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Dear Ann Landers,
t is obvious by your unsympathetic response to a recent letter that you still have your own teeth. I refer to the letter about the overnight house guest who accidentally lost her dentures in the toilet. They blocked the drain and a plumber had to be called. The question was whether to return them or keep quiet about the discovery. Your support of the no-return decision-to protect the friend from embarrassment-was full of cavities, Ann. Properly fit-ting, attractive dentures can be extremely costly. Frequent replace-ments are not looked upon kindly by dental insurers. It is possible that the dentureless friend is still toothless. You certainly were no help. The return of those dentures, with or without a kind note, would have been greatly appreciated.
Dear Riverside,
A great many readers wrote to say I had given the wrong advice. Like you, they felt I should have advised the hostess to return the teeth. I am still not totally convinced. It seems to me that the woman who lost her teeth down the toilet surely was aware of it. Apparently, her embarrassment was so great that she preferred to say nothing and sacrifice the dentures. Let's hope the poor dear had an extra pair at home. In 1960, a woman wrote about her mother-in-law, who insisted that she fre-quently received secret radio messages through her bridgework. The situation became critical when the mother-in-law announced at a dinner party that she was listening to an exchange of secret information between Russia and Red China and wanted to notify the FBI. I suggested psychiatric help. This is what my mail was like for the next few days. You can draw your own conclusions. From Charleston, W.Va.: I am a research engineer who wishes to comment on the woman who says she is bringing in radio messages on her bridgework. It is entirely possible that she is receiving radio pro-grams, but if she's getting Russia, she is the first person in electronic history to bring in an overseas signal in this way. Yonkers, N.Y.: There is an established case of a Carborundum worker who retained enough of the dust so that it acted as a detector in his mouth. He had a great deal of gold work, plus a sensitive jaw bone. This man did bring in Station WOR in New Jersey. Little Rock: I'm a ham and hold a second-class radio-telephone li-cense. I've known people who have received radio signals through the fillings in their teeth-particularly when they have two different types of metals in the mouth. The teeth carry the vibrations to the brain by bone conduction, as in a crystal-tuned circuit. Lexington, Ky.: My aunt wore metal frame glasses and used a cop-per-handled cane to help her get around. She once swore she was re-ceiving radio waves from the planes overhead when she was waiting for me at an airport. Grand Rapids, Mich.: During the war we had lots of fun listening to radio messages by attaching a safety pin to a rusty razor blade and a lit-tle piece of copper wire. We actually got Tokyo Rose. The II fsi in An Lakh ins Abilene, Kan.: My grandmother wears a hearing aid. She gets radio messages all the time-especially when she's eating with stainless steel silverware. Sandusky, Ohio: My uncle once sat in the comer of the living room smiling and tapping his foot rhythmically. When I asked what he was lis-tening to (he had his ear cocked slightly), he replied, "Lawrence Welk is coming through my teeth." We thought the old guy was balmy, but since I've read the one about the woman and Red China, I'm not so sure. Richmond, Va.: I work in a small plant. For several months I thought I was going out of my mind because I imagined I heard voices. I was afraid to tell anyone for fear they'd put me away. One day the voices became so clear I decided to see the plant doctor. You can imag-ine my relief to learn that small particles of metal filing were getting between my teeth and I was receiving radio waves. Traverse City, Mich.: The steam radiators in our apartment give us better dance music than the radio, especially when it's raining. Stamford, Conn.: One question please. Did that woman who said she was receiving secret radio messages between Red China and Rus-sia understand Chinese or Russian? Surely the messages were not being transmitted in English!