Gordon's WebLog

Agatha Christie, that grand ol lady of crime fiction, has always been one of my favourite writers, and I have produced a web site giving the plots (and the solutions) of all 66 of her full length novels which may be visited HERE.

A short biography of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language with another billion in 44 foreign languages and she is the most widely published author of all time in any language, out-sold by only the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 66 crime novels, 13 short story collections, 19 plays, and 6 novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Agatha Christie, born in Torquay on 15th September 1890, made a Dame in the 1971 honours list and died on 12th January 1976. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written toward the end of the First World War, in which she served as a VAD. In it she created Hercules Poirot, the little Belgian detective who was destined to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes.

In 1926, after averaging a book a year, Agatha Christie wrote her masterpiece. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first of her books to be published by Collins and marked the beginning of author-publisher relationship which lasted for fifty years and well over seventy books. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was also the first of Agatha Christie's books to be dramatized - under the name Alibi - and to have a successful run in the West End. The Mousetrap, her most famous play of all, is the longest-running play in history.

Her stage play The Mousetrap, based on a short story entitled "Three Blind Mice", holds the record for the longest run ever in London, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre on November 25, 1952, and as of 2007 is still running after more than 20,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honour, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year, Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA, for Best Play. Most of her books and short stories have been filmed, some many times over (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, 4.50 From Paddington), and many have been adapted for television and radio.

Her last book to be published in 1976 was Sleeping Murder, featuring the deceptively mild Miss Marple.

The roads in Britain are congested. There is no argument about that. This affects many areas of society, not least the time lost in traveling, environmental and health costs and the disruption to businesses.

In recent weeks the UK Government has instituted studies on how to ease this congestion. One of the most iniquitous being a proposal to charge by the mile to use roads. At least one congestion charge scheme (London) has been in existence for some years, and has recently been extended in both area and cost to enter the center of the city. Obviously road users are most concerned that any extension of such a scheme to the rest of Britain would put intolerable financial burdens on both private and business motoring, not least the cost in ensuring that ALL vehicles could be tracked 24 hours a day !

A petition was posted on the Prime Minister's web site requesting that any such studies and proposals should be dropped immediately. This petition was electronically signed by 1,801,558 motorists - including myself. The wording of this petition was as follows.

"The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay. It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs. Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion."

I agree that the idea of some super computer being able to track vehicles is both sinister and wrong, and have a shrewd suspicion that this is yet another stealth tax - despite Prime Ministerial denials.

In reply, all signatories to the petition received an email from the Prime Minister, the text of which can be read here.

Let's hope that reason will prevail and that the scheme will be scrapped.

Valentine cards have been around for many years, and are sent in their millions just before February 14th each year.

I would imagine that very few of our visitors have not sent one at some time. Very often the sentiments expressed are far from religious, so, here's a Valentine with a difference. Did you know that there is a Valentine Card from God contained within the Bible ?

Probably one of the best loved verses in the Bible, here is a slightly unusual representation of John chapter 3 verse 16.

Why not copy the image (right click and select Save As, then incorporate it into a graphics package) and send a card with a difference to a loved one for Valentine's Day ?

Just what does a visitor do when your carefully designed web site first appears before their eyes ? What part of the page do they look at first ? How far down do they scroll before leaving your home page. What are the important areas of your page ? How about the text size ? And what about graphics ?

These and many other questions were used in experiments on web users by Eyetrack and their web site makes very, very interesting reading.

It seems that there are certain patterns which visitors eyes tend to follow when looking at a web page. There are a couple of interesting graphics (reproduced below - click the image to view the original larger version) which show "heat maps" of the most important areas of the page, and the track visitors eyes tend to follow.

One very interesting thing that came out of the research was that smaller text tends to be read more then large text, which tends just to be scanned.

Although the research was carried out a couple of years ago, I think it makes very interesting reading and may provide clues to web masters and bloggers when designing web pages. Do have a look at the site - you can even download a 300 page pdf file of all the results to keep as a reference.

Related to this subject, but on a different web site, there is a posting here which may shed more light on the subject.

Once again the web site is at Eyetrack.

Fathers seem to change a lot over the years - here are some words from Anne Landers about this.

A GENTLE REMINDER NOT TO FORGET FATHER.

When I was ............

4 years old - My daddy can do anything.

5 years old - My daddy knows a whole lot.

6 years old - My dad is smarter than your dad.

8 years old - My dad doesn't know exactly everything.

10 years old - In the olden days when my dad grew up things sure were different.

12 years old - Oh, well, naturally, dad doesn't know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood.

14 years old - Don't pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned.

21 years old - Him? My Lord, he's hopelessly out of date.

25 years old - Dad knows a little bit about it, but then he should because he has been around so long.

30 years old - Maybe we should ask dad what he thinks. After all, he's had a lot of experience.

35 years old - I'm not doing a single thing until I talk to dad.

40 years old - I wonder how dad would have handled it. He's so wise and had a world of experience.

50 years old - I'd give anything if dad were here now so I could talk this over with him. Too bad I didn't appreciate how smart he was. I could have learned a lot from him.

What do you think is special about your father ?....

Eagle eyed visitors will see that the opening page of this blog now boasts Google advertisements at the end of the right hand sidebar. These advertisements are supplied by Google Adsense.

Why ? Well, click on any of the advertisements and I get a small commission.

Google AdSense is the programme that can generate advertising revenue from each page on the site — with a minimal investment in time and no additional resources.

AdSense delivers relevant text and/or image ads that are precisely targeted to the site and the site content.

Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their site's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what the visitors are looking for on the site — or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors the content attracts — it's finally a way to both monetize and enhance the content pages.

It's also a way for website publishers to provide Google web and site search for their visitors, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.

Simple to join the scheme and easy to add various formatted advertisements to the site. Learn more and/or join here. It's a great idea.

Several people have suggested that I show visitors small picturs of my various web sites - so here they are. You may use the menu at the top of this screen to visit the various sites, or just click on the small pictures.

First, of course, this web log.

The template used for this web log is my own port for Thingamablog of an open source template for Serendipity by Rebecca Hemstad (BEX).

Next my own personal web site.

This site uses an open source template by Dave Reeder Design.

My photo gallery.

Finally, but not least, my church web site.

This site is based on my own template developed for the Etomite Content Management System, a brilliant PHP/MYSQL system.

Right from page one of the book (and it is 600 pages in length in paperback form), I found that I could hardly put it down. Dan Brown's method of stringing together unrelated ‘facts’ into a so-called solution to the centuries old mystery of the Holy Grail makes a jolly good read, fascinating, absorbing, intriguing. BUT it really needs to be taken with the proverbial "pinch of salt". To me it seems very much like adding two plus two and making five !

To some Christians it is deeply offensive, one Roman Catholic Cardinal even stating that the makers of the Hollywood film should face legal action because it offends Christ. Cardinal Arinze said: "Those who blaspheme Christ and get away with it are exploiting the Christian readiness to forgive and to love even those who insult us. There are some religions which if you insult their founder - they will make it painfully clear to you. Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and forget."

In addition to this book there have, of course, been several others in recent years which attempted to persuade the reader that 1) Jesus did not die on the cross, he was merely drugged and then the (stupid?) Roman's were duped into releasing his body, Jesus later recovering. 2) Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and even had a family. 3) Jesus lived until he was over 70 and died in the Roman's massacre of the Jews at Masada. 4) Nicodemus took Mary the Mother of Jesus into his care, and eventually came to Britain. and so on.... and so on .... and so on.....

I personally cannot give credence to any of these theories, nor to those propounded in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, but then I am a committed life-long Christian. However, as I stated above, the book does make a jolly good read, and I can thoroughly recommend it, provided it is taken as an adventure novel – no more, no less.

Yes, the merry month of May is here again, and with it the bluebells. Today I visited a bluebell wood near Newtown Linford, Leicestershire. It was a fantastic sight and I thought I would share with you.

21st April 2006.

We wish a very happy 80th birthday to Queen Elizabeth II.

Born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Elizabeth was proclaimed queen on February 6, 1952, after the death of her father.

It is reported by the BBC that among the birthday messages was a special visual tribute from 500 crew members of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, who lined up in formation to spell out 'Happy 80th', and the Queen thanked the (unbelievable) 40,000 or so people who had sent her cards and e-mails, saying they had helped make the day a "special one".

Avoid riding in cars because they are responsible for 20% of all fatal accidents.

Do not stay at home because 17% of all accidents occur in the home.

Avoid walking on streets or footpaths because 14% of accidents occur to pedestrians.

Avoid travelling by air, rail or water because 16% of accidents involve these forms of transport.

Of the remaining 33%, 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals so, above all else, avoid hospitals.

You will be pleased to learn that only 0.001% of all deaths occur during worship services in church, and these are usually related to previous physical disorders. Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at church! Bible study is safe too. The percentage of deaths during Bible study is even less!

For safety's sake - attend church and read your Bible. It could save your life !

(With acknowledgments to Nuthall Methodist Church, from whose magazine this article was "lifted")

Seen in our church magazine

The computer swallowed grandma,

Yes, honestly, it's true.

She pressed 'control'and 'enter'

And disappeared from view.

It devoured her completely.

The thought just makes me squirm.

She must have caught a virus,

Or been eaten by a worm.

I've searched through the recycle bin,

And files of every kind:

I've even used the Internet,

But nothing did I find.

In desperation, I asked Jeeves

My searches to refine.

The reply from him was negative,

Not a thing was found 'online'.

So, if inside your 'Inbox'

My Grandma you should see,

Please 'Copy', 'Scan' and 'Paste' her

And send her back to me!

The Author, like Grandma, has been swallowed by the computer!