The Smile Award

I have a beautiful smile.  My parents paid good money to an orthodontist in the early 1980s for my smile. (Thanks, George and Esther!) And I had the benefit of good dental care from a young age. “Be true to your teeth and they’ll never be false to you“, as the saying goes.

But my smile is not a public commodity, it is not something men can command from me, even though they try. “Smile, darling. You’d be so much prettier“. I am not making that up. I have had that sentiment “offered” my way more times than I care to remember.

When I was in junior high, I was graded down for a cello solo by a male judge for not smiling. My cello teacher (God bless the sainted Carol Graef!) went nuclear on him. “You were supposed to be listening to her…