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Oral Royal

#19 tooth was permanently crowned Supreme Ruler of my mouth this afternoon. It was a lovely ceremony, attended by a dentist, a dental hygienist and a dental student on a job shadow. Bon Jovi played in the background. The rest of the teeth are anxiously awaiting the Crowned Ruler's first decree.

I get so self-conscious in the dentist chair, because of my tongue. I don't know what it's up to while the dentist or dental hygienist is rummaging around in my mouth. I'm afraid that my tongue presses against their hands, licking their fingers. My dentist said that I'm one of his best patients, so either my tongue behaves itself, or my dentist likes to have his fingers licked.

Dinner tonight: whatever the Crowned Ruler demands, which is moussaka casserole

Comments

How does one make a moussaka casserole?

And I know all too well the embarrassment of the tongue at the dentist. I have one of those geographic or comedic tongues. It likes to do an impression of the Grand Canyon.

Yeah... the tongue thing always embarrasses me @ the dentist too...

HAIL to #19 tooth! I'm not sure what the # of the tooth is in my mouth that wears the crown... but it is almighty!

One makes a moussaka casserole with guile and ingenuity. I just followed a recipe and used up the half eggplant loitering in the vegetable drawer, the lone tomato leftover from the fiesta, and the paltry 1/2# of ground sirloin from the meatloaf marathon. All those things are sauteed with some onion, then layered in a casserole and topped off with an egg/milk mixture, sprinkled with cheese and baked. It's nothing like a real moussaka, but it's a fast/easy way to pretend.

There's already some grumbling about the way #19 rules the mouth. It isn't a sweet tooth. In fact, it forced me to buy some Pringles today. The other teeth aren't thrilled with the rapid policy change from sweet to salty. I hear whispers about a coup. #19 is too eager; to be a successful leader of the mouth, it has to learn how to sneak policy changes past the other teeth, or at least pretend to care about what they want. We'll see; it's still pretty early in #19's administration.

I guess the other teeth weren't expecting that first decree to be so drastic.

As for my teeth, it seems to be a !Kung consensus-style operation, as no tooth seems to be better than the others or issuing any sort of declarations. They do click, though. A lot.

Funny you should mention clicks. Last night I was practicing saying the two words I know with clicks. One is the name of a chicken restaurant (!Nando) and the other is the name of a language similar to Zulu (Xhosa). I never know when I'll be called upon to demonstrate these two types of clicks, so I practice regularly.