Danskcolin: Wednesday November 26th 2025 "Does YOUR toothbrush have something 'not quite right' about it ?"

Yes, Friends, is your toothbrush somehow a little bit less than perfect? Take a second look at yours this morning, and with a really critical eye, and you'll see what I mean!!!!

Luckily, if your toothbrush is, say, 0.0002 inches (0.0005mm) "out" on its "curve vector", you could be really 'missing out', if you don't rush out and buy a shiny new one. Especially after those clever Oral B 'boffins' are beginning to debut their new version 6.0, would you believe!!!!

Needless to say, the Oral B breakthrough is splashed all over the iconic page 94 of this morning's Onion News for East Hampshire, the page where all the game-changing scientific advances are normally "bitten into" (no pun intended!!!!!)

Kudos, those clever Oral B "boffins" !!!!!

And the story brings a bit of a toothless grin to the mouths of me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois this morning, as we "digest" it over breakfast - no pun intended, again!!!!!

[That's enough unfunny puns! - Ed]

me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois - a recent picture

And as bad-luck would have it (!), we've got our 6-monthly check-ups at our local dentist this morning, here in rural, semi-grassy Liphook, Hampshire, the town where we've been living for the last 11 months.

We arrive at the surgery in a bit of a bad mood, having had to scrape the ice off our car, at 8:45am - brrrr!!!! - before driving here, but we soon warm up in the surgery's pleasant waiting-room. Some of the posters on the wall aren't particularly heart-warming, however, to put it mildly !!!!

we arrive in a bad mood, after having to scrape the ice off the carat 8:45am this morning,

but we soon warm up in our dentist's little waiting-room, but find we have to absorb

the rather grim propaganda on the wall about the amount of sugar in our coffees (!)

Yikes - better stick to "short cappuccinos" in future, then !!!!

When it comes to the actual check-up, José, our Portuguese-New Zealander dentist, advises us both to forget manual brushing and invest in two Oral B electric toothbrushes with pressure sensors, which we take as a criticism of how well we're currently looking after our teeth. But we're only doing it the way we were taught to do it as kids, 75 years ago, back in 1950 or so - huh !!!!!!

flashback to around 1950: (left) me and my little sister Kathy, with our Mummy,

and (right) Lois on the beach with her baby brother Andrew - happy days !!!!

But call us over-sensitive if you like!!!!!

Our teeth are certainly getting more sensitive, that's for sure, despite our both being long-time Sensodyne-users!!!! And José finds 2 fillings that he says I need to have done. Damn! And I opt to "get it over with" before Christmas, so accept one of José's free slots next Wednesday, deciding to "bite the bullet" - no pun intended, again !!!!!

[Final warning! - Ed]

So, a bit of a stressful day overall, to put it mildly! And Lois and I need to de-stress big-time tonight on the couch, so what better than to watch another instalment of crazy royal goings-on in another re-run of a programme in Channel 5's series about "Secrets of the Royal Palaces" - you tell me haha !!!!!

Lois and I didn't know that when King Charles was "invested" as Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Caernarvon Castle back in 1969, the royal family had to have a shiny new "Prince of Wales Coronet" made for the occasion, to wear on his head during the ceremony.

Flashback to 1969: a 20-year-old Prince Charles, as he then was, at Caernarvon Castle

in North Wales, preparing for the ceremony to "invest" him as Prince of Wales

The existing 'Prince of Wales coronet' had been lost, when, in the 1930's, the previous Prince of Wales, Charles's great uncle Edward, had abdicated the throne and "buggered off to France" [sic] with his American wife, Mrs Wallis Simpson. Edward decided to take the old coronet with him, and it's never been recovered.

What madness !!!!

There was therefore a bit of a panic at the castle 2 weeks before the ceremony, when the disappearance of the old coronet was discovered, and work had to start to produce a quick replacement.

The hastily-made, shiny new coronet, however, was judged to be "too heavy" for the young Charles's head, and one of the crown's expensive jewelled baubles, the orb on the top, had to be replaced with a painted ping-pong ball.

One of the royal officials, David Mason, thought of the idea by accident, after watching a game of ping-pong on TV.

A bit of a crazy idea, it was though, but one that "might just work". And there seemed to be no other option, so they went ahead with the experiment.

The trick worked and during the ceremony, nobody could tell the difference, as it happened. But palace officials were then left with a bit of a problem:

What a crazy world we live in!!!

Back in the late 19th century, an even earlier Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria's eldest son Edward, the future Edward VII, was installed by his mother at the newly-purchased Sandringham Castle in Norfolk, mainly to keep his riotous life-style, and his mistresses, away from the prying eyes (and cameras) of the turn-of-the-century tabloid press (!). What madness!!!!!

Once comfortably installed there, Edward saw to it that there was plenty of luxurious dining. So much so, that putting on a bit of weight wasn't just expected, it was compulsory (!).

And I'm guessing that the weekend drinks at Sandringham weren't just short cappuccinos, as recommended by our dentist. Call me a bit of a cynic if you like haha !!!!!!

What madness (again!).

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

And I imagine that those extra pounds didn't affect Prince Edward's sex-life - probably his mistresses were putting the pounds on at the same time, so who cares, as long as they could still "manage it" with him, at a pinch maybe haha!!!

Not so, however, with TV's Miriam Margoyles - the eccentric Professor Sprout of the Harry Potter films - according to what Lois reads out to me from her copy of "The Week" magazine!

Miriam reckons, looking back on her long life, that more women would have been willing to have had sex with her, if only she'd been just a little bit thinner.