Mouthful

It's not good when the dentist says, "This was the most difficult filling I've one this year."  OK, it's only March, but still.  I inherited relatively good teeth and soda just wasn't part of my growing up or adulthood.  Cavities have been rare and slow to develop.  So I'm not used to the dentist saying you have a cavity, particularly a bad one.  But somehow this one didn't show up clearly in last year's X-ray, but did with a vengeance this year.

It was a surreal experience.  The cotton swab with what looked like congealed blood on it, used to numb my gums worked.  I really didn't feel the needle that killed the pain and feeling.  I just lay back on the chair as fingers and tubes filled my mouth.  Didn't feel the drill at all.  But another device that vibrated strongly brought my full attention back to my mouth.  But I felt somehow disconnected from what was going on in there.  In was only at the end that I thought about pulling out my camera and documenting the invasion.
And apparently this one is just a temporary filling until we decide what the next steps are.

Just for the record, here are stats on dental health from the National Institutes of Health:

"Prevalence ( Table 1)

• 92% of adults 20 to 64 have had dental caries in their permanent teeth.
• White adults and those living in families with higher incomes and more education have had more decay.  [This is a surprising finding.  Perhaps they're more likely to see a dentist and get recorded.]

Unmet Needs ( Table 2)

• 26% of adults 20 to 64 have untreated decay.
• Black and Hispanic adults, younger adults, and those with lower incomes and less education have more untreated decay.

Severity ( Table 3 and Table 4)

• Adults 20 to 64 have an average of 3.28 decayed or missing permanent teeth and 13.65 decayed and missing permanent surfaces.
• Hispanic subgroups and those with lower incomes have more severe decay in permanent teeth.
• Black and Hispanic subgroups and those with lower incomes have more untreated permanent teeth. 

Tables 1 through 4 present selected caries estimates in permanent teeth for adults aged 20 to 64 years and for selected subgroups.
Units of Measure: Dental caries is measured by a dentist examining a person’s teeth, and recording the ones with untreated tooth decay and the ones with fillings. This provides three important numbers:
FT (filled teeth): this is the number of decayed teeth that have been treated, which indicates access to dental care;
DMT (decayed and missing teeth): this is the number decayed and missing teeth that have not been treated, which measures unmet need; and
DMFT (decayed, missing, and filled teeth): this is the sum of DMT and FT, and is the measure of person’s total lifetime tooth decay.
In addition to counting decayed and filled teeth, this same information can be gathered at the tooth surface level. Since every tooth has multiple surfaces, counting the decayed or filled surfaces provides a more accurate measure of the severity of decay. The following tables list both methods of measuring caries."

Why Wasn't I Surprised That The Guy Who Killed Cecil The Lion Was A Dentist?

It's been a while since I noticed the DDS on the ends of the names of people who have trophy bears in the Anchorage Airport. 

These are only two bears representing two dentists over a 40 year period so let's not jump to conclusions about dentists. Yet.  .  .
Not all the stuffed bears at the airport had their shooters identified, but a couple that did were hunting or fishing guides.


Dr. Walter Palmer of Minnesota, is reported to have said of the death of Cecil:

“I hired several professional guides, and they secured all proper permits,” read a statement from Palmer to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.”
He added: “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt. I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion."

Let's remember that most of us know almost nothing about Dr. Palmer and we're filling in the details to fit our own belief systems.  I think we all have a tendency to believe what we want to believe - those of us reading the stories and Dr. Palmer himself..  He wanted a lion and the guys he contacted said they'd get him one.  How carefully did he look into their credentials?  How would an American hunter even check Zimbabwean credentials?  As for the rest of us, many are blasting some version of the evil hunter killing innocent animals.   Others are praising the good hunters and singling Palmer out as the bad apple that gives all hunters a bad rep.

While I'm not likely to let this guy off easily, the real issue to me is: what is it that causes grown men, with a good education to want to go out and kill animals, not for food, but for trophies?  (And a follow up question that I won't explore here, is how this sort of killing connected to killing human beings?)   My representative in Congress is known for his wall full of animal heads and hides. He even missed a key subcommittee vote because he was on safari in South Africa.  I had a student once who explained how hunting was a bonding experience between him and his dad.  I get that, and I'm glad my dad and I bonded over other things, like hiking, books, art, baseball, and movies, rather than killing animals.

Some defend hunting as part of their cultural tradition and point out how hunters help protect the environment where animals live.  I think there's merit to those arguments, up to a point.  There are lots of traditions that modern societies no longer openly practice - like slavery, like beating kids as punishment, like cock and dog fighting,  like burning witches, like exorcising demons, or child labor and child marriage.

I look at that picture of Dr. Eberle and wonder what he was thinking at the time.  I too like to shoot animals, but with my camera rather than a gun.  That allows me a connection with the animal, but allows the animal to go on living and for others to enjoy seeing them too.   What causes grown men to want to kill big animals and display them?  Is it some sort of feelings of inadequacy, of lack of power?  Is it part of the DNA  they inherited from ancestors who hunted for survival?

A New Zealand study, done to help a government agency prepare to manage hunting on public estates, looked at lots of previous studies to try to determine motivations and satisfactions of hunters. 

Decker and Connelly (1989) proposed three categories of motivations; achievement oriented, affiliation oriented, and appreciation oriented.

• -Achievement oriented hunters are motivated by the attainment of a particular goal,  which may be harvesting an animal for meat, a trophy or a display of skill.

• -Affiliation oriented hunters participate in hunting with the primary purpose of fostering personal relationships with friends, family or hunting companions.

• -Appreciation oriented hunters are motivated by a desire to be outdoors, escape everyday stress or to relax.

The study goes on to list a much wider range of specifics, that tend to fall into these categories.  It doesn't seem to get into deeper psychological reasons such as the need to demonstrate power (maybe getting a trophy is the proxy for this) or where these needs come from.  Why some people (mostly men) have such a need to kill animals and others do not.  There's lots to ponder here. 

I'd also note that the Alaska Dental Association strongly opposed the use of dental aides to perform basic dental work in rural Alaska.  Most, I'm sure, believed that dentists would give better care and that aides lacked the extensive training necessary to make critical decisions.  They didn't seem to weigh the benefits of many, many more kids and adults getting very simple basic dental care and education that local aides could provide in an area where few dentists lived.    I think their belief was genuine, but colored by their own conscious or unconscious self interests.  As are most all of our beliefs. One such interest was simply the same as all professional licensing - limiting the amount of competition.  Also dentists could fly out to rural Alaska and see patients and also go hunting and fishing on the side.  That is true of many urban, non-Native Alaskans who provide professional services in rural Alaska.  And my saying it shouldn't cause people to question the motives of people who do such work.  But we should be aware of how such side benefits might bias one's beliefs about what's right and wrong, good and bad.

When it comes to endangered species, there are bigger issues  - like resource extraction that destroys habitat, like overpopulation that impinges on wild habitat for housing and food.  And climate change which is changing the landscape world wide.  We should be concerned with individual abuses such as luring a well known collared lion out of a refuge to be shot.  But the bigger environmental trends are much more impactful and threatening to all living things, including humans.  These are the least immediately visible and seemingly the hardest to fight.  But there are ways and many people are pursuing them.  One just has to look, and the internet makes that easy. 

Did You Know That Tom's Of Maine Sold To Colgate? In 2006?

At the dentist yesterday, my hygienist commented that Tom's of Maine - the green toothpaste begun in 1970 - was now owned by Colgate.  She'd gotten a sample with a Colgate shipment and that's how she learned this.

When I checked online it turned out Colgate bought Tom's for $100 million!

 Organic Consumer wrote in 2006:

Best known for toothpaste, Tom's of Maine got its start in 1970 by
making a phosphate-free laundry detergent. Over the years, cofounder Tom Chappell, 63, poked fun at major brands like Colgate, saying they put artificial additives in their toothpastes while Tom's of Maine used natural ingredients.
Chappell said he will continue to run the brand from its Kennebunk headquarters. None of the privately held firm's approximately 170 jobs will be lost, he said.  ''We'll be a stand-alone subsidiary," said Chappell. ''And we have a commitment from Colgate that our formulas will not be tampered with.

Tom's of Maine's website paints a public service oriented company image:

"Tom’s of Maine is a leading manufacturer of natural and environmentally–friendly products, including natural toothpaste, alcohol–free mouthwash, natural dental floss, natural deodorant and antiperspirant and natural bar soap. Founded in 1970 in Kennebunk, Maine, the company is inspired by and committed to sustainable business practices as well as supporting people and communities. Each year, Tom’s of Maine gives 10% of its profits back to organizations that support human, healthy and environmental goodness and encourages employees to use 5% (12 days) of employee time to volunteer. Tom’s of Maine products are vegan, Kosher, Halal–certified and all packaging is recyclable through a partnership with upcycling leader TerraCycle or participating municipalities."

Natural Society  sees it differently:

"In fact, Tom’s of Maine isn’t even from Maine, and it’s owned by a well-known corporate giant — Colgate-Palmolive of New York. Purchasing an 84% stake in Tom’s back in 2006 (yes, they have owned Tom’s since 2006!) for 100 million dollars, Colgate-Palmolive’s share of the global toothpaste market has risen to 44%. In the United States alone, Colgate-Palmolive controls 35% of the market. Unfortunately, part of the companies success relies on a patented gingivitis formula which contains a toxic chemical substance called triclosan that reacts with the chlorine in tap water to become chloroform — a deadly chlorinated aromatic.

Shockingly, the result of the reaction is similar to the dioxins found in the compound Agent Orange that was responsible for 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects after being used in Vietnam by the U.S. military as a herbicide. This is the chemical reaction taking place in your mouth when using Colgate’s gingivitis formula. Interestingly enough, Agent Orange was developed by the biotech company responsible for the rampant genetic modification of the world’s food supply — Monsanto.
It gets worse. Triclosan is only one of the hazardous chemicals found in oral care products. One visit to the Tom’s of Maine official website and you will see the invitation to view all of their product ingredients, organized from A to Z. There is even a statement declaring that not only are all ingredients “naturally sourced,” but that they are “sustainable and responsible.” A look at the ingredients list, however, and you will find that Tom’s of Maine was not being very responsible or sustainable with ingredients such as titanium dioxide and zinc chloride added to their products."

There may be problems with Tom's, but Natural Society's post has its own problems.  If Tom's isn't from Maine - their website says they are in Kennebunk, Maine and they get their water from a Maine aquifer - where are they from?  A recent post at Grist says the potatoes for new packaging are from Maine and that Tom's is in Maine.  Greenbiz writes:

The research [to turn potatoes to plastic] is part of a partnership that includes the University of Maine and the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine, which are seeking ways of recapturing local agricultural waste.

Natural Society seems to be doing a little sleight of hand here - in one hand Tom's and in the other hand Colgate.  Tom's isn't from Maine because Colgate is headquartered in New York.  From what I can tell, Colgate has left Tom's to do its own thing.  It may be that Colgate uses Triclosan, but Natural Society hasn't actually said Tom's does and I don't see it listed in the ingredients of my tube.  Nor is it listed on the website for the tube I have.   

Ingredient	Purpose	Source
Sodium monofluorophosphate 0.76% (0.15% w/v fluoride ion)	Decay prevention	Fluorspar (calcium fluoride), an ore
Calcium carbonate	Mild abrasive	Purified calcium from the earth
Water	Consistency	Maine aquifer
Glycerin	Moistener	Vegetable oils
Sodium bicarbonate	pH adjustment	Purified sodium bicarbonate from the earth
Carrageenan	Thickener	Seaweed (Chondrus crispus)
Xylitol	Flavor	Birch trees or corn
Natural Flavor	Flavor	Peppermint (menthe piperita) leaves
Sodium lauryl sulfate	Dispersant	Derived from coconut and/or palm kernel oil

It may also be true that some of the zinc products Natural Society cites from the Tom's website may be in other products, but I don't see them in the toothpastes.

There are also complaints online about dropping the aluminum tubes for plastic tubes, but I suspect the potato based plastic tubes are in response to that.

I found one other webiste that had problems with Tom's of Maine:  The Cornucopia Institue does health research related to small farms.  Their website says:

"The Cornucopia Institute will engage in educational activities supporting the ecological principles and economic wisdom underlying sustainable and organic agriculture. Through research and investigations on agricultural issues, The Cornucopia Institute will provide needed information to consumers, family farmers, and the media."

Their problem is that Tom's uses carrageenan, which is one of the ingredients in my tube and it's listed above.  

There is simply no way around it: dozens of scientific, peer-reviewed studies used food-grade carrageenan and found it caused gastrointestinal inflammation, ulcerations, lesions and even colon cancer in laboratory animals.  Most of these recent studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

They cite their March report "Carrageenan: How a “Natural” Food Additive is Making Us Sick."  Carrageenan is made from one kind of seaweed and is used in lots of products as a thickener - soy milk, almond milk, ice cream, canned soups, frozen pizza - and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has put downgraded its rating:

CSPI also downgraded the seaweed extract carrageenan from "safe" to "certain people should avoid." Used as a thickener and stabilizing agent in many dairy products, a World Health Organization committee concluded that it is inadvisable to use carrageenan in liquid formula designed for infants under one year of age. Carrageenan is still used in some varieties of Similac, though not varieties sold in the U.K.

 I'd say that the at this point the food industry is not concerned with carrageenam, but some researchers have found reasons to be concerned.

So, that's what I've learned about Tom's.  I can't blame someone who has worked hard for 40 years for taking $100 million for his company.  It's easy to call someone else a sellout, but not many people would turn down an offer like that.  You can do a lot of good in the world with that much money.  But it's also an example of the shrinking of competition, that basic driver of a good market system.   

Beautiful Fall Day - New Snow on Mountains

I had an appointment at 1pm for teeth cleaning at Providence, but an errand downtown.  It was almost noon, but the day was so beautiful I biked downtown.  There were lots of great pictures, but I knew that my hygienist would poke extra deep if I was late.  But I couldn't help but stop for this shot. 


My hygienist is really very cool and we give each other a bad time.  She likes to talk to me when I can't talk back.  I suggested she do a blog.  We agreed on the title, "Which tooth can you do without?"

There was a decent view of the new snow on the mountains, but I couldn't get it without including the reflections of the office. 

Then home and off to catch Rachel Maddow's show live from Anchorage at the Taproot.  More on that later.

By dark, it was raining and I suspect the snow will be a lot further down the mountain tomorrow morning. 

Short Hike in Eagle River

I had to get back for a 2pm dental appointment to get my teeth cleaned, so DZ got up about 9:20am - his earliest morning so far - so we could get out to Eagle River for a short hike first. It had rained much of the night and the clouds were still heavy and dripping a bit.




Here's a view from the viewing platform on the Rodak Trail, right near the visitors' center.





Is there a pink birch species?

The trouble with google is that as soon as I type a question like that, I have no excuse for not looking it up.

"Pink Birch • Schizomeria serrata

Pink Birch is the common name for a number of species which form a medium to large tree throughout the region from New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago to North Queensland and the Solomon Islands. It occurs in lowland and montane forest. In the Solomon islands, it is represented by only one species, generally scattered but locally common. Small sawn parcels could be made available by special order. [From SolomonTimbers - a pdf.]

I think our trees are probably a totally different species since they live in the cold and these are from warm regions.



Red Bubble writes about pink birch bark, but those are pink from the winter morning sun.

There's a soda called pink birch beer in Scottsdale, Arizona.



We walked on to Rapids Camp where we looked at the yurt, but since there was obviously someone inside, we went down to see the rapids.

And we got back in time to get the things on the Costco list (lots of milk for Dick and he got some pizza) and for me to drop him and the food off at home while I biked back to the dentist. And running up the five flights of stairs, I got to the waiting room out of breath, but a minute early. But Diane gave me a bad time for sitting in a corner where I wasn't easy for her to see. She continued to pick on me while she cleaned my teeth. Which is consistent with the sign on her wall.

[If you enlarge the list, you can see that the author and artist was Janet Casoy.]

Things People Search

Here's my latest of collection of search terms that got people to this blog:

• turning wife over to sexual demonic powers (Columbus Georgia)
  No comment - I think this got to the post on Eliot Spitzer
  
• i know my first name is steven (from Start.no, a Norwegian search engine)
  This turned out to be the title of a movie about a seven year old boy who was kidnapped, but it has a lot of words in common with What Do I know?
  
• how to tell if people dont like you (san diego)
  
• what do birds have in common
  With what? This got to post on ten common birds of Chiang Mai
• how to get ready for a dentist appointment in 1 day (Tennessee)

• western union, little india
  Sometimes people get exactly what (it would appear) they want.
  This got to this picture of the Western Union shop in Little India, Singapore
  
• interesting cow parsnip facts
  And they got to a long post with pictures and links on cow parsnips
  
• motor vehicle called hummer (from Malawi using Eng us)
  They got a picture of Senator Lyman Hoffman's Hummer
  
• charity ceo "reporting unethical behavior" (Chicago)
  doesn't sound good
  
• instructions for life
  That's a pretty ambitious request. They got Victor Lebow, then went on to Buddhism
  
• what do you do when the company act unethical
  another person with a real problem
  
• land hidden above alaska
  let me know if you find it
  
• preparation for porn
  I'm embarrassed to say What Do I Know showed up as #1 out of about 14 million hits for this one. They got something on Anchorage's Soapscum porn - theater production. I guess there aren't many posts that have "porn" and "preparation" in them together. By the way, that post has what used to be the most popular picture that people got through Google Images.
  
• how do they get you brain out when your dead
  This got them to the post on Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. BTW, I was getting enough queries for a while about how the name came about, I added a bit at the top of the post guiding people to Siberart's comment explaining it.
  
• "[Alaska Politician Name]" "[relative]" gay
  I hope this was a gay rights group just trying to make a connection, but rather doubt it
  
• unethical to take lower bids (Commonwealth of Kentucky Dept. of Information Syst)
  It's usually unethical to take higher bids. They got to the post on whether it was ethical for legislators to get discounts at the Baranof Hotel
  
• names of people for unclaimed money from chugach electric for year 1988
  My post on the Chugach list had links to get all the names. I hope they got some money. There were a few that were looking for that list.
  
• people that are not famous and born on december 10 200
  The post on famous people born in 1908 is one of the most popular (after Victor Lebow), and people get there looking for all sorts of dates, but this is the first one looking for people who were NOT famous.
  
• victor tile shop in jaipur
  Well, I have a post on Victor Lebow and another one about a shop in Jaipur (India). I think these folks got the shop, but not a tile shop.
  
• what's the difference between english and french weather (London)
  The first four words got them to the post on the difference between a hurricanes, cyclone, typhoon, and tornado?.
  
• palin's new ethics commissioner is a fraud
  Do we have an ethics commissioner?
  
• i now how to do chinse staircase but i do not now how to start it
  I had to look this up. It appears that a Chinese staircase is a stitch for what I would have called a lanyard. At Boondogleman.com you can see one.
  
• soap petrol tank
  This was a story about what I thought was a pretty obscure solution to a leaky gas tank. It never occurred to me that I'd have three or four people searching using these words.

And for those wondering what picture gets the most hits now, it's the Burmese dragon tattoo.

Early Dental Appointment

I knew, when I went to bed this morning (it was about 2am) that I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned today, but all my calendar said was "Dentist." No time. I checked the voice mail, because they usually call the day before. I considered calling to tell them I didn't know what time the appointment was, but I bet on my knowing my sleeping habits and that I would have made it for the afternoon.

So when the phone woke me at 9:08am, I knew it was the dentist's office. I got dressed and grabbed the bike and was there at 9:20. Dianne, my great hygienist, was enjoying the chance to give me a bad time. Well, she always gives me a bad time, but now she had me good. (Note from the picture of the bike racks, Providence Hospital is ready to add another bike rack in the main building garage.)

Me: "I knew I had an appointment, but didn't know when. No one called like usual."
Dianne: "The calls are a courtesy, patients should be responsible. Next thing you know, the patients will expect us to pick them up.(There's always just enough smile in her voice I know she isn't serious.)

This is why I insist on having Dianne. Not only is she a great hygienist, she's honest and funny. I'd been teasing her about it being cheaper to fly to Thailand and get my teeth done than getting it done here. But, given how unprepared I was for today's appointment, I didn't have my pictures with me. So here they are now.

300 Baht is about $10. 500 Baht is about $15. (@32 Baht/$ - so we did rough rounding). So 5000 Baht would be about $150.

Anchorage Airport - pre-tourist, Bears in Boxes, Euphemisms

J got home this morning at 1 am. She's been in California for a week so she's had time to deal with the jetlag from Asia. I'm just up now (3:15pm) after a couple of very short nights. While I waited I looked around with my camera.


It's early May, not quite tourist season yet. The airport will be crowded at 1am by the end of the month. It seems that the airlines send their planes up here in the middle of the night so they can get them back to the lower 48 for the day flights. But for now it was pretty empty. Only one security line was open and there was no line.



In the past I've noticed that the bears in boxes at the airport were all shot by dentists like this one. What is it about dentists? They have the money to go out on expensive hunts? They have the ego to want everyone to see they killed the biggest bear around? Torturing people in their offices isn't enough, they have to go out and kill animals too? They have to prove they're as good as 'real' doctors? Do they get a tax write-off if they put it in the airport? I have a great dentist who I'm sure doesn't kill animals for fun. Actually the last time I went I got the new dentist and he plays rock guitar on the side. So, it's probably only a few who have this need to display their trophy kills at the airport.



And not all the bears at the airport (outside security) were killed by dentists. And notice the euphemisms. The dentist's bear 'was taken." This bear was 'harvested.' Why not just say "killed?"

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary does not include hunting in the definitions of harvest as a noun.

1. har·vest
Pronunciation: \ˈhär-vəst\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English hervest, from Old English hærfest; akin to Latin carpere to pluck, gather, Greek karpos fruit
Date: before 12th century

1: the season for gathering in agricultural crops2: the act or process of gathering in a crop3 a: a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield b: the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season 4: an accumulated store or productive result

But it does include it in the definition of harvest as a verb.

2. harvest
Function: verb
Date: 15th century

transitive verb
1 a: to gather in (a crop) : reap b: to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (as salmon, oysters, or deer) for human use, sport, or population control c: to remove or extract (as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture or from a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting2 a: to accumulate a store of b: to win by achievement intransitive verb.

The etymology shows the word originally comes from old English and German for 'autumn':

O.E. hærfest "autumn," from P.Gmc. *kharbitas (cf. O.S. hervist, Du. herfst, Ger. Herbst "autumn," O.N. haust "harvest"), from PIE *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest" (cf. Skt. krpana- "sword," krpani "shears;" Gk. karpos "fruit," karpizomai "make harvest of;" L. carpere "to cut, divide, pluck;" Lith. kerpu "cut;" M.Ir. cerbaim "cut"). The borrowing of autumn and fall gradually focused its meaning after 14c. from "the time of gathering crops" to the action itself and the product of the action. Harvester "machine for reaping and binding" is from 1875; harvest home (1596) is the occasion of bringing home the last of the harvest; harvest moon (1706) is that which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox.

The airport also seems to have copied the Singapore (and many other) airports by adding a transit hotel. With blankets even.

Kona I want you to know that unlike the Singapore airport, dogs are allowed to come greet the arriving passengers. And this dog was VERY happy to see his owner when she came out!

Saturday Afternoon Walk 5 - Signs

In case you needed anything while we're here, just let us know. .

(Exchange is about 32 Baht/$1US, so 500 Baht is about $13.)

Rockin Dentist

I was going to be late if I walked, so I grabbed the bike. Part of the bike walk had been covered by the snow plowed off the street. Now, I think riding your bike on the road in the winter is more than tempting fate, but I did two blocks when the traffic thinned out and found the guy with the plow for the sidewalks. The rest of the short trip was easy. And mine wasn't the only bike in the Prov parking lot.



I didn't know I wasn't going to see my dentist. They usually ask and I always say I want to see Mark. They did ask about the hygienist, but not the dentist. Well as Tom worked on my teeth he told me about a great little concert he heard at Girdwood over the weekend. He's a closet guitarist and all was fine. But he hasn't been able to improve the inhouse music in the office. Without the staff, the dentists can't do much, and when it comes to what station is on in the office, the staff rule.

Crown Maker

The dentist sent me to get the color right for my new crown. I never even knew this job existed, but I was quickly taken in by Ken Clester as he talked about his job. When someone really loves something, it doesn't matter what it is - when they talk about it, it's interesting. Here's a bit I had space for on the chip in my camera.

The Difference Between Professionals and Amateurs

Well, while the real journalists were waiting for the verdict at the court yesterday, I was catching up with my life. I spent a good part of the morning getting a crown on a tooth that broke. Stopped in at the university to work on the Healing Racism in Anchorage newsletter. And then met with a student in the early evening. I put the trial out of my mind, never had the radio on, and when I got home I got back on to try to do something with all the left over thoughts about the trial still in my head. When I finally finished it was 3am and just before posting I thought, well, let me check if there was a verdict on the ADN website. I really didn't think there'd be.

Boy did I feel sheepish when I found out 12 hours after the verdict was announced. The professional journalists were there as they were throughout the trial. One of the things I learned and it makes me feel good about Alaska, is that the tv journalists were there and writing their own stories. Bill McAllister of Channel 2 was there all the time as was Matthew Simonof Channel 11. It's nice to know we have real journalists who write their own stories and not just people who read the teleprompter. I've already talked here about the ADN news folks, Lisa Demer, Sean Cockerham, Michael Carey, and Rich Mauer, and APRN's Steve Heimel and David Shurtleff. And I also got names the names of the two artists who have illustrated the inside of the court where cameras were not allowed: Pat Gillin for Channel 2 and Tamara Ramsey for Channel 11 whose photo at the door of the Federal Building I posted the other day. And Shannon Moore of KUDO. And there were others who in my ignorance, I never identified.

My hat's off to you all. Thanks for treating this amateur journalist with such kindness and support. And let's not talk about how long it took me to find out the verdict, ok?


Bottom photo: Waiting for the Kotts after the trail Monday.



,

Dianne And The Cookie Dough Prophy Paste

This is Dianne's normal view of me. Just a mouth. I see her two or three times a year when she cleans my teeth. She chides me for not flossing more, she tells me about her family, she makes gently snide comments that always carry a smile. Today she started off by telling me the previous two patients had cancelled and so I was gonna get the lectures she had left over from them as well as my own. And, of course there is little I can say back, and even when I can, I have to be careful since she's holding sharp instruments in my mouth. But the final reward for an hour of guff and poking is Cookie Dough Prophy Paste - the stuff they polish your teeth with at the end. It tastes so good, I don't even rinse it out. Dessert at the dentists.

Having my little Canon with me, means I can take pictures of the people who, over the years, play a small, but important part in my life. Knowing that Dianne is the one who will clean my teeth, makes going to the dentist something to look forward to. Thanks Dianne.

And, coincidentally, we had dinner last night with another Dianne, but I couldn't find my camera, so that will come another day.