Ten-Finger Exercises

Mid-life choices

I just read a New Yorker cartoon titled Middle-of-Life Choices. The first panel showed a woman reading from a catalog, "Classic" fit? Or "Relaxed"? The second, a man with a menu, trying to decide between chicken and fish; and the third, a woman staring into a bathroom mirror, pondering "Whiten teeth? Or to hell with it?"

Would that the choices were so straight forward!

Reading my favorite catalogs, I'm faced with "Blakely" fit pants, or "Vashons," or "Mercers." Another popular catalog features a manikin you can make look like you, and then see the styles you pick modeled. Supposedly that's as good as trying the garment on in person.

There's nothing I can do to make that body look like mine, and I have no idea which island-type I am. Maybe I need to use Google map to find out!

When it comes to food, it depends on the genre. In the fast food genre, everything tastes like something else. The first time I noticed that was way back in the 80's when I saw my first taco pizza. How about roast chicken flavored potato chips? Not bad, actually, but strange.

In the expensive food genre, each menu item takes up a whole paragraph. I had halibut the other night that was baked in banana leaves "grapefruit habenero terragon, orange saffron, cilantro lime." It was delicious, and certainly nothing I'd be whipping up at home.
But even in English, they could have fooled me that it was fish.

As for tooth whitening, I asked my hygienist about it Wednesday. She said there are several over-the-counter brands with trays you were at night that work almost as well as the specially molded trays the dentist makes. So I looked for them, but found only brands with strips. Do I know what that means exactly? No. Can I imagine sleeping with trays of bleach in my mouth? No. I may have to opt for "To hell with it!"