Cathy Dalton is glad to see more attention focused on cancer rates in the community. She lived in Flower Mound for 14 years before she was diagnosed with a rare type of liver cancer. She later read an article that linked cancer to benzene exposure.

And yet most Greeks care or understand little about opaque macroeconomic figures. They focus instead on record joblessness, one in three now at risk of poverty.

"However we have now determined that the Earth's crust is pushed down from the planet's surface to a depth of 60 to 100 km, comes back towards the Earth's surface, is pushed down again and then finally ends up back on the surface where it becomes part of mountain belts."

Last week, though, the dentist poked around at my gums more than usual, took an X-ray and announced: "You are literally becoming long in the tooth." This, apparently, is common among "older people" (argh!). Gums recede, creating "longer teeth that look like tombstones, with black gaps between them". All I need now is a broomstick and a demon spirit.

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