Same Time Tomorrow

I have full dental coverage at work now, so I finally went to get my teeth cleaned today for the first time in about six years. Ironically, dental coverage is the reason why it needed to be done in the first place. Ha. But seriously...

I have a new dentist, and she seems really sensible and sensitive. She filled a cavity at the top of my left front tooth on Monday, and the only painful part of the entire procedure was at the beginning, when she poked around, asking, "Does this hurt?"

The hygienist who did the cleaning today was a little more on the rough, scoldy side, but she was generally nice too. There was a bit of passive aggressive reiteration early on that my mouth's condition could be a lot worse, given how long I had let things go. And I got a lesson in flossing that was slightly humbling. But two thirds of my teeth are now spotless, the other third being finished tomorrow. I guess they don't like to have you in the chair for more than an hour at a time. I know I certainly wouldn't want to scrape away at someone else's disgusting fangs for longer than that.

There was a local CBC radio show on the whole time I was in there. I was trying not to listen to it, but the subject matter was just too inflammatory to ignore. It was one of those call-in shows where people are encouraged to indulge their knee-jerk reactions to ethical matters that are usually complex enough to be ill-served by such treatment, and, moreover, already settled.

Today's topic was the recent firing of three Toronto firefighters over some incredibly violent expressions of sexism they posted on social media sites. The posts were in response to Toronto Fire Services' attempts to recruit more women. There was a lawyer sitting in with the host, explaining how these were perfectly reasonable and legal dismissals, given the public nature of both the firemen's service role and their chosen forum for flouting their employers' socially responsible policy.

But most of the calls were from people saying things like, "It's none of my employer's business what I do in my spare time. That's my private life." The lawyer would point out that the hateful statements in question were not in fact private, but public, and therefore a legitimate concern to the Fire Services with respect to their estimation in the eyes of a public that needs to feel protected by them. Then, the next caller would say, "For my employer to go out of his way to look at what I'm doing in my own private time and then fire me for it is going too far. It's an abuse of technology and power."

Some people also made a case that Facebook sucks.

Because I had sharp poky things wedged into the crevices of my mouth, I mostly had to satisfy myself with a lot of eye rolling. But I couldn't help letting out a "Guh!" or a "B'cark!" every once in awhile. At first, the hygienist was alarmed and wondered how she had hurt me. But we quickly worked out a code where I would point to the radio with my thumb. Then she would nod and say, "These same people say the same dumb things every day." Then I would say, "Ee ull," and we'd roll our eyes together. It was kind of a nice way to spend my lunch hour.