[singpilot]

My Dad was a dentist. When I was very young (like grammar school) when he finally came home from work, we usually got called to the dinner table. If there was something for dinner that he really liked, and there wasn't really enough to go around (he and I used to compete for the mashed potatoes), he would start the dinner conversation with... 'You should have seen this root canal abcess that came in today, geez, I had to cut clear down to the jawbone thru all the gristle and decay and then drill thru all the blood and yank out the broken little bone pieces and corpuscles.... '

My sisters would usually start gagging and run for the bathroom about then, my mom would turn white, and run from the room, and he and I would finish off the mashed potatoes unchallenged. I knew he was kidding, and we were giggling as we ate whatever it was.

You had to understand the sense of humor of a Dentist. Steve Martin's portrayal of the Dentist in 'Little Shop of Horrors' came closest.

Years later when he did my first root canal, I realized he wasn't kidding...