Time taken: 14:11
Phew this was a tough one! I had to rely on a lot of wordplay and I was waiting for the pink squares when I hit submit, but fortunately it was all correct. Now to unravel the few I biffed, and sort out a few definitions.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | English teaching fundamentals old dons bungle (5) |
| ERROR – E (English) and the three R’s (teaching fundamentals) surrounding O (old) | |
| 4 | Hare found at sea is unprecedented (7-2) |
| UNHEARD-OF – anagram of HARE,FOUND | |
| 9 | Lady Georgia everyone recalled eating cheese (9) |
| GABRIELLA – GA (Georgia) and ALL (everyone) reversed, containing BRIE (cheese) | |
| 10 | Vigilant group from regiment relaxed having retreated (5) |
| ALERT – hidden reversed in regimenT RELAxed | |
| 11 | Drip of fluid going over plant (6) |
| SALVIA – SAL (salt that could be in an IV drip), then VIA (going over). Thanks to many commenters – I struggled to come up with a good parsing, but it does seem the setter’s intention was IV (drip) inside SALIVA (fluid) being reversed. I apologise for strife and gnashing of teeth due to my oversight. | |
| 12 | Great volumes of letters backing Albert Camus, a French author (8) |
| TSUNAMIS – the last letters of AlberT CamuS, then UN (a in French) and the author Kingsley (or Martin) AMIS | |
| 14 | Obstinate duo — nurses, they regularly skipped nursing classes (12) |
| UNREGENERATE – alternating letters in dUo NuRsEs ThEy containing GENERA (classses) | |
| 17 | Ink they ordered with price moving excessively (12) |
| HYPERKINETIC – anagram of INK,THEY and PRICE | |
| 20 | Last of public spirit drained and crushed (8) |
| CRUMBLED – last letter of publiC, then RUM (spirit), BLED (drained) | |
| 21 | Set cycling is safely turning around corners (6) |
| ASSIGN – hidden reversed in cycliNG IS SAfely | |
| 23 | Slowly left ship (5) |
| LARGO – L (left), ARGO (ship) | |
| 24 | Laziness of Conservative penning papers in bed (9) |
| TORPIDITY – a double container! TORY (Conservative) containing ID (papers) inside PIT (bed) | |
| 25 | Blue team’s flaws (9) |
| DOWNSIDES – DOWN (blue) SIDE’S (team’s) | |
| 26 | Flexible movement of snake sloughing skin (5) |
| LITHE – SLITHER (movement of snake) minus the external letters | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Just beats bridge player lacking hearts with superior advantage (5,3) |
| EDGES OUT – SOUTH (bridge player) minus H (hearts) under EDGE (advantage) | |
| 2 | Coarse humour of novel library finally banned (8) |
| RIBALDRY – anagram of LIBRARY and the last letter of banneD | |
| 3 | Fruit I declared second rate covered in mushrooms, causing surprise (7,8) |
| RAISING EYEBROWS – RAISIN (fruit), then EYE (homophone of I) and B (second rate) inside GROWS (mushrooms) | |
| 4 | Unpleasant using lavatory on vacation (4) |
| UGLY – external letters of UsinG and LavatorY | |
| 5 | Illness others take casually (10) |
| HEATSTROKE – anagram of OTHERS TAKE | |
| 6 | American to pile on the pounds and guzzle involuntarily (7,4,4) |
| AGAINST ONES WILL – A (American) then GAIN STONE (pile on the pounds) and SWILL (guzzle) | |
| 7 | Abstracted nest boxes before noon (6) |
| DREAMY – DREY (a squirrel’s nest) containing AM (before noon) | |
| 8 | Thing from buffet is horrendous (6) |
| FETISH – hidden inside bufFET IS Horrendous | |
| 13 | Curious wearing on parts proven reliable (10) |
| INTERESTED – IN (wearing), then RE (on) inside TESTED (proven reliable) | |
| 15 | Atheistic rogue ignoring lead authority in moral standards (8) |
| ETHICIST – anagram of ATHEISTIC minus the first letter | |
| 16 | Lebanon-based compere is comedian (8) |
| MCINTYRE – a Lebanon-based compere could be a MC IN TYRE. I guess this is referring to Michael McIntyre, who I have never heard of. | |
| 18 | Peak in Snowdonia cold Welshman climbed (6) |
| SCALED – first letter of Snowdonia, then C (cold) and ALED (Welshman) | |
| 19 | Earth ridge shelters ancient city (6) |
| BURROW – BROW (ridge) containing UR (ancient city) | |
| 22 | Olympian challenges eliminating beginner (4) |
| ARES – DARES (challenges) minus the first letter | |
I agree this was tricky. I made pretty good progress at first, and after 28 minutes had only four left. Unfortunately, they were assign, McIntyre, tsunami, and salvia. When I came back, I did not see any of them immediately, contrary to prior experience. Tsunami had to be teased out, and then assign fell. I had been thinking about Tyre, but it seemed to be in the wrong place….until I thought of taking the cryptic as a whole. It would definitely have helped to know what a compere is. I ended up by biffing salvia, on the grounds it was the only plant that fit, and nothing else.
Time: 48:28
Missed TSUNAMIS, ASSIGN and the two long acrosses as well as MCINTYRE. Just not on the wavelength at all today. Liked the two long downs and the parsing of ERROR. Didn’t know ‘drey’ for nest. Was convinced the illness at 5d would start with ‘heart’ before seeing the light. Biffed SALVIA from the checkers and thinking drip fluid ‘going over’ would be VI but no idea otherwise. Two bad days in a row for me.
Thanks G and setter.
40 minutes. I missed the parsing of SALVIA and AGAINST ONE’S WILL. TSUNAMI was particularly tricky.
40 minutes. Pretty hard anyway, only to be left with S_L_I_ at 11a to finish off. After the usual groan on seeing that ‘plant’ was the most likely def, I eventually remembered SALVIA for which like Quadrophenia I wondered about a reversal (‘going over’) of IV (‘fluid’) in the word SALIVA, something which may (‘Drip’); no, it doesn’t work. Never heard of the ‘comedian’ at 16d; the golfer wouldn’t qualify for a few reasons.
The parsing of TSUNAMIS, AGAINST ONE’S WILL and UNREGENERATE caused problems along the way but I’m glad to say no MER at 3d.
Yes, a toughie. Missed the parsing on a few and my LOIs were also SALVIA and ASSIGN. My weak Greek deity knowledge let me down too, couldn’t think of anyone except Zeus and Eros. 31:58 in the end.
29:38
Started off slow–FOI HYPERKINETIC–and continued that way, until I got the last 3 or 4–ERROR, LOI TSUNAMIS inter alia–in 2-3 minutes. NHO MCINTYRE, DNK the Welshman hence the wordplay. Also didn’t understand SALVIA (thought it was some sort of transformation of ‘saliva’). Somehow I remembered ‘drey’, from here of course. I liked ERROR. In fact I liked the whole puzzle; felt pleased to have solved it all (well, except biffed SALVIA & SCALED).
DNF after half an hour, with more than mild 3d at SALVIA. NHO the plant, and I assume the wordplay must mean IV, the drip (part) of SALIVA (vaguely defined fluid) going over.
COD AGAINST ONE’S WILL.
agreed, it must be this parsing although still a poor clue, IMO
Medium hard this one, I thought.. a steady solve but left with a handful of intractable gaps. Never did quite parse TSUNAMIS, or SALVIA, which was obvously something to do with saliva, but wasn’t. Like Vinyl, I put in because it fitted.
I doubt if many this side of the pond will struggle with Michael MCINTYRE, or ALED Jones, both current TV regulars..
DNF, defeated by SALVIA where I didn’t know the ‘sal’ bit.
– Didn’t know there was a word UNREGENERATE, let alone that it means obstinate, but got there from wordplay and checkers
– Vacillated between DREAMY and DREAMT for 7d, eventually plumping for the right one on the basis that drey was a more likely-looking word than dret
– Didn’t parse INTERESTED, biffing it once I had all the checkers
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Tsunamis
38:28. Trust the wordplay indeed, v. few biffs though the 2 long downs were helpful exceptions with a crosser or 2.
For LOI the gardener in me spotted SALVIA, the cruciverbalist tried to parse it, failed, submitted and phewed with relief.
Enjoyed MCINTYRE, ARES for not being Zeus and HYPERKINETIC as word of the day.
Thanks to glh and setter.
25:59 which is a good Thursday time for me. Flying through this, then a long period of nothing, then flying through it again. Wasted a bit of time trying to justify an incorrect EROS before the relatively obvious dares came to mind.
All parsed apart from SALVIA not knowing the IV drip. Hopefully not tempting fate but I have managed to go my whole life avoiding them. It was a 50/50 with SYLVIA which if I had half a brain I would have realised was actually a bird and not a plant.
TSUNAMIS wouldn’t come straight to mind for ‘great volume’ but got there from the word play. I was expecting an Author only known to those readers of the TLS.
Pit for bed has come up recently which helped with TORPIDITY.
Quite liked this puzzle as I was solving it mostly from the word play with very few biffs.
COD AGAINST ONES WILL
And a groan for an appearance from one of my least favourite comedians but I guess I can’t hold that against the setter.
Thanks blogger and setter
I resent the time I spent on this. SALVIA is the worst clue I can remember seeing for some time: utterly ridiculous wordplay for an obscure bloody plant.
I also wasted ages on 16dn, trying to think of someone funny.
Harrumph.
Top rant!
😀
😀
Agree on both counts.
I share your pain….
You got there before me…
Fabulous rant! And well-justified I might add.
You haven’t quite reached my level of curmudgeonliness just yet, but carry on like that and you’ll soon be donning my mantle. I always make the mistake of taking my blood pressure after (non) completion of the crossword. Cryptic crosswords aren’t good for one’s health.
FWIW I’d say heatstroke isn’t an illness but a self-induced transitory condition? And an S is technically doing double duty in ‘gain stone (s) will’. But I suppose ‘gain stone’ instead of the grammatically correct ‘gain stones’ is ok in crossword-speak
Except you can die of heatstroke. So no necessarily transitory.
John M.
I was flying through the first three quarters of the puzzle, with only a handful left after 12 minutes, but I had the same difficulties others have reported with the likes of SALVIA and ASSIGN, eventually puffing over the line in 21.39.
FOI ERROR
LOI SALVIA
COD MCINTYRE
Thanks G and setter.
No time for his as I completed it while watching the first session of cricket in the wee hours. However I found it quite accessible.
Like others SALVIA was my last in. However I read the clue as meaning “cycling” (going over) a drip of fluid, which could refer to either saliva or saline. Saliva cycling to SALVIA was the obvious choice.
Bit of a meh at MCINTYRE, just as there is when he shows up on TV. Enjoyed HYPERKINETIC and RIBALD showed up in yesterday’s concise.
Thanks George and setter
Gave up with SALVIA missing. Plants are not my thing, to put it mildly, and the wordplay was not over-helpful. For those of you who have never heard of Michael McIntyre, count yourselves lucky. Possibly the least-talented, most overexposed ‘comedian’ in the history of British popular culture. A smug middle-class English twat with a grating voice and a face you would never get tired slapping.
couldn’t have expressed it better myself
Love the last sentence…spot on.
dcrooks- You don’t like someone so you call them ‘an English twat’ and advocate violence (a face you would never get tired slapping).
Shame on you for your racist intolerance.
Ehm …. He is English, isn’t he? (Being a twat, I concede, is a matter of opinion, rather than fact.) I’d be a bit more careful about throwing around accusations of racism, if I were you.
Are you threatening me as well as him?
There are plenty of bigots on Twitter who you might be happier consorting with than Times for the Times.
Let’s begin with the premise that I don’t give a stuff about what you think, and that you know hee-haw about who I am or what I believe in. I can assure you that I’m as far from a racist as you can get. And I don’t have an account on Twitter or whatever it’s called these days: if there are bigots there, you clearly know more about them than I do. The ‘threat’ is simply that on a forum such as this, if you randomly label someone as a racist, then maybe you shouldn’t be welcome here. If you can demonstrate to my satisfaction that referring to someone as English – veritas – is racist then I’ll happily apologise.
(By the way, reading your last sentence, are you implying that there are bigots on Times For The Times, but Twitter has a better class of bigot?)
I think he is simply saying that this is not the place to come, with that sort of language.
I agree with him.
Well he is English, and that has to be read alongside the peculiar English phenomenon of ‘middle-class’.
The ‘slapping’ is figurative-another hyperbolic English expression to express irritation. But the action will never match the words. If it did, most of us would be up in court on a GBH charge and our prisons would be even more full than they are now.
Exactly.
I’m getting mixed messages there. Stop sitting on the fence and tell us what you really think. . .
Also gave up, after 17′, without SALVIA. A pity as there were some excellent clues: MCINTYRE, TSUNAMIS and UNREGENERATE.
Thanks george and setter.
Most of this I found inexplicably easy, but like others I am totally unimpressed by SALVIA. Depends upon knowing a fairly obscure medical term AND figuring out that ‘going over’ = via (when ‘going by/past’ would be the natural choice) AND knowing the plant. I only got it because I do know the plant, but it was a desperate guess frankly. The setter really let him/herself down with this one IMHO.
My thanks to glh and setter.
Lots of this was easy and several were NOT. DNF, in SW.
11a Salvia, biffed. It is sage. I think both SAL and VIA were hard to get from wordplay and I didn’t.
12a Tsunamis, the only word that fitted, cheated, unparsed. I did see the UN and AMIS but didn’t work out the relevance of AlberT CamuS. Which was dim of me, probably reflecting my irritation at that point.
21a Assign, DNF.
3d Raising eyebrows biffed, but I did see the raisin. I wondered if the setter was thinking of “MERs”?
13d Interested unparsed.
16d (Michael) McIntyre, DNF, NHO, not interested.
Otherwise an interesting puzzle.
Surely SALVIA is SALIVA with a drip (IV) over.
Jeremy b
Sounds as good as anything. Still a poor clue IMHO.
per above, that was my thought. a simple “cycling” of saliva.
Crashed and burned on SALVIA which I’ve never heard of. Was approaching 26 minutes when I had the inspiration of SALINE, which is after all a fluid drip, but which I failed to notice buggered up RAISNNG EYEBROWS. A poor clue IMHO. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I. Bah humbug! Thanks George.
41:28. Indeed tricky – the last few really held me up. I thought ASSIGN, SALVIA were not very well constructed – and usual gripe about living persons (though I did like the workday on this). But overall some fun cluing and solving!
24.09, which would have been under 20 but for SALVIA. I’m tending towards the IV going over in SALIVA (sorry George!) because I just can’t see SAL as a fluid: it surely, on its own or in combination, means salt. It didn’t help that my botanical knowledge is deficient.
I wonder if we should revert to the “no undead” rule – I rather think our setter was so taken with the cleverness of M.C. IN TYRE, nearly as good as PO IS ON PILL a couple of weeks back that s/he bunged in the “comedian” definition regardless of taste.
Not my favourite puzzle. Sorry.
I had a bash at this. Got even fewer clues than usual.
Salvia is a very common plant
Salvia officinialis – is common sage ( as in sage and onion stuffing)
Rosemary ( the herb – shrub) is also a Salvia.
(My spell check thinks it is obscure though – I had to repeatedly correct Sylvia)
Did I get this clue? – no. But as it took me over 50 mins to do QC that is not surprising.
Thanks for a useful blog. You make it seem so easy
ARES, the Greek god of war, featured in Concise crossword today. Is it the times we live in?
DNF so relieved to see the blog starting “Phew this was a tough one”. Also relieved to find that those I didn’t get were pretty tough with only a couple of slaps to the forehead.
DNF. Defeated by Salvia, Assign and McIntyre. I thought of MC but discarded as impossible! At least I spelt Burrow right. Hopefully we will be served Burrito again soon and I will be ready!
COD: McIntyre.
Similar experience to others, with ASSIGN MCINTYRE SALVIA TSUNAMIS (which nearly makes a revolting sentence) pretty much doubling my time to 27:52. SALVIA unparsed, but I agree it has to be the IV drip reversal idea. Impressed (and envious) of anyone solving MCINTYRE without having heard of him – at least he’s given Stewart Lee a reason for some much needed exercise as he runs around the stage in parody.
45 mins but failed with interested which I thought less impressive than the rest of the puzzle. Doubly frustrating as I had finally got tsunamis which I thought a terrific clue.
Lots of others to like- Gabriella, torpidity and McIntyre to name but three.
Much of this was fine, but SALVIA quite impossible. It’s not, as has been suggested, a cycling of saliva, unless you see ‘cycling’ as an anagram indicator, which I don’t think it is. And I can’t see how it’s IV reversed in saliva. If it is, then where does the definition of saliva come from? It can’t be drip because that would make IV do double duty. I think that George’s explanation is as good as any, although sal = salt and via = going over both seem a stretch. And a common plant indeed! I’d never heard of it but then I’m no expert on plants. RAISING EYEBROWS struck me as rather green paint-ish. 45 minutes, with an aid for SALVIA, which I entered with no confidence.
[Yes, as several point out below, it’s the drip that is contained within saliva that is going over. So sound and quite clever. But I still think it’s a bit hard to have such a device for such a rare word.]
40 – with MCINTYRE, ASSIGN and SALVIA accounting for around a third of the time. Perversely, I quite like SALVIA now, which seems both rigorous and entirely fair, though nothing to do with sal in an IV or via: as others have said, it is just the drip part (IV) of fluid (saliva) reversed to give us the plant.
Second day of failure to finish. Defeated by TSUNAMIS – too clever by half – and MCINTYRE – who he? Biffed SALVIA – they don’t do well in my garden either so a full justified harrumph!
And tomorrow is Friday.
Thanks to glh.
24.19. Despite thinking of IV for drip, and SALIVA for ‘liquid’, SALVIA (which I have heard of) took me ages – mostly because I was worried there might be a plant called SYLVIA. But it’s a perfectly sound clue, and I am impressed with anyone who’s avoided McIntyre!
DNF. I convinced myself I’d heard of a plant called salvio. As soon as I saw the correct spelling I remembered it. Obviously I hadn’t parsed it. Reasonably happy to fail on only one in what was a tricky puzzle.
DNF after 40 minutes, having biffed 16dn as SCONTYRE, having decided it had to be something on Tyre. It is an unfortunate consequence of the relaxation of the rules on living individuals that we now have clues like this. Otherwise I quite enjoyed the puzzle. COD – TSUNAMIS.
Thanks to george and other contributors.
34:29
Enjoyable puzzle though guessed SALVIA at the end – no idea of the wordplay until coming here. Both AGAINST ONES WILL and MCINTYRE were very good, though the comedian himself is what my Mum would have called smarmy. Not heard of HYPERKINETIC nor UNREGENERATE.
Thanks G and setter
I still cannot see “earth” as “burrow”. 2 days on the bounce. Someone please help. At best it needs a question mark surely?
Burrows might well be in earth but that doesn’t make then synonymous, does it?
G
it’s hidden (burrowed maybe) in Collins. 7th definition of earth is a lair of a burrowing animal.
Beaten by SALVIA (I thought SYLVIA was a reasonable plant candidate), which was a disappointing way to bring probably my longest successful run to an end. But also a relief, because I stupidly put DREAMT instead of DREAMY (need to brush on my nest knowledge), and that would have been a real head-in-hands moment if the only pink square.
Just a thought on SALVIA, I think there was a possible way in that I missed, and I shouldn’t have done, because I did have this thought: why does it say ‘drip of fluid’, not ‘drop of fluid’? Surely then ‘drip’ has to be IV, and if you can see the clue as “‘IV’ of fluid going over” then it becomes straightforward, at least once you have the crossing letters. I think it’s a matter of your point of view – it’s either a brilliant clue, or it’s too clever by half.
To me, though, I’m all in favour, I think, even if it results in some pink squares. The Times Crossword would be much less interesting if it contained only clues that I can solve.
Unlike others I’m on the side of it being a brilliant clue. IVs and salvias are both well-known if you’re ever visited a hospital or a garden centre, and “drip of fluid” is a very clever (and quite original) way of referring to the IV within SALIVA. All in all a very satisfying puzzle, with few opportunities for biffing (AGAINST ONES WILL, INTERESTED). Time 16:59. COD to MCINTYRE, with SALVIA a close second.
Luckily I had a friend on hand who knew of the plant Salvia. Dodgy clue, for sure.
Otherwise, some nice clues – I liked McIntyre.
55 minutes overall with that help.
Apologies for being depressingly unoriginal – but I am yet another who entered SALVIA without a meaningful parse. I have heard of the plant and it was the only thing that would fit. Everything else fell into place – with the exception of UNREGENERATE which I did not recognise as a word and was nowhere near parsing. So a DNF in circa 25 minutes.
CRUMBLED, TORPIDITY, RIBALDRY and HEATSTROKE my faves.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Failed on TSUNAMIS and ASSIGN, tsunamis because lateral thinking isn’t my strongpoint and ASSIGN because the wordplay didn’t help me in the slightest; I still don’t understand it – what in “cycling is safely turning around corners” points to a reverse hidden?
McIntyre held me up for a while because of the definition “comedian”; I find him deeply unamusing…
“Corners” is the hidden indicator, “Turning around” is the reversal indicator.
Got it now. Thanks. As I said above, lateral thinking is not one of my strong points – which is a bit of a drawback when doing crosswords which are heavy on less than obvious “synonyms”. My other big weakness is simply being still relatively new to the game and not knowing all the conventions that the experienced solvers spot right away but that someone like me only slowly gets to know (mostly thanks to the parsing explanations in this blog) – I still find some of them very irritating.
i started the puzzle last night whilke the cricket was on, and went to bed with about 6 clues left. But today my answers had been wiped and i had to start again with pen and paper. How do |I get round this problem?
Quite tricky, ptobably took about 40 mins.
I liked the way cycling was part of a *in thye words backwards* kind of clue instead of being a kind of anagram.
Far-called, our navies melt away
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and TYRE
Kipling’s poetry was stronger on message than on verse, that’s probably why he gets quoted more than other poets.
it is a shame it was not the cricket that was wiped.
Really chuffed to have finished this having initially thought I was going nowhere fast.
Liked EDGES OUT and TSUNAMIS and glad I eventually cracked the anagram to make HYPERKINETIC. Biffed SALVIA and came here for the explanation.
MCINTYRE was a clever clue. I think you are being slightly unfair to him – he is hugely successful and is a counterweight to other cynical and condescending “comedians”. His Saturday night show is very silly with a big feel-good factor which we surely need these days 🙂
Thanks again to setter and blogger and all those who contribute to this.
I think McIntyre is very much in the “marmite” category, although I like Marmite…
After almost 2 hours I was left with 11 across which just wouldn’t yield. On reading this blog, I am glad I didn’t torture myself any longer.
Thanks glh and setter.
I found this one harder than yesterday’s; it took me two sessions totalling 33 mins. SALVIA was a pure guess as the wordplay completely passed me by and SALVIA was the only plant I could think of that fitted the checked letters. With some difficulty I managed to work out all the other wordplay. I particularly liked the clue to AGAINST ONE’S WILL. Thank you to glh and the setter.
Wow, what a puzzle. 19:23, done at 1am as I’m well off my rhythm. I shall never forget the small pouch of ‘salvia divinorum’ which came as part of a special edition black metal CD I ordered from the USA in 2004 or so. I think dried goat semen was also included. How edgy. Saw the IV but not the SALIVA. MCINTYRE was a gleefully bad pun.
I never know how firmly the tongue is in the cheek with some of your posts but they are all v amusing 😂
Haha thank you – unfortunately, this ‘limited edition’ CD was very real. The music was terrible, which is why I can’t even remember the band name.
DNF
C/f Keriothe’s comments. For me, if many experienced solvers struggle to understand the clue it’s a bad ‘un. End of. But liked the rest of it. 21 minutes for all but the unknown plant, with the plug pulled on the half hour mark.
Well blogged George
Missed out by one letter frustratingly by putting in SYLVIA. Up to that point I was rather pleased with myself for finally sorting out TSUNAMIS and finally MCINTYRE, but I was always uneasy about SYLVIA, which not surprisingly I couldn’t parse. An hour well spent though in spite of the near miss.
Like everyone else, my LOI was SALVIA and I only put it in because I could think of nothing else. Strongly expecting a pink’un, I got it alright. But not there. On DREAMY, which I had as DREAMT. Well … dret, drey , they both sound squirrelly and nesty. Otherwise I was on 28’03”. But the last seven or eight minutes were SALVIA’s. SALVIA’S BOTHER. (apologies to Dr Hook)
Three hiddens in one puzzle is a tad unusual, even if two were reversed.
Who are these folks who have not heard of Michael McIntyre? Maybe non-UK based …?
SALVIA straight in with the S_L in position but I do like my garden so the plant was very familiar to me. McIntyre LOI. Had the MC and TYRE but couldn’t find the answer for too long. Must remember the MC words. We had McMansion recently I seem to recall. Slow but steady solve well over the hour but enjoyable. Thanks Setter and blogger