hint to what they spell out, depending on how you look at it!
R U SOUR is my favorite bit of wordplay here but it’s unfortunate that you had to use “hours” in the clue, given the answer RUSHHOUR. It works so well with “it takes”, I know. Maybe there’s a workaround?
Thanks for pointing that out, I’ve no idea how I missed that! An earlier version had “very hard” = HH, and I must have forgotten to use any logic when I realised “hours” would make a cleaner surface! Will certainly find an alternative!
Ah, apologies, “odd ones” is intended to indicate which series of puzzles this is from, ie. that the odd ‘ones’ (non-rebus cells) give the solutions to “Mack from Europe”. The part after the colon is the only part intended to hint at the meta-readings, which aren’t picked based on any kind of ‘oddness’ but merely two anagrams I enjoy. I’ll find a way to make this clearer in the preamble, certainly didn’t intend to cast any aspersions on Croatians!