got diastema?

As all of you know, I have always had a gap in my top teeth. Whether my folks couldn't afford braces or if mom just liked the way it looked, I don't know, but it was never fixed, and it has always been a slight point of insecurity for me. Anyway, the other day I was listening to one of my favorite radio shows, This American Life on NPR, and there was a guy, Noel Franus, being interviewed that has a website geared specifically toward diastematics (gappers). He even accidentally started a national stir when he half-jokingly held an on-line protest back in '96 when a stamp of Vince Lombardi was to be released but the artwork left Vince quite gap-less. Here is the story:

In late 1996, the US Postal Service issued the art proposed for a Vince Lombardi stamp. Strangely, Noel Franus noticed the gap-toothed coach of the Green Bay Packers had a diastema-free smile in the art.

Amused and outraged at the gall of it, Franus organized an online protest, which in turn was widely reported by major media (it didn't hurt that the Packers were going to the Superbowl that year). Turns out that as a result of the uproar, the stamp program had to defend the charges of altering an image to the Postal Board of Governors. Meanwhile, the artist who rendered the Lombardi art was claiming professional defamation.

Franus, more of a goof than a hothead, saw that the fallout of his protest had gotten out of control. He called the artist to apologize, dropped the protest and the stamp was published in all its artificially gapless glory.

Funny stuff. Anyway, after the interview, I went online to find this website and in my search came across a community of fellow gappers at Love That Diastema! on tribe.net.

I may still be a bit insecure about it, but just not enough to get it fixed.

Always, the Gappa'