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PCIntern

(27,494 posts)
Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:21 AM Tuesday

Aaaugh!!! Riley Gaines, according to Wikipedia

had originally wanted to become…a DENTIST!!

It’s funny: when I was in dental school in the 1970’s there were three basic categories of individuals:

1. People laser-focused on their studies so that they could qualify for a specialty program such as orthodontics or periodontics or for a General Practice Residency in one of the high-falutin’ hospitals in some major metropolitan area. We used to call them “throats”.

2. Laid-back people who enjoyed their music, alcohol, pot, sex, and the like all the while doing well and becoming vaguely or more than vaguely humanistic practitioners (count me among those). Generally reasonably interesting and helpful people with a few exceptions of course.

3. The RW brush-cut military-types who were sanctimonious beyond human comprehension about everything under the sun and acted as though their shit didn’t stink and were superior in every way to the ethnic crowds beneath them. Our code word for them was “Nazis” as in “Didja hear what the Nazi said to Amy when she failed her operative practical exam? She was crying inconsolably for hours afterwards. What an asshole!” Of course, on the side these people were cheating on examinations, lying outright, stealing instruments and materials. If accused, they’d react with feigned open-mouthed horror. They could lie like nobody’s business and I should know: I was on the Student Ethical Panel for two years, reviewing cheating cases. But you better be careful around them because there were times when they acted like the Brownshirts.

Riley would have fit right in….she missed her true calling.

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Aaaugh!!! Riley Gaines, according to Wikipedia (Original Post) PCIntern Tuesday OP
My dear PCIntern, I am always fascinated by your vision of the world you live in! CaliforniaPeggy Tuesday #1
Former swimmer whose claim to fame PCIntern Tuesday #2
Thanks for the info! CaliforniaPeggy Tuesday #4
All kinds of people become dentists or aspire to dentistry. valleyrogue Tuesday #3
Well, PCIntern Tuesday #5

CaliforniaPeggy

(154,567 posts)
1. My dear PCIntern, I am always fascinated by your vision of the world you live in!
Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:48 AM
Tuesday

I had no idea that there are three basic categories of individuals in dentistry. Your posts open up new vistas and I can see whatever you're talking about.

I have no idea who Riley Gaines is.

Well done, and thank you.

PCIntern

(27,494 posts)
2. Former swimmer whose claim to fame
Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:57 AM
Tuesday

Is that she competed and tied the trans lady from Penn. she is a RW motivational speaker.

valleyrogue

(2,228 posts)
3. All kinds of people become dentists or aspire to dentistry.
Tue Jul 22, 2025, 11:02 AM
Tuesday

Mark Spitz had ambitions of becoming a dentist before the 1972 Olympics. He had actually been admitted to dental school at Indiana University. Actor Edgar Buchanan (Petticoat Junction) WAS a dentist before turning to acting full time, while his wife, also a dentist, took over his practice.

So what if Riley Gaines had aspired to dentistry? Obviously, she found an easier way to make a living.

PCIntern

(27,494 posts)
5. Well,
Tue Jul 22, 2025, 11:13 AM
Tuesday

Since I was a professor at Penn’s Dental School for a fair number of years, I’m aware of this. My point is that she would have fit well into the third category which I wrote about.

And I’m not wrong….and Mark Spitz chose not to become a dentist because enormous opportunities arose for him which precluded his entrance into school. Wise move on his part…

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