Good Ol´ Times?

The American humorist PJ O'Rourke says that if anyone ever tells you that things were better in the good old days, just say the one word "dentistry".

He's right. I can't remember when I was last in agony at the dentist. Once I even had root canal work in the morning and was back at my desk that afternoon. The other day, I had to have a tooth out. The dentist and his nurse chatted away while I went numb. He put the kit inside my mouth and a few seconds later the tooth was gone. What was amazing was that I felt only the slightest discomfort afterwards. That's just a wonderful modern thing, like the internet, cars that start on cold mornings and modern ice cream that doesn't taste of lard, which it did when I was a boy.

Simon Hoggart