Yes, they were badly stained and also unevenly worn.  I'd had a run of bruxism and ground them down so far the dentist was unwilling to clean them, for fear of removing the rest of the enamel.

Last Friday I drove to Brookhaven, MS and had lunch with a longtime coworker.  He's a lifelong Republican in his mid 40's who is very politically active and has only voted for Democrats a handful of times in his entire life, and only in local elections.  After we loaded up on fried chicken and catfish and butterbeans from the buffet, I mischievously needled him.

So, D, what's your take on the Presidential election?

OK I should be posting this at democraticunderground.com because it's where I posted the poached comment, but I post so little they won't let me :-(  Meanwhile, WTF is up with this?

"I" have the top comment on that story even though I don't have an account at the Baltimore Sun's website (note my nick isn't hyperlinked).  I actually posted that comment on democraticunderground.com, and it was far from the top of the comment tree.  I'd link it but it's aged off their system.

It's worked so many times before that we keep expecting it:  The Sound Bite from Hell looped 24/7 on the teevee and viewed 3,000,000 times on YouTube that will destroy a campaign.  But so far, it's not working against Obama, and I have a pretty good idea why.

I say it's important to remember:  Barack Hussein Obama.  There's a good reason, too, but a poll to see if you agree...

I'm sold; I'm voting for Obama, and I'm doing it because of a speech.  Lately I've heard some complaints that Barack might be a bit of an empty suit other than his ability to give speeches.  While you can argue on either side of that, I'm going to make a different suggestion:  Maybe it doesn't matter.  I think what Barack has is what we need, and I'd like to explain why.

On February 7 Barack Obama came into the political minefield that is post-Katrina New Orleans, and gave one of the finest political speeches I have ever heard.  It probably means more to me as a native New Orleanian than it will to most; but it showed me something I had despaired of ever seeing in my lifetime.

There are thousands of stories about how things came back after Katrina. Here are four of them.