A marble and a handkerchief
I have the kind of old-fashioned tooth infection that used to be portrayed thus in silly stage comedies. There's a strange, hot, painful lump in my face, just beside the right side of my nose.

Oddly, though it hurts if I smile, or kiss someone, or speak, it doesn't hurt when I bite down on it -- in fact, chewing something firm and crunchy makes it feel slightly better.

My dentist? I still go to my childhood dentist, seven hundred kilometres (or so) away.

I'd recently seen that a new dentist had moved into the strip mall where my doctor has her office -- large sign on the door reading Taking New Patients. So this morning I called Directory Assistance, and told the automatic recorder that I wanted "the dentist at this address." That caused a moment or two of confusion with the operator, but eventually I got the number, and spoke to a receptionist with a heavy accent. Appointment on Wednesday. I hope the infection doesn't crawl through my sinuses and eat my brain before that.