Boy, not everyone thought The American Plan was as bad as I did--Ben Brantley loved it. But I read his review and it didn't make me think oh yeah, I never looked at it that way, nor did he talk about any subtleties I missed. Except for his saying that Lily Rabe is extremely attractive (he mentioned it twice). She's one of these praying mantis blondes, perhaps very attractive, but I didn't know from the show that she was supposed to be. So perhaps it comes down to taste.

I had my first tooth pulled this morning, and I've been feeling very sad, and prophalactically embarrassed, about it for the past two weeks. The dentist had a huge CD collection, so I asked him to put on Simon & Garfunkel because I listened to their greatest hits while walking in the park Sunday and was struck at the perfect crafting of the songs and the transcendence of Art Garfunkel's voice. I hope I haven't conditioned myself to have sore gums now when I hear them. (Actual, so far it's not too bad, but I'm still a little numb, and I have Vicodin standing by.) As I was in the chair, I finally thought of the positive spin I could put on it (apart from being grateful that for only a lot of money, eventually I'll have a pretty good replacement because I have good dentists and healthy bone): I'm not getting older, my remains are getting easier to identify.