Independent 12089 / Lette

14 comments on “Independent 12089 / Lette”

1. Thank you Duncan – I also spotted the Othello allusions and assumed that was the theme (though I was expecting something more proctological, given 11 and 13 across’s clues!). Given the write-in nature of today’s Guardian offering, many thanks to Lette for this much more interesting alternative.

2. We also have the GREEN EYED MONSTER – jealousy – with which IAGO ensnares OTHELLO (definitely the MOOR). I couldn’t make a meaning connection with Dr JEKYLL, but I’m sure someone else will.
   Fun if relatively straightforward puzzle.
   Thanks to Lette and DS.

3. I suppose the surface of 8 across is also thematic. I discovered that Gertrude Elliott played Desdemona but that’s probably far too tenuous a link to Jekyll.

4. Or, less tentatively, apparently an artist called Jekyll has a song called Othello. (Thanks to Google)

5. I’m not familiar with Lette, but I recall a couple, I think.
   This puzzle is a gem, so more, please.
   No point picking a favourite clue, they all have a style about them.
   OK, if pushed, IRONY 2(d), is a great surface, but SCRIPT(4(ac) wins, for the witty and novel ” grave pronouncement” !
   I think I saw about 3 themes, and got nearly every solution to fit them! It would be nice if the setter drops in, to ease my pain.

   I didn’t find this an easy solve, but it is so perfectly clued, it flew by, like all good things do.

   Bravo! Encore! cheers, Lette & duncan

6. Quite risqué I thought, which might not have gone so well with breakfast but fortunately I did this last night! Favourites were ACID RAIN, PLACEBO, OTHELLO, CATNAP and SEDUCE (chortle).

   I got the theme(s?) though I thought it was fairly light until DP@2 gave us GREEN EYED MONSTER.

   I had to cheat on poison; NHO orison which my dictionary says is archaic. And it took me an age to grok the second def for EYED… made me laugh when the penny finally dropped!

   Thanks both

7. GREEN is VERDI in Italian, and he wrote an OT(H)ELLO.

8. What E.N@6 said – a true gem, and hoping for many more…and, yes, not easy, but perfectly clued and quite fair. Just the right amount of teeth, and a theme for the lovers of themes that didn’t stand in the way of solving for those of us who usually miss the themes entirely.

   Thanks to Lette and Duncan!

9. Thanks both. My first two answers were IAGO and OTHELLO, at which point I had exhausted my knowledge of the theme, save Mr Spokeshave, the writer of course. Still feels like I wasn’t missing a huge amount of content, though, although I had mused whether there might be a character called JEKYLL who wasn’t necessarily a body-snatcher. LOI IRONY with its quirky definition, and the seaweed probably forgotten-by-me; it’s only four letters long after all.

10. TFO: NORI is specifically the seaweed often seen in Japanese cuisine; notably used as the wrapping for maki (rolled sushi).

11. Very neat and also pretty quick, more or less a write-in fot the speedsters I’d guess. Ta for the fun Lette and duncan.

12. Some critics accuse Othello of credulousness. Nice puzzle and blog – thank you to both.

13. A quick note to thank those that have solved this and for the kind comments, and duncanshiell, of course, for the detailed blog. As noted, it was a lightly themed puzzle around Shakespeare’s Othello. Hopefully, no knowledge was required of the theme to enjoy the solve but I’m glad people picked up the gist of the linked ideas. The pivotal moment in the play is often referred to as the temptation scene in which Iago, ironically referred to as honest, warms Othello: “beware of jealousy, it is the green eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on”. As noted, poison is a recurrent word in the play and an important theme; in the same scene Iago observes “The Moor already changes with my poison” and later in the play “Work on, My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught, And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, All guiltless, meet reproach.” Iago is also presented as a kind of diabolical villain and other than that there were a few theatrical solutions and surfaces. The Jekyll link was an unintended coincidence, though an admiral piece of detective work. While Jekyll’s alter ego Hyde was a monster, I’m not sure Stevenson explicitly tells us that his eyes were green. Thanks again to everyone for solving and to Eimi for publishing and I hope if provided some fun. Cheers

14. I also forgot to mention that as well as the Moor in UNMOORED, there is also a reference to Othello’s first major soliloquy after Iago had begun his poisoning in which he says: “I had rather be a toad
    And live upon the vapour of a dungeon
    Than keep a corner in the thing I love For others’ uses.” Impressed if anyone spotted that! ** and re: @13 admirable rather than admiral!

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