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Low life

Mahler’s Fifth is the perfect soundtrack to a tooth extraction

From start to finish, it mirrored the dentist’s battle to get my molar out

7 March 2015

9:00 AM

7 March 2015

9:00 AM

Frantic chewing of sugar-coated nicotine gum had caused my left lower molar to go irretrievably rotten, and the dentist finally extracted it after a prolonged and heroic struggle. Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor was playing in the background and the extraordinary thing was that from start to finish the music exactly mirrored the vicissitudes of his battle to pull the tooth out.

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