When some monster goes to court, supporters clench their fists, punch the air, and call out, "Love you, bro".

And am I the only one irritated when the "loving" family, who should bear some responsibility for ignoring the child's bruises, broken bones, or terror, appear in court wearing T-shirts printed with "justice for blah-blah" or "blah-blah for evva"?

Likewise the gang-member father of Jhia Te Tua, shot by a rival gang in Wanganui, proudly displayed his dead daughter's name tattooed on his face. If he'd used his initiative to take the baby away from a violent environment she'd have been alive this Christmas.

Finally, the "how could you get it so wrong" award goes to so-called porn king Steve Crow who spat the dummy when Wellingtonians ignored his erotica show. He's not returning with his "Boobs on Bikes" parade because only 6000 out of an expected 15,000 turned up to be titillated by what appear to be the worst-shaped breasts Crow can find, judging from the newspaper photos.

We have good taste in Wellington. As the late Paul Newman said, why go out for hamburger when you can have fillet steak at home?

Women in the Capital already know what's sexy, and it's not exposing as much flesh as legally allowed. We don't do mini-skirts and vaulting cleavage. We know what turns men on - intelligence, and not finishing every sentence with a rising inflection.

I don't care if Crow does come back with his Erotica exhibition - it's harmless, and attendance isn't mandatory. But I doubt the reason Wellingtonians stayed away was because, as Crow said, we have "deep pockets and short arms".

We're deeply bored by tackiness, and men or women who boast how good they are in bed. Never true, except in their dreams.

Crow's off to "Palmy" with his porn, where he says they "love it". I'm not surprised - two unsubtle cities where people need to be beaten over the head with the bleeding obvious. Inhabitants in these cities will see out the year with a whinge. In Wellington, we'll be welcoming 2009 with a bang.

By Deborah Coddington | Email Deborah