Good taste and psychopaths

I am in mourning for the end of Dexter - everyone's favourite psychopath. However although they chickened out slightly from the truly confused Dexter in the books who really came a lot closer to killing his sister, they did set it up nicely for a further series. Meanwhile I await the next paperback. It's the dry tone that's the real joy, like a rather cynical alien observing human customs, then getting sucked in against his will.

Went to the Geffrye Museum the other day, which shows middle class household interiors from the 1600s to the present. Perhaps the most unexpected dimension to it is the very green and cloistered-feeling courtyard which although right on Kingsland Road (by no means a cloistered environment...) has a very peaceful Hogwarts air about it. You can see most of the displays, done as period rooms, in an hour or two - for my money the 30s to 60s have by far the most covetable items, including the Balzac leather armchair and pleasingly the white pottery polar bear also owned by my grandparents. The bear's clean lines including a suitably sharp looking face are simultaneously stylised and menacingly realistic - it used to scare me witless when I slept opposite it in my grandparents' spare room when I was small. There are also some fun paintings, including a great one of the mob observed from the club window - the woman is leaning out in her evening dress to observe the plebs in action but the man doesn't even consider it worth turning his head for.

On a totally unrelated note, in the run up to the China Olympics, do check out Amnesty's China Human Rights pages.