Speaking of Chekhov's and Tolstoy's friend
Alexander Ertel' (1855-1908), his name reminds one of St. Petersburg's
Ertelev lane (now the Chekhov street) in which the reactionary newspaper
and publishing house Novoe vremya had its residence.
Saltykov-Shchedrin, who used to call Suvorin's newspaper "Чего изволите?" ("What
Can I Do For You?"), said that its motto was "Неуклонно идти
вперёд - но через задний проход" ("Go steadily straightforward, but via the
back passage"). Another rhymester composed the couplet:
Душа горит на сотне вертелов -
Лишь вспомню переулок Эртелев.
(I have but to think of the Ertelev
lane,
And my soul is burning on hundred
spits.)
Dishonestly, but Ertel + t = letter
Alexey Sklyarenko