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School: Tufts (A.B.) University of Pennsylvania (M.A.) University of Iowa Kent State University (Ph.D.)
Work: Teaching Fellow at Kent State University
Assistant Professor of English at Alliance College, Cambridge Springs, PA English instructor/English, Language, Humanities and Social Science department head at Craven Community College, New Bern NC
Hometown(s): Revere, MA Lexington, MA Philadelphia Iowa City Kent, OH (during the massacre) Cambridge Springs, PA New Bern, NC Emerald Isle, NC Waikiki
Quote: "Let go, let God."
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
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I am a retired community college English instructor/administrator. When it is warm enough, I spend lots of time perched on my upper deck, reading detective novels and luxuriating in my panoramic view of the ocean. During the winter, my wife and I stay in Waikiki, living in and sprucing up our two condos that we rent out when we are on the mainland
Interests:
I collect classical music, go to chamber music concerts, write controversial letters to the editor of the local paper, root for the Boston Red Sox (I was brought up in Boston and once saw Ted Williams play), enjoy political cartoons on Darryl Cagle's MSNBC website; conduct services as a lay leader for my temple, where I also sing and sermonize; and read for fun anything that is not too scholarly(those days are thankfully over--11 years in grad school were enough exposure to the dry rot in academia). Even though I am no longer an English instructor, I am still blessed (or perhaps afflicted) with overly sensitive antennae for the niceties (or sometimes nightmares) of our ever-evolving language
My teeth are yellow. Because I suffer from tooth sensitivity and a very
active gagging reflex, I have shied away from whitening compounds.
But I’d like to make my teeth look more presentable. So I have
added a heap of baking soda to my toothpaste for extra cleaning prowess.
What harm could that do? I was always told that baking soda was your
friend. And my teeth have looked somewhat less yellow over the past six
months. However, yesterday, I noticed that two of my front upper teeth
have lost some enamel near the gum line. Why hadn’t I noticed this
deterioration earlier? It couldn’t have just materialized
overnight. After beating myself up for being so unobservant, I tried to
figure out what had caused the erosion. I use an electric
toothbrush—gently—no abrasion there. My toothpaste was rated
low on abrasion as well. The baking soda! It must have been the culprit.
After checking with the Internet, I saw the awful truth: a good amount
of baking soda scours away tooth enamel. My dentist confirmed my belated
diagnosis. Sometimes trying to make things better makes things worse,
especially if you are uniformed. Luckily, I have no pain; unfortunately,
restoring the enamel will be costly. From now on, I will think twice
about relying on home-made remedies—and I will reconsider
purchasing dental insurance.