Listen With Others

I’ve ony been a Listener convert for the past two or three years and then started to wonder what it woud be like to compile one. My first couple of tries were rejected; looking back, I think they were so bad I’m surrpised they were even looked at! However, it was now on my bucket list.

Last year was the International Year of the Periodic Table and, as an erstwhile chemistry teacher, I took an interest in the various promotional activites. Then I thought of writing a crossword using elemental symbols. My first attempt (to my utter embarrassment) contained two non-symbols as I’d convinced myself they were for two of the newer elements. For a while I also used D (although an accepted chemical symbol, it does not appear in the Periodic Table itself). Fortunately, with help from the editors, I was able to correct these points.

My pseudonym comes from the fact that friend and family consider me a placid person yet my forename derives, apparently, from the Roman god of war – so I simply took the Greek version.

I now have the bug! I have a second submission in the system and am working on yet another one.