I've found the next three as second-hand paperbacks, so I think the adventure will continue.

Consumerism
Bought a new hair-clipper to replace my old Remington, which did me well for twelve years or so, but is now getting decidedly uncomfortable. I think it was one of those frog-in-slowly-heating-water things: was amazed at how quick and efficient the new one was: vibrates a bit, but the hair just zooms off in a single sweep. No pain at all! Apparently Wahl is the best name in hair-clippers. Not sure why it needs to be chrome, but that model got good reviews so I chose it.

What I'm Watching
Saw Sicko on DVD. Nice bit of polemic by Michael Moore. Fairly simplistic though and doesn't have much detail on how healthcare systems work. As usual, implied that the French healthcare is a nationalized public system instead of mixed public/private, with most French people have private cover too.

Also had a UK doctor boasting of the effectiveness of the QoF points system which Dr Crippen hates so much. Still, nicely sarcastic.

Also saw Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, Liked it more than the first, though some of the gags were a bit hit and miss. Pretty amusing on the whole. Stuck fairly closely to the book, though I think they could have done more with the bit where Obelix is allowed magic potion for the first time.

The only disconcerting bit about the subtitles was that they use the English character names in the subtitles when the characters speak the French names. So, it gets a bit disconcerting when Obelix is calling out "Ideefix" and the subtitles say "Dogmatix".

Museums
Saw the Wyndham Lewis Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Small but interesting: he was an early and mid Twentieth century Vorticists, so you get a good round up of literary characters like G.K. Chesterton, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and so on.

He evolved into a semi-stylized, almost Will Eisnerish style: nice to look at. Shame about the Fascism thing. Times, Times.

Also saw this year's BP portrait exhibition: seemed like a good standard again, but nothing really leapt out as outstanding.

Things I learned this week
The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades was actually a grim warning of nuclear armageddon.

Sumer Is Icumen In has a line about a farting stag.

Wolves would rather fish than hunt.

Incubators for newborns were pioneered as an attraction at the Coney Island amusement park. (pic).