Matthew McConaughey's teeth(these aren't them)

Mr. A and I were watching a mind-numbing chick flick the other night – you know, just some light viewing, to decompress from recent stressful events – and I noticed yet again that Hollywood stars' teeth just keep getting whiter and whiter and whiter. It's sick! This Matthew person opened his mouth and all you could see were his teeth. They were so glaringly white that we looked at each other in alarm, just like when the earthquake happened a couple weeks ago.

On the other end of the spectrum: Not that long ago I rewatched one of my favorite movies of all time, David Mamet's 1994 take on the classic Chekov play, Vanya on 42nd Street (the play is called Uncle Vanya). The cast includes Julianna Moore as Yelena, and I remembered loving her in that part so I was looking forward to seeing her. But this time through – though I still found her wonderful and lovely and real – I found myself severely distracted by Her teeth as well. They were so yellow! So very, very yellow. Sort of a dark, yellowish gray. Anyway, she has had them bleached since then and I think that whoever did them did a very nice job. Matthew ought to give her a call and get that guy's number.

There is a middle ground, is what I'm saying. And I predict that within the next two years (because it takes some time for these things to catch on), movie stars, singers and other famous people whose mouths are in the spotlight are going to start having their teeth brought back to more natural, normal-looking shades of white again. Still probably brighter than average, but no more of this blindingly, psychedelically, blown-out floodlamp effect.

I also think women's shoulders and arms are going to stop being so über-stringy and lean, like a skinned chicken breast. Tinarama's rule of thumb: if I can see the striations in your muscles, you are too damn skinny.

Switching gears: My one meeting happened and then my other meeting happened, and I saw my friend last night at the farmer's market and he seems fine with everything, much to my relief. I'm fine with it, too, even though I did end up being the only person who voted against the proposal. I think it was good for me to be able to speak up with an unpopular opinion, in a place where it really mattered, and actually take the floor and advocate and argue and really try to bring other people around to my point of view. Somewhat surprisingly, the fact that I failed to change anyone's mind does not bother me one bit. I suppose that's because I never expected to win. I just wanted to speak, and I did that.

And even though I wasn't happy with the outcome, almost everyone was really considerate and thoughtful and kind about what we were discussing. The one person who wasn't, is just the kind of person who (I think) secretly believes they're not very important, so has to be constantly standing on the table and crowing and flapping their wings and in various other ways trying very hard to convince everyone else that they are important. Ironically, their grandiose behavior somehow makes it much easier for me to disregard them.

On the way home it occurred to me that this is one of the ways I've been really lucky in my life so far. With only a few exceptions, I've pretty much always been surrounded by people who are either very kind, or who I can easily disregard. I've never felt trapped with dangerous or sadistic people I couldn't get away from.

Another way I've been lucky is that I have naturally very white teeth. Even while fully indulging my most recent culinary obsession (decaf Earl Grey tea with lots of milk) ... the old chompers still look good.

Please feel free to nominate this as the most boring entry in the history of this website. Or possibly, the second most boring.