Dear Creationists, so much for intelligent design. So the complexity of the human eye amazes you and therefore must have been intelligently designed but what about all those phenomenon great and small that scream “design maybe but go back to the drawing board.” For everything beautiful there are too many opposites that simply deny intelligent design. For example the man embraced by the Pope whose entire body is covered in disfiguring weeping painful lumps, (neurofibromatosis) why, like The Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was he singled out for such a fate? What brought intelligent design to mind was reading on the news that 51 ponies in The New Forest have died agonising deaths by gorging themselves on a glut of windfall acorns which are evidently fatal to both horses and cattle. You would have thought an intelligent designer would have installed in the beasts a faculty for knowing what for their species is poisonous.

Creative Design has also produced the greatest stupidity. “When I’m not talking to God, I’m listening for His directions. I even moved to America to be closer to Him.” This had to be said jokingly surely, I mean we all know God is universal and you are closest to Him in a garden be it in New Zealand or America but no, it was said by Ray banana man Comfort, a believer in Genesis if ever there was one and, according to him, the banana having been intelligently designed to fit in the human mouth only goes to prove the existence of God.

‘The Creator of the universe went to great lengths to create the foreskin then insisted you cut it off”. - Makes sense – Richard Dawkins.

In 1993 Jawdat Ibrahim won $23 million in the Illinois state lottery and opened up a restaurant in Israel. He offers a massive 50% discount on the bill for all the customers who switch off their cell phones while dining in his restaurant.
Why?
Ibrahim is hoping to bring back the appreciation for food, conversation and good company.
In a 2010 survey, 67% of diners surveyed in Los Angeles, 64% in New York and 63% in San Francisco agreed that texting, checking e-mail or talking on a cell phone is rude while in company.
A Los Angeles restaurant, ‘Eva,’ offers a 5% discount to customers for leaving their phones with the host during their meal.

.A deli in Vermont actually charges people an extra $3 for using their cell phones.
For once just enjoy at least half an hour of food and good company with your friends or family and forget about technology.

By the same token I wish some restaurateurs would realize that loud music (not to everyone’s taste in the first place) kills conversation stone dead and it really is true that silence is golden

When a writer creates a character does he or she have a definite image in mind as to exactly what that fictional character looks like? I think so, in the same way as one imagines what a certain film location looks like only to find the locations manager invariably had a very different idea and has chosen somewhere not remotely like your imagining. So, whenever I watch television I look out for any actor who fits my mental image of what Thornton King looks like. Thornton King, for those not au fait with my writing, is my private eye in a series of comedy thrillers, the first of which is Dead On Time. I’ve seen half a dozen or so actors on screen who approximate to my imagining but now I have seen one who is without a doubt Thornton King exactly as I have always pictured him. He is an Irish actor by the name of Allen Leech and I came across him thanks to YouTube and a rather delightful Irish film, Cowboys and Angels. I believe he has been appearing in Downton Abbey but never having watched it I wouldn’t know what his performance there is like. I would certainly cast him on the strength of his performance in Cowboy and Angels. Tall, handsome, talented, just the right age (32) and oozing Irish charm.

So, if here is an astute producer out there who would recognize Dead on Time as a potentially terrific movie, (or television) and any of the other Thornton King adventures for that matter, look no further than Allen Leech for your leading man.