Flossing on the Upper West Side

Philip and I were walking down the street on the Upper West Side between Broadway and Amsterdam towards the Park when he stopped abruptly and took off his backpack.

"I am have an emergency," he said plainly, as he opened his dop kit*, which he had quickly slipped out of his bag. He cut off a long, large piece of floss from his floss box.

"What are you doing?" I protested, as he started to floss bits of his breakfast out from between his teeth.

"You just can't understand. I am in pain."

I jutted out my chin indignantly.

"Physical and mental pain."

I rolled my eyes.

"Combined physical and mental pain," he whined for emphasis, as if I didn't know the meaning of the word "and". With this and the floss hanging out of his mouth, he started to walk again, at a New York pace. I jogged to catch up.

Now, I have had some strange flossing experiences. My family and I regularly flossed as a group activity while watching TV and then marveled at the interesting ways we found to fold and tie up, even crochet, our used floss. Philip has always puzzled at this ritual. In college, I once flossed with a 5 foot piece of floss with both Phil and our friend HaYoung at the same time while listening to "You Sexy Thing". But, COME ON! Walking down the street! Waiting on the corner! Crossing Amsterdam! It was a new low for both of us.

*I had to look up this word for this blog, as I was not sure if it was dob kit or dop kit. I could not find it in the abridged OED we have at home or at dictionary.com. I googled it and found many dop (not dob) kits for sale. Now Phil and I are very curious about the origins of the word. Any ideas?