I’ve never heard “upsa” either. But I favor “oopsy” above both.
@PB — Or “upsy”. That was my guess on my initial run through the grid.
@PB I agree with you on oopsy, but it has too many letters and Ngram indicates upsy is more commonly used than either of the other two spellings. See: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4ffra362" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/4ffra362</a> — — — — — — — —
Our coxswain is so oar-nery. We always get into a row with him. (He's such a num-scull.)
@Mike Our team could give your team a real shell-acking!
@Mike When he thinks they're in a bad spot, does he sing "Regatta Get Out of This Place"? ... if it's the last thing we ever emu?
@Mike Yes, but if he's got the right body, a narrow, V-shaped stern and a narrow, flat bottom, he could change boats and helm a hunky-dory.
not complaining, but where i come from, the phrase was upsy daisy. not upsa daisy. variations are good.
pollyq, I waited for the cross to enter the last letter. I grew up with "upsy" but I've heard both. Is your spider "itsy bitsy" or something else? emus, though...
In honor of yesterday: Coffee break used to complain about the use of “octopi”? TEN O’CLOCK CARP
My time doesn’t reflect this. But this was the hardest puzzle for me in 2024. By far. I was ‘annoyed’ I struggled so much for a ‘Wednesday’. But I loved it. Nothing came easy. And what came easy was wrong every time. When I finally cracked the revealer, it all clicked. I can’t even remember or list everything I did wrong. But isn’t CASE a good answer for “making or breaking?’ Thought the mountain range was URAL. But no, it’s a river. But I guess I’ll nitpick and say GESTS doesn’t seem like tales of daring. But maybe I don’t know what daring means. I BONE in stock? Or bones? TYPEO was just a great “those letters don’t make sense together” answer. Anyway. The theme was clever. I enjoyed the phrases and the clues and the fill. Thanks constructors!
@Newbie I felt the same way. Nothing came easy. For instance, I had NO LIKE THAT for a long time, Yells instead of Yowls, and the NW was impossible. Loved it all.
@Newbie There are both a river and a mountain range in Russia and Kazakhstan named Ural. I don’t think I had ever heard of the river until I started solving lots of crosswords.
I think the difference between me and half the commenters on these crossword puzzles is that when I don't know a phrase, I think, "Huh. I didn't know that phrase" and when half the commenters don't know a phrase, they think, "this is not a real phrase and I'm mad the crossword constructor made it up just to spite me specifically."
@Michelle I'm with you to the NTH degree! I often think that very thing, myself, and often can't resist reading some of the most indignant comments to my husband, who doesn't do the puzzle but who does enjoy my indignation about other people's indignation. Ha!
@Michelle -Yup. You nailed it. I find the occasional clue/answer combination that I think is an error, but I rarely mention it since there's already so much negativity here. I only wish that it were not true that 90+% of the "this is not a word!" gripes were easily disproven by a simple check with a dictionary or a quick search of the googles.
A few observations from me about this fun puzzle and fun team-up of Chloe and Alissa: (1) Like others, I had UPSy before UPSA, which played games with the revealer for me. For a bit, it looked like part of 60A would be SCyRING ... or is that scrying? (2) Even after that was straightened, I still need to mouth the revealer a few times to catch on to the replacement. (3) I needed that understanding to go back and solve 17A. Part of the problem was that I had CAse before CAMP (you can make a case or break a case, right?), and so I thought this themer might be requiring the coxswain to tase the rowers. Ah, no. Other than those hiccups, this was a smooth solve. I love the fresher cluing of ECO (we've had our fill of greens lately) and ORCA (hey, that's a killer clue about brain size). Sam, regarding your column title, subtitle, column photo and caption, it seems to me that Chloe and Alissa are "best buds" when it comes to SHARING the duties for creating this crossword, as exemplified by the two flowers in the photo. The finished grid reflects a lot of CARING on their part about our solving experience. And their love of crosswords, like ours, may "stem" from childhood.
@Henry Su Henry you've really parsed the puzzle nicely, but I'm here to really applaud your last remarks to Sam regarding the photo choice: just perfect marks. I also thought that the misdirect of what buds are put into (I had cans and taps and jars there for a while) might have also stumped Sam for a bit, because the buds in her photo look to be in a very jar-like container...but your deeper read I think is right on.
I had not realized that the solution to 38A, GIFT COP, was part of the theme until I read the Wordplay column. I assumed it was a real term because when my large extended family gets together for Christmas, my older sister directs who opens which presents in which order, so we call her the "gift cop." So when I read the clue, I knew the answer immediately because I thought it was a widely accepted term!
@Francis DeBernardo — Guess all families have one — I thought the same!
@Francis DeBernardo When I was growing up. We didn’t have too much money. So we all took turns watching each other open gifts. Carefully unwrap the paper. Fold it up for reuse. Carefully take gift out of box/packaging, for return purposes. Take pictures. It took a long time even without a lot of presents. My wife’s family. My first Christmas with these animals. They all ripped open their gifts in parallel. The hedonistic ritual was over in like 5 minutes. I was in shock and awe and sadness. But somehow as time has gone by. They’ve adopted my style of Christmas gift opening, kinda. I think this past Christmas took over 30 minutes.
"Clarabelle? She's just the bestest bovine ever!" ...or my appraisal of today's theme, in-theme. JOLLYGOODCOW cc: emu handler
In 2020, my youngest graduated and was home applying to medical schools during the pandemic. Unlike his parents, he did so many cool things. One of them was to learn to speak Japanese. He would pay for FaceTime calls with people in Japan to just chat with him for an hour in the evenings. I remember that sounding like “somethingsomethingsomething… hai, hai…somethingsomething…hai, hai, hai…” I was far more impressed by his conversations than my ability to pop in the answer today, but loved the memory. (And I may or may not have secretly taped him on my phone because it was such fun to listen to, and I may or may not listen to those recordings now)
Did the puzzle Tuesday night with our daughter, who came to higher ground to escape the monsoons in New Jersey. Fun puzzle and clever execution of the theme. GIFTCOP and ALAI were the new words for us, but readily solved with the crosses. Well done, constructors! Our family’s gold star streak hit the happy number 1234 today!
@Tom Gift Cop was part of the theme, not a widely used term I believe!
Sweet bite, slow-to-unravel reveal, cluing wit, and the feeling that I’m in the hands of a most capable constructing team – this was a wow for me. As a veteran solver, I come into Wednesday expecting a fairly breezy outing, but this one had its share of headwinds – a treat! A good number of answers that I couldn’t get right off from the clue, but when they eventually filled in, they made perfect sense. Then the relatively slow awakening of the theme. I got the C-for-SH substitution fairly early, but I left the reveal blank and tried to figure it out, first without reading its clue (no hope), then by revealing one letter at a time, and even then it took uncovering a plenitude of letters to get. And when I finally did get it, it brought a huge “Hah!” and “Yes!” and “Perfecto!” By the way, the puzzlemakers are kin-structors, aunt and niece, which makes my family-loving heart smile. And man, they created a cracker-jack gem today. Alissa and Chloe, I hope to see SAMOA from you, and soon. Thank you so much for this!
It's "upsy daisey", not "upsa daisey".
@Steve Daniel I thought it actually is “oopsie daisy.” In any case I’ve never heard “upsa.”
@Steve Daniel - Are you sure? Do you own a dictionary? If not, there are lots of online dictionaries you could consult. You could also read the comments already posted by people who think that "UPSA" is correct.
For some reason (mercy, accident, bowing to popular demand) the puzzle and clues were 'normal' in size today.... Thank you! OOPSY-daisy, and just *maybe* (if you're Hugh Grant) UPSY-daisies, but UPSA? Just NO, even if it IS only Wednesday. And then there is the Kyrgyzstan mountain range, but at least that isn't a faked-up word. Isn't there a saying about not looking a GIFT COP in the mouth? We followed a tradition in our family: presents are opened on Christmas morning, one at a time, so that everyone can enjoy the surprise and pleasures of giving and receiving. Policing was never required, and not even the youngest one ever complained My fave is the Kurt Vonnegut quote. PhysicsDaughter is at the AIAA conference in Orlando (said her presentation went well) and she's the first person I'll share that quote with. Wink! (She is in a minority--masking--and says there is a lot of coughing going on. Hope THOR is on the job.) Must go read the column to see if we have a debut puzzle here, which might account for the leniency.... but thinking of all you solvers in the path of this storm system. It appears our state got off lightly in comparison.
@Mean Old Lady fingers crossed for your daughter. I still mask in public (or avoid public! lol). Only exception is when I'm with my grandkids.
@Mean Old Lady It seems to me that there is a lot of coughing everywhere. My mindset has changed though regarding masks. I try to wear them in very concentrated closed areas, but not because of Covid. I just don’t want that hacking cough that everyone has. I think? Masks have changed from, “I don’t want to get Covid” to “I don’t want to get anything from you during cold/flu season” I’m not sure why, but for me, that shift in thinking allows me to view people that wear masks as less ‘aggressive’. But i live in a very blue area. I am guessing Mississippi has a lot of disdain for mask wearers? Stereotyping. I know.
@Mean Old Lady "faked-up word" is my new favorite phrase!
OT at Duke starting 6 months of weekly injections and pills treatment for multiple myeloma. Hoping no side effects that would break my steak! Will try to check in now and again. Play nice!
@Robert Michael Panoff sending prayers, good thoughts...whatever you're comfortable with.
@Robert Michael Panoff It's always good to see your name pop up in this space. I'm sending you positive thoughts about your treatment plan at Duke.
@Robert Michael Panoff Sorry to know of your dx, but wishing you a successful treatment routine! Your Crossword Community will do our best to keep you entertained and distracted!
A puzzle with a clever theme and some late week level cluing, I thought. I figured out the revealer fairly early, which helped me get the first theme answer, which in turn helped me in the NW corner, where I had nothing.
Hi Vaer! Still out here. Always nice to see you are, too.
@V Interesting that you mention the NW corner. Ezra said the same thing. You vets shoulda gotten IMAC right away. How many more Apple (okay the capital A might have been tricky) pun clues do you need to see?!? Podcast = Audio programs = voice = microphone Yes. I’m looking down on you…haha #dobetter
Glad other people enjoyed it, but I was not a fan of today's fill
A fun puzzle for a Wednesday. Plenty of punny mis-directs like the clues for IMAC, TYPEO, BONE, MITT, RUG, EARS, ELS, TOGAS, AGES and RTE. Puzzlemucker’s description of a recent experience in a card tournament reminded me of an unforgettable incident in a Las Vegas casino my wife and I visited when Sam was literally a babe in arms. We were walking on a red carpet taking us through the casino on our way to our hotel. (Clever folks who design hotels containing casinos. Not unlike the designers of drug stores whose main entrance invariably makes you first walk through the cosmetics departments.) We paused briefly in front of a bank of slot machines, taking a step off the carpet. We were immediately accosted by a security guard who told us that no-one under 21 was permitted in the casino!
Fun puzzle. I’m in the UPSy camp — never heard or seen UPSA-daisy. But since the word is essentially just a nonsensical transcription of a spoken interjection, it seems churlish to CARP about the precise spelling — and while it made me doubt my UPSA/SHARING IS CARING for a minute, once I said “upsa-daisy” out loud to myself I realized it was fine. Liked the themers a lot. As a hasbeen rower who spent much of my college years in an eight, I appreciated 17A. And 49A earned a chuckle and still makes me smile. Thanks Chloe and Alissa for a fun Wednesday.
Great puzzle with a clever theme! I too was thrown by UPSA Daisy instead of UPSY. But this was a fun solve and could’ve worked as a Wednesday or a Thursday lite. Nice job, constructors!
This was very much a Jekyl and Hyde work. Some areas had great and inventive entries Others had very questionable ones and it wasn't a question of rarely used words, rather a stretch too far ro make a word "work". I don't like when solvng includees the thought "well, that's not really right but it's the only thing that fits".
@festy I have to agree. GESTS (and regardless of whether or not it’s in a dictionary, it’s not a word in remotely active use) and UPYA were just annoying.
I found nothing to CARP about in this puzzle (except my personal preference for upsy over UPSA in reference to daisy). I enjoyed the clever themers, especially THETAMINGOFTHECREW and NOGREATCAKES. As a relative geographical illiterate I was unfamiliar with ALAI and didn’t know the URAL was a river. Speaking of rivers, I’d better get back to building an ark, because it’s raining buckets here in PA. Luckily Ardmore means something akin to great height in Gaelic.
Marshall, Stay dry there on the Main Line I see there is no R5 or Keystone service. raining emus?
@Marshall Walthew I was thinking Ural as well until the crosses ruled it out. It is a mountain range in Russia and Kazakhstan, but it doesn’t extend far enough south to have any part in Kyrgyzstan. The ALAI range is much farther south and was new to me today. It has been clued as a mountain range a good number of times before, but the term is much more commonly clued related to the court sport also called Basque pelota (jai ALAI).
Toughest Wednesday puzzle for me in a long time. At home, I typically solve the puzzle before going to sleep between 10 and 11. We’re on a ski trip to Utah, so the puzzle is available at 8:00 instead of 9:00. That’s of little help when you’re so tired that staying awake much past dinner is a struggle. I started this after getting in bed and got a third of it done before getting too sleepy to finish, something that never happens at home. When I put down my iPad, I had done about a third of the puzzle and had no idea what the theme was. But I woke up after a few hours and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to finish the puzzle. It was still a challenge — my first attempt to fill in 17A was based on some half-thought-out pun on “oar” until the “SH is C” theme became apparent. Thanks for the fun challenge, Ms Revery and Ms Revness! I’m looking forward to the next collaboration from y’all.
Funnest Wednesday in recent memory! With _NIC_, I stared at 52D for an embarrassingly long time. I'm TYPE O (negative) but that was a headslap when I finally saw it. I learned interesting things, like GOBI It felt a little difficult for a Wednesday, which is also nice.
@Bill in Yokohama Oddly enough, once again the Jeopardy! Episode yesterday had GOBI in it as an answer. (Meaning: "waterless place.") No accounting for it, but gosh.
Am I the only one who can’t see how NOTDO fits for the clue “Abstain from”? “I abstain from drinking” “I NOT DO drinking” ??? Generally frustrated with this puzzle. Just not vibing with the cluing, I guess.
@Cody think of it simply as the infinitive, rather than putting it in a sentence. To abstain from = to not do.
I'm guessing you pulled a Ken Jennings on 19D :) <a href="https://youtu.be/KoPFkjF-Bdo" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/KoPFkjF-Bdo</a>
That was a very hard puzzle for me, and not only because I am hopeless with understanding most NYT puzzle themes. Some of the trivia was really, REALLY niche. I am generally good with geography, and I know the names of many quite exotic mountain ranges but ALAI was completely new to me. It seemed like overkill on a Wednesday. Also, I still do not understand some clues. Marine leader? ULTRA - what is that about?
@Andrzej It's a pigment: "The name means “beyond the sea”—a dreamy ode to its distant origins, as romantic as it is imprecise. Derived from the lapis lazuli stone, the pigment was considered more precious than gold. For centuries, the lone source of ultramarine was an arid strip of mountains in northern Afghanistan." <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/08/true-blue" target="_blank">https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/08/true-blue</a>/
@Andrzej Ultramarine is a color, so "leader" as in "it comes in front of". Emus come in all colors, including ultramarine.
@Andrzej Ultramarine is the name of a pigment and a color. An EMU is no bluebird.
I know I have seen it in the crossword-verse before, but the phrase UPSA Daisy can never replace OOPSIE Daisy in my brain.
@Zechariah They mean two different things, so no need to replace either one. Lifting kid in the air= "upsa-daisy!" Kid falls down= "oopsy-daisy!"
“Upsa”-daisy? Really? I’ve never seen anyone spell it like that.
RJ, And now you have. Here is some more. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-history-upsy-daisy-oopsie-whoops-upsidaisy-definition" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-history-upsy-daisy-oopsie-whoops-upsidaisy-definition</a> eeny emu
About that poker tournament I played in on Sunday, I didn’t win. I blame being too tired. Kept falling asleep during breaks. But I . . . GAVE IT MY BEST COT. A very nice Tuesday-Weds. combination! Don’t forget to vote for the Puzzles of the Year: <a href="https://nyti.ms/3vrwcVA#permid=130301756" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/3vrwcVA#permid=130301756</a> Vote by Recommending.
Puzzlemucker, While you were out... Kentucky Eva thought the Monday puzzle was a good one! Eva, not emu
@Puzzlemucker Poker tourney? Whut! Deets! Texas holdem? Did you cash? Any all ins saved by the river? #twosevenoffsuit
A very meaty Wednesday. Some great misdirection clues - eg 30A (Often in stock = BONE). Not too difficult but well worthy of a NYT crossword.
@Andrew Not sure if you were being punny. But I like the ‘meaty’ then discussing stock which is devoid of meat. I will agree though. This puzzle has a lot of RAGU.
Definitely not a Wednesday puzzle. Thursday for me.
Fun, went smoothly, but I have never seen the term gest. The dictionary supports the definition though. Enjoyed the clever theme and revealer. Kept struggling with abstain, couldn't see how the answer fit. Doh.
Loved this. Pretty darn crunchy for a Wednesday!
Just a really enjoyable puzzle - well clued and a witty theme.
Hmm I learned the phrase NOGREATSHAKES today. Hadn’t heard that before. I had KIDSCONE for way too long.
@Ash I endorse KIDS CONE as I find single scoops to be all I can handle! They're regular sized, if you ask me.
@Ash When my KIDS SHONE in class, they were treated to a KIDS CONE.
When googling Kyrgyzstan mountain ranges Alai is the 8th one that shows up. Very obscure, not the countries most famous range. Maybe it's better to redo the grid rather than reach that far to force the grid to work. Shout out to all the 78 year olds who knew the song reference. I'm assuming you would need to be at least 10 years old in 1956 for a song to be in your common knowledge. Frustrating puzzle for me.
@Jon FWIW, this is the 228th time ALAI has been clued to the mountain range. At least today it was clued to Kyrgyzstan. Previously it has often been clued as an Asian range, or a USSR range when that was still around. Of course it has much more often been clued in reference to the sport Jai Alia ( about 550 times). It’s three vowels make it very crossword friendly. The mountain range was also new to me today (I had Ural until the crosses knocked it out) but I’ll get it next time for sure.
@Jon "Que Sera Sera"/Doris Day was in the body of popular common knowledge for a long time, it seems to me. The song was in a Hitchcock movie, and won an Oscar. It was Doris Day's signature number, and she remained popular into the '70s. Anyway, now it's in your common knowledge, too.
@Jon I hear you. Maybe could change the clue to the default “sport Jai ____” I’m not 78. Close. But not close. but I think most have heard that hook, even the millennials. I am sure some rapper de jour is sampling that in one of their songs, as we speak. In any case. I think the general consensus is that this was a harder Wednesday. You weren’t alone
A quiet, wet night What's with all these Gs and Cs? Good Crossword, maybe
Today's "octopi" is "upsa". In the words of Jack Nicholson in "Easy Rider" as he took a slug from the liquor bottle, "nit, nit, nit". Not really a fan of the crossword nit game. If I can get to the answer from the clue and the crosses, I don't care if I've heard of the answer or not. In just about every case, if you haven't heard of it, someone else has.
Loved it. The theme was a lot of fun and the theme answers were well-chosen and well-clued. But the constructors obviously put a lot of thought into all the clues, with some really nice ones for AGES; TWO (interesting factoid); GOBI; ORCA (another interesting factoid); and especially TYPEO, which baffled me for the longest time. I got NO GREAT CAKES before I got the TAMING of TAMING OF THE CREW. But once I had the former, the latter became obvious. But what would the revealer be? I tried to think of one and couldn't. SH=C? Sort of like E=MC-squared? Nothing came to me. But SHARING IS CARING is nicely unguessable, unexpected, and works quite well, I think. An entertaining puzzle to work on.
Incredibly difficult one for me! I'm not sure why I struggled so much. I had CAse for "Something to make or break," which was giving me _YEEO. (And I'm O- and a regular blood donor!) Just couldn't make the leap to TAMING... either. (And I love Shakespeare! Read that play multiple times!) Somehow I've never, ever heard the word GEST either (and I'm a former lit major!) and had a rebus in the G square. Fie!!! A pox on this cursed puzzle! Okay now back to work.
Tricky but fun puzzle! Sam, my mom and I love your description about TYPEO I tried to make the same justification for a second
@Stella This is utterly vindicating. THANK YOU.
Not to be mean but this was not a strongly constructed puzzle
@Sam If you really don't want to be mean, you should enunciate what specifically you didn't like about it. To me, the theme made perfect sense, and I didn't have any issue with any other clue or answer. !!!
@Sam I agree, several strange choices: UPSA over "oopsy" and CARP over "harp" threw me for a loop.
20D is one of the most clever clues+answers I’ve ever encountered: Every body being a TYPO. Everybody compatible with TYPEO. Well done 👍
@Chikezie Well, it’s also that you give blood to bodies. So it refers to all bodies. Nice clue!
Chikezie, "Every body" is not a typo; Sam just thought it was. (O, I try not to be Negative, but it's in my blood). universal emu
I learnt that "Kyrgyzstan mountain range" = ALAI. Much preferred to the old standby "Jai ____" Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is safe from recent storms.
Not quite fun and more than a tad obnoxious. Hope tomorrow’s is better
@Juan totally disagree. fun and just challenging enough for a wednesday.
"Upsa"? Was mildly flummoxed by some of the answers to some of the clues but that particular one encapsulates the odd prism that this puzzles gleams through. Thank goodness one can turn to the sudoku puzzles as a chaser.
This was really tricky and I needed lots of help, but it was all worth it when I suddenly noticed the SH sound for C. Very impressive construction and a fun solve.
A MITT catches, not catching. Now I join the ranks of those who quibble over nothing. ko is mocking me. Thank you Chloe and Alissa a fun solve.
@dk — I’ll add UPSA to the list of minor quibbles. Guess it depends on how it’s pronounced. Otherwise, a clever and quick (for me) solve.
@dk When the MITT catches, it’s doing the CATCHING. In the present progressive tense, the MITT is CATCHING the ball.
The mitt, it is catching. Or one would presume at least some of the time. We will just have to take the narrator's word for it especially since the play on words disappears otherwise.