"The Great Messiah saw fit to wipe out my telephone line and fry my router on Jan 3"

I did wonder.... maybe he/she/it heard you trash talking to one of its poor, defenseless little creations? ☺

Unlikely. When I lived near Epping Forest many years ago a bolt of lightning wrecked the house of an evangelical fellow, neighbour of mine (we babysat each other's nippers to save money), nice chap actually, who was at pains at all times to promote to all and sundry, whether they were remotely interested or not, his work for "Youth For Christ". No lights under bushels there, if you know what I mean. A few more metres and the Good Lord could have redirected his thunderbolt Shaw-wards, but he didn't. What else was I to conclude but that God is a militant atheist?


and.... I dunno about you, but not being face-to-face in the same room with someone doesn't detract from my feeling that there is a real person behind all posts.

Certainly, Bill, but beware of the myriad who would deliberately misrepresent themselves online. They hide behind spurious anonymities such as Sailors and Guests and Seven Stars and it's a good bet that their friends and rellies would be supremely amused at their online shenanigans, if only they knew. I'm Steve Shaw, you could track me down in thirty seconds if you wanted to know where to send my Christmas card to, I say what I mean and I mean what I say. And the "real" personages behind the posts you refer to have a choice, just like me. They don't have to come here and spout their rubbish if they don't want to. This is not real life, Bill. Have fun!