Got it. Thanks, Jasdip.

tj

Miraculously, I have a reasonable solution too.

floral - Does the phrase mean more than one thing to you? It does to me, but the internet is telling me that one meaning is chiefly British and I’m not sure I agree.

A legitimate question, foas.

tj

Good morning!

Got it.

Thanks, Jasdip

I only know one meaning for it ...

if I've got the right phrase.

I looked it up and I did not know the meaning described as being American.

PG Wodehouse uses the phrase a lot in his books. He’s British, and he uses it the same way an American would, I think.

eg. Hot Water written in 1932.

He did live in USA, though.

Ooh - I have an answer too! 😲

I cheated - I looked up rox’s hint and maybe I now have a guess. About my cheating - desperate times, desperate measures and all that, right?

Yep. My primary use would be that something’s being done legally, by the book, or in general correctly. Or someone is doing it correctly. But I wouldn’t think twice about using it or hearing it used figuratively for something like someone’s career progressing.

Yes

Thanks, Jasdip

One that made sense to my tiny mind for a change 😄

FOAS, I only know the meaning of progress or improvement. I've never come across the legal/correct meaning.

Yes, thanks again.

tj

KW, did you get it? I still don't see it even after getting the answer.

murray - not even close! I was hoping not to share my still unbroken record of failing.😆 I went back to search on P G Wodehouse that rox noted but can’t find the same thing I came up with & actually cannot remember exactly what my idea was. I do get the answer after seeing it but for me, it’s not an obvious one. But, my use for the phrase ”on the up and up” would be same as foas notes - it’s legal. Using it to describe progress or improvement as floral notes only works for me if it reads ”on the way up and up”. I suppose for either use context would make the meaning clear.

Here is another bit of Wodehouse writing. It’s from the Blandings Castle series written in the late 1920s early 1930s before he even moved to USA.

It’s interesting (to me, at least) that he was using the phrase this way and not the British way.

Yes, I have heard the phrase used both ways. I think of it as being something done legally.

I think the British must have heard the phrase and put their own meaning to it.

Interesting.

rox - great example of usage of the phrase. This is using it the way foas noted - it’s legal. Or, specifically as Wodehouse used it - “…perfectly respectable…” it’s okay.

BTW, how do you dig up this kind of thing so quickly? You have to be a great researcher!

KW, my husband has pretty much every book written by Wodehouse. Almost one hundred, I think. I’d have to go count. He’s been collecting them his whole life. I’ve read most of them, and that phrase just stood out in my mind. I scanned the stories about Lord Emsworth as I felt that would be the perfect spot to use that phrase. There it was.

Husband’s messy den.🤠

rox, very nice book collection that your husband has. I had to look up Giles cartoons. Made me think of Garry Trudeau, an American cartoonist who won the Pulitzer in 1975. He’s best known for his political satire strip ”Doonesbury”.

KW, I like Garry Trudeau very much.

My husband has the complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes and the Asterix series.

My kids used to read all the Asterix stories (Goscinny/Uderzo) and laugh and laugh. It was a fun way to learn about world history and other languages!

Maybe the respectable meaning is outmoded over here, as is much of Wodehouses language. I'd know what he meant from the context but I'd never use it that way.

ETA just asked DH. He's never heard of the legal/reasonable meaning either. Only the improving meaning.

I think you are right, floral!

Just watch any 30s/40s/50s/ gangster/crime/noir movie and you're sure to hear that phrase, often proceeded by 'strictly' like the example above 🙂

Yes, I would have thought that up and up means "strictly legal" . It does sound like something from a '30's or '40's crime movie. It would mean "being legit".

I still can't see what it has to do with the puzzle.

”On the” is written up (upwards) then ”and” is as well.

”on the” up, ”and” up.

On the up and up.

Thanks, FOAS. I don't see it as "written upwards". I will have to expand my thinking skills if I am going to continue to torture myself.