diff --git a/config.php.sample b/config.php.sample
index 1651aec..2ac4480 100644
--- a/config.php.sample
+++ b/config.php.sample
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 <?php
 
-/**
-this is the configuration file for my micropub implementation.  Rather than
-jump through a bunch of hoops trying to parse the host name, and figure out
-the current working directory, just capture those values as needed.
-**/
+# We set the default timezone here so that you can safely use the PHP
+# date() function inside the config elements below, should you desire.
+date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');
+
 $config = array(
     # the URL of our site, with trailing slash.
     'base_url' => 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] .'/',
@@ -47,9 +46,6 @@ $config = array(
     # the IndieAuth token endpoint to use
     'token_endpoint' => 'https://tokens.indieauth.com/token',
 
-    # the timezone to use for all times
-    'tz' => 'America/New_York',
-
     # the command used to build the site
     'command' => '/var/www/bin/hugo --quiet --config /var/www/skippy/config.yaml -s /var/www/skippy/ -d /var/www/html/',
 );
diff --git a/inc/content.php b/inc/content.php
index 71e7ad5..ea3e823 100644
--- a/inc/content.php
+++ b/inc/content.php
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ function reply_or_repost($properties, $content) {
 # given an array of front matter and body content, return a full post
 function build_post( $front_matter, $content) {
     ksort($front_matter);
-    return "---\n" . Yaml::dump($front_matter) . "---\n" . $content . "\n"; 
+    return "---\n" . Yaml::dump($front_matter) . "---\n" . $content . "\n";
 }
 
 function write_file($file, $content, $overwrite = false) {
@@ -130,13 +130,9 @@ function write_file($file, $content, $overwrite = false) {
     if (file_exists($file) && ($overwrite == false) ) {
         quit(400, 'file_conflict', 'The specified file exists');
     }
-    if ( ! $fh = fopen( $file, 'w' ) ) {
+    if ( FALSE === file_put_contents( $file, $content ) ) {
         quit(400, 'file_error', 'Unable to open Markdown file');
     }
-    if ( fwrite($fh, $content ) === FALSE ) {
-        quit(400, 'write_error', 'Unable to write to Markdown file');
-    }
-    fclose($fh);
 }
 
 function delete($request) {
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 9d551c4..e14bf3d 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
     die;
 }
 $config = include_once './config.php';
-date_default_timezone_set($config['tz']);
 
 # invoke the composer autoloader for our dependencies
 require_once __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';