Category: Fourre-tout

“Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond.” Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616)
Miguel amigo, you were a true visionary. Four hundred years ago you already knew the true value of a tooth.
Diamonds might be a girl’s best friends, but they might not be a guy’s best pals.

A week ago, I was fitted with a dental implant (yes, another one) and it indeed cost me more than a good size diamond. But the fault is mine… entirely mine. I am too naïve (innocent, unsophisticated, artless, ingenuous, inexperienced, guileless, trusting, gullible…) take your pick.

The whole thing started rather innocuously. A few months ago, while munching on some delicacies, I cracked a tooth and I had to pay a visit to my dentist.
After examining the damaged premolar, he informed me that the tooth had to come out, but that he didn’t perform that kind of procedure. He then directed me to a colleague (a periodontist) who could do the job.

The afore mentioned specialist performed the task flawlessly. My cracked tooth came out painlessly (the pain surged later) within a few minutes…
My tongue then felt an unfamiliar void in my upper jaw. The man asked me what I intended to do and I told him rather thoughtlessly that I wanted an implant.
Fine he said. I took his answer to mean that he was going to do the entire procedure himself.

But I was mistaken. He told me that yes, he would insert the implant himself, but that later, my regular dentist would attach the crown. They would share the job… and obviously the proceeds.
I should have realized that two plumbers are costlier than one, but I did not think of it at the time.

A dental implant is a rather delicate operation. First a pure titanium screw has to be accurately inserted into your jaw bone. Then, a few months later a uniquely designed crown is attached to the titanium screw.
This intricate procedure requires unique skills and experience and it is of course costly.

But my original mistake was to let two different people visit my mouth. My previous implant was done by a single person and was considerably cheaper.

I have no complaint about the entire procedure, but next time (if ever there is one) I will demand (and advise anybody) to have a single person perform the entire operation. One is company, two is a crowd (especially in a mouth).

 Alain

I told my dentist I want a tooth to match the others. He gave my one with four cavities. Rodney Dangerfield

False friends are worse than bitter enemies. Scottish proverb.

Few things are more shocking than being betrayed by somebody you thought were your friend. And sometimes it takes a while to figure out who is not really your chum, but your foe.

After years of gestation, plastic bags became very popular in the 1960s. Many might remember the 1967 movie “The Graduate” where young Dustin Hoffman was told:

Mr. Maguire: There is a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Benjamin Braddock: Yes, I will.

Well, the great future has run its course, and it is time to phase it out and find a viable alternative. We don’t have to ship our garbage to some impoverished lands. We can find some innovative ways to dispose of it and recycle it into something useful.

For instance, “The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has created a compostable multi-layer material from agricultural and forestry by-products, which could be used for stand-up food pouches for products such as muesli, nuts, dried fruit, and rice”

When it first appeared, plastic was very popular and everybody wanted it. It was cheap, could be molded in just about any shape and was practically indestructible. It could last till the End of Time… and it looks like it is trying.
Plastic penetrated every level of social strata, especially low-income dwellers. But It turned out that plastic was really a fake friend. Like an ill-mannered guest, it abused its welcome and became a big nuisance.

It invaded (and clogged) sewers, rivers and oceans. Its slow decomposition rate became an issue and the whole thing became a giant problem. Plastic refuses are now littering oceans and shores everywhere. They are eyesores and are perilous for marine life.

So far, few heads of state have shown the will to fight that scourge. Resistance started as usual with a few young entrepreneurs tired of government’s inaction.

There are now many individual groups actively pursuing oceans’ cleanup. But it is not enough. It is everybody’s moral duty to fight pollution by implementing a personal policy of restraint. Shun plastic products and urge your legislators to implement laws banning its usage.

Personally, I want my next president to be an environmentalist, not a profit-minded “businessman”.

If you care about your children’s future, think about this the next time you vote.

Alain

While surfing the Net, I could not help but notice that celebrities or showbiz people cannot keep a relationship going for very long… Being naturally curious, I tried to figure out why.

To start with, celebrities are not like you or me. Due to affluence, their life jackets are much bigger and more buoyant than ours. They have the means to weather a romantic (or financial) storm much more easily than we do. And since they are aware of this, they are more inclined to part company with their lover than the rest of us.

When a couple breaks up, it usually means that one of the partners will leave the shared residence and find another place to live. For ordinary people, it is not always easy. The cost of moving into a new place can be exorbitant and can exacerbate an already tense situation.

But for wealthy people, this is not a problem. They all own a secondary (and often a tertiary) residence and when things get unpleasant, they simply move out of the primary abode.
We have to grin and bear it… they just grin and move out. This is why celebrities jettison their partners about every three years… because they can.

A celebrity knows a lot of people, many more than a mere plebeian, and it is fairly easy to find a new partner. Many men or women are like moths; they cannot resist the bright flame of fame and often get burned in the process…

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods. Wystan Auden

 Soon or later one runs out of goods and wants a new trade agreement.

If everybody was rich, nobody would ever stay in the same relationship indefinitely. Why should they? If parting was easy, people, like butterflies, would skip from flower to flower. If everybody was wealthy, God forbids, it would be total chaos.

This is why the richest showbiz people and politicians secretly congregate every 2 years to prevent this Armageddon scenario. They gather to keep the masses poor and incapable of social mobility.

Why do you think that “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” is inscribed on a bronze plaque inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty? Because we need poor people to feel superior and boss them around.

Alain

“I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me, and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year.” — Bette Davis