My impacted wisdom tooth is nasty right now and the size of half my head. Sometimes I go to the dentist when this happens, and they look at my tooth on a video camera and wonder how I can possibly still be alive. I'm pretty sure there's a Stacey Levine story about my tooth, or a tooth like it that puffs up out of control and looms over an entire village, shadowing the residents who labor to build a giant wheel of cheese. I'm going to ask her. Maybe cheese ages better in the darkness of my tooth.
Also, since I've been sitting at home with a Tofutti Cutie "ice pack" against my face, I've been catching up on magazines that I ordered and never paid for. There's an article in Tin House about this writer, Leonard Michaels, who seems really crazy and angry and also, dead, just like my tooth. Elsewhere, there's a quote from our favorite correspondent, Wayne Koestenbaum.
