Here's Part 2 !

The first part of this is the entry just below this.

In 1942 there was a Navy recruit who trained to be a gunner on an aircraft carrier. Being somewhat hygienically conscious he asked his trainer if he would have time to brush his teeth after battle stations were sounded. "Why certainly!," said the instructor. "Who in their right mind would send a sailor out to battle with dirty teeth." That was before the Battle of Tuvalu Sea when the sailor spent 72 hours on continuous duty shooting enemy planes, getting shot at and becoming generally dirty and messy. By the time the last surviving plane had landed he had lost his toothbrush and was using a cold chisel to clean the grit and gunpowder off his teeth.

Today I got the cheapest estimate for the Root Canal. It would cost only $528 out of pocket. "Then there's the Cap," said the receptionist. Apparently a Cap is necessary to protect the Root Canal stuff. It will cost only $1050 out-of-pocket. I think it is made out of a titanium-gold alloy. You understand that for $1600 I could buy a small farming community in northern Russia. It felt a whole lot like the gunner after the battle.

Tomorrow I am going to call up the Clinic and tell the Battle Surgeon to prepare for an extraction. For about a hundred bucks and a hammer and a pair of pliers much can be accomplished. The hammer is to knock me out and the pliers, well........... Soon maybe I will be able to whistle out of the side of my mouth. Ta!