I have seen people do really gross things on the subway, like floss and pick their teeth and clip their nails, the nail fragments flying all over the place. And yesterday I saw some guy cleaning his ears with Q-TIPS then throw them on the subway floor!!!

I can't remember if I already wrote about my dentist in here, but there was an article in Friday's Times called "A Villager Bicycles Back in Time, Alla Romana" by Michael Frank. It mentions my dentist, Charles Dorato, and his mother, Fedora Dorato, who owns Fedora's Restaurant on West 4th Street. It's been there since 1928 and the dentist's office, upstairs from the restaurant, used to be a speakeasy and there was a secret passage leading to it from the restaurant.

Dr. Dorato is byfar the coolest dentist I have ever had. He has a mobile of bats hanging in the hallway and a big creepy oil painting of a woman with bats flying around her head, like you'd see at the Salvation Army or something. Plus there is a clock that looks like the cover of a pulp-fiction novel, "Queer Daddy," over the reception desk, the receptionist being Dr. Dorato's aunt, Norma Nannini. She is wild, a real New York lady, sweet and sassy with red lips and chunky jewelry. The hygienist, Yolanda, has her own pulp-fiction clock, "Lady Boss," and her room is plastered with photos of patients' pets.