Listen With Others

Oh dear, I’m behind with posting again, this time for a positive reason – a fabulous sun-drenched week exploring the sacred sites of west Wales, along with some walking and a trip to Ramsey Island (few birds but made up for by seeing 3 red deer).

My thanks go to new setter The Don, for the pleasure of solving Telstar. Not least for what it’s taught me about TE Lawrence, and especially for The Don’s sense of humour in including NORMAN in the 7 pillars of wisdom.

My smile at spotting NORMAN was eclipsed only by the (naughty) smile that escaped my lips when I read that the esteemed and earnest Colonel Lawrence, strategist to the Foreign Office and hailed for his role in the Arab revolt, had lost his manuscript at Reading station. Now that I can relate to – I spent many a weekend changing trains at Reading back in the day, though the main thing I lost was my rag. (I also wonder if the book was all the briefcase contained. Though if any classified papers also went astray we shall never know.)

An excellent and entertaining puzzle thanks. My hunt for the 7 cities – the 7 “pillars of wisdom” in the book, by both their old and new names, didn’t turn up any treasure so I looked again. Six wisdom-related words slowly emerged, but the shortest word was the trickiest – should it be AGE of wisdom? SIR as in Sirach, the apocryphal Wisdom of Jesus? In the end I plumped for OWL, even though it shared a column with REASON. Looking at Shirley’s (Chalicea’s) solution I’m glad I did.