Back at the dentist yesterday. We’re friends, now, because last time I was there the doctor said, I have to do an impression, and then I said, Do you do a lot of impressions? And he said, Just one, and I said, What is it?, and he said, Jack Benny, and I said, Well, do it, and he said, Rochester. Then we were friends, and he took an impression of my teeth.

This time he had just hit a deer with his car, or the deer had hit his car with itself, on the Taconic while the doctor was going 70 miles an hour. There was some question at the beginning of the visit as to whether I would need anesthetic, which was settled quickly, and then a variety of terrible tasting things were introduced to my mouth and I thought, I wish that they had, in addition to anesthetic, something that would keep you from tasting anything. When I’m at the dentist I keep butting my head up against the idea of oblivion.