Today was loused up by more dental adventures, but I learned something valuable that should have occurred to me long ago: Don’t assume your dentist is right, especially when he or she advocates expensive procedures. Today I visited my third tooth expert in a month, following the debacle of a week ago when I arrived at the elite oral surgeon my new dentist referred me to for three extractions, one of which he had added to my dentist’s original assessment. After I walked out of that appointment following what I felt was an unethical jerk-around by the staff, I decided to try another dentist who came highly recommended by a friend. To my surprise, and after enough x-rays to have me worried about mutating into an axolotl, today’s dentist said he thought I needed only one immediate extraction for sure, and that he could save one of the teeth while the other one could wait. This dentist, unlike the oral surgeon, also accepted my insurance. What a concept! A second opinion! And one that might save me thousands of dollars!

But I digress.

Let’s see if we can have a lively Friday Open Forum as last week, which was outstanding.

I expect second, third and fourth opinions on everything ethics.

I’m getting ready to have three tooth extractions in a couple of hours, so I’m grateful that the EA commentariat is more than capable of holding things down here until I’m in some kind of shape to think about more than oral surgery.

And yet, the calendar doesn’t lie!

Or does it?

All ethics, all civil, all fascinating…you know, the usual.

I’m sorry—this should have been up early today. I was distracted by the Georgetown Law Center fiasco. Now I have BOTH my diplomas turned front to the wall.

Maybe we can get some ripping threads going that carry into the weekend (last weekend had the least viewers here in four years.)

All ethics, all civil, all brilliant , please. In other words, the usual.

The floor is yours.

Boy, that seven days went fast.

I would be having an open forum now even if we didn’t do this every Friday, because I’m Zooming and ethics seminar to New Jersey lawyers this morning.

Other Bill, esteemed commenter, wrote earlier this week:

“So many people in the commentariat so well versed on so many topics. Impressive and enjoyable. Graduate level discussions of all sorts of things.“

That’s very true, and I’m proud of it. I may even stop worrying about the fall-off in traffic here this month. When the quality of participation is this high, it doesn’t matter.

Since this is Jimmy Durante birthday week, and I’m fighting against ethics despair myself, I thought it would be a good time to play Jimmy’s most depressing song ever. I’ve always liked it, and nobody else ever sang it, as far as I can determine.

“What became of life?” Well, if it’s anything permanent and bad, it is only because people of good will and strong values gave up out of discouragement, frustration and defeatism.

Please stick to ethics: it shouldn’t be difficult. There is a lot going on, and lot at stake.

Gee, I’m still catching up on the last one!

My only comment right now is, “Boy, it’s been fun watching my Facebook progressive friends try to rationalize viewpoint censorship!

Stay on topic, please!