When I was growing up we lived on a shady street in the Bronx. Several doctors and dentists had offices on our block and my dad was one of them. He was a GP who practiced on the ground floor of our three-story house and we lived on the two upper floors “over the store”. (See Fluffy, or How I Got My Dog and The Corpse in the Office) For many years a dentist named Ben rented space in my dad’s office. Ben was a wonderfully kind and gentle man and he and his wife Eleanor became my...