Had the first root canal of my life this afternoon, and I have to say it was great fun. People love to pass on horrible stories to other people for some reason, and just before I went to the Granville Family Dentistry in Granville, N.Y., somebody e-mailed me that their cousin had died while getting a root canal. I wasn’t sure why they passed this along to me, but I brought the Ipod so that I could leave the world listening to Van Morrison singing “Bright Side Of The Road,” my new theme song.

The root canal was a hoot. Dr. Harvey Coco and Dawn are an entertaining team, and they kept me laughing with trenchant football analysis (owners should not meddle in player selection) and with jokes and smiles. You can take a nice photo of anything, and almost anything can be fun if you don’t listen to other people talk about it. I was out of there in less than an hour and other than some dull throbbing, it was not much at all. Score one for advances in medical technology. We were all laughing so hard another patient stuck her head in said she wanted a root canal too. Back next week to complete the filling before Xmas. I love the Granville Family Dentistry. Everybody does a good job and nobody asks you how you are feeling.