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JOHN MACLEOD: Farewell to Colin the dentist - he scaled and polished with the touch of an Old Master at work...
JOHN MACLEOD: Farewell to Colin the dentist - he scaled and polished with the touch of an Old Master at work...

Daily Mail​

time6 days ago

  • Health
  • Daily Mail​

JOHN MACLEOD: Farewell to Colin the dentist - he scaled and polished with the touch of an Old Master at work...

The other day, after the latest importunate and texted reminder, I dropped by my Stornoway dental surgery to book the annual appointment for smile-maintenance. 'And I'd like it to be with Colin Robertson,' I declared. The receptionists stared, their mouths perfect little os of horror. 'But Colin's retired…' 'Yes – he retired last year.' 'Retired?' I gargled, in an inadvertent impersonation of Lady Bracknell. 'Yes. He's retired.' To grasp the enormity of this, you need to know that Colin Robertson had near-uninterrupted charge of my gnashers, in four different surgeries in two different communities, for over thirty years. Pert and funny, a son of East Kilbride, I have grown grey under the Robertson probings. He is oddly ageless. I glimpse him in the Co-op from time to time and, still pink and dark, he still looks good for the Fifth Year disco. It would be stretching it to say I know Colin well. Given the nature of dental appointments, conversations tend to be a trifle one-sided. And with that oddly distorted vision when your head is horizontal and said BDS has at your molars with some implement or other that always seems the size of a bicycle pump. But, now that his hands are forever out of the saliva, I can attest that he was an extraordinarily good dentist, from our many encounters over the decades in Harris and Stornoway. From the get-go, he was grand with the compliments – 'John, your teeth are good, and you look after them.' Colin probed and drilled and scaled and polished with the touch of an Old Master at a great painting. By contrast, when I was briefly abandoned to another dental surgeon, that chap had at my tender gums like some Dad of a Saturday regrouting the bathroom. Colin taught me to brush my teeth properly. On his counsel, I in time invested in an electric toothbrush – he recommended the brand, too – and was much loved in Harris, where he had the run of the school as well as the island, for his jolly spitside manner. 'Now, Duncan,' he once purred to a youthful friend of mine, 'I'm going to tug this out on the count of three…' And yanked, in a painless instant, at two. 'Quite a few appointments cancelled the day,' Colin once intoned, as I stared back – supine – and oozed such witticisms as 'Gah.' Colin winked. 'Probably because Marathon Man was on Grampian last night…' For those unfamiliar with Seventies cinema, Marathon Man stars Laurence Olivier, no less, as Dr Szell, an ageing, vicious Nazi dentist who has longly at a pinioned Dustin Hoffman's unanaesthetised teeth with his drill 'until you tell me it is safe…' 'Wah-gah,' I bubbled sagely. 'Is it safe?' thereafter became our running gag for some years. I particularly warmed to Colin because, like most of my generation, childhood memories of dental treatment are less than optimal. In 2003, exploring the haunts of my Lochaber infancy, I was ambling down Fort William's High Street when I glanced sideways and beheld an open door with a flight of stairs ascending immediately. Triggered? I actually sprang backwards, in instant and irrational terror, and drew breath, and took stock, and saw the brass plate intoning this to be a dental surgery. In 1969 – it must have been that early, for I was still in tights – I was borne here, held down by pitiless arms, gassed unconscious, and came to in the family Morris Minor howling my head off and spitting blood all over those tights. Which were light brown, I remember. 'They wouldn't even let us hang about afterwards for a few minutes so I could calm you down,' my father would recall darkly. Our dentist in Glasgow, a chilly man who did not like children, was little better. He didn't believe in a time-consuming, numbing injection for trivial things like a new filling and, when I once anxiously inquired what he was actually packing into the latest bored cavity, said coldly, 'A piece of potato.' I am ashamed to say how long, and for years thereafter, I believed him. But, thanks to good genetics and lifelong application of fluoride toothpaste – to say nothing of growing up in an era when most Scottish parents confined treats like crisps, sweets and fizz firmly to Fridays – I reached my late thirties with all my own teeth. And just two fillings that required periodic renewal, till Colin neatly permanented one with a rather splendid job in gold. Just once, after calm adult discussion, he replaced the other without anaesthesia, explaining that if I chose this as a hill to die on it would have to be a palatal injection, protracted and unpleasant. I trusted him, and just as we neared Dustin Hoffman territory the drilling ceased and was complete. Colin's counsel on toothpaste was simple. Buy one you like the taste of; then you will brush more often. He had no time for Corsodyl toothpaste and told me bluntly nine years back to stop using it. From 2015 he encouraged me to use little interdental brushes, as I never took to flossing, and to vast improvement for my gum health; I buy those packets of pink DenTek ones at Boots. And in 2004 we dolefully agreed that two of my ivory castles had to go. They were rear, impacted wisdom teeth, almost impossible to clean and which were beginning to cause problems. It was a bit dramatic – I swear Colin had to brace himself with a foot against the chair, as I stared at the ceiling and thought of the Empire – but out they were duly whipped, and any discomfort had ceased by the morrow. I am probably an ideal dental patient because, as the son of a Free Church manse, I was schooled from an early age to sit calmly and still. It wasn't just that we had to attend two Sabbath services a week – and my father rarely brought a sermon back to the runway within forty-five minutes – but we sat in a conspicuous manse-pew, side-on to the assembled faithful and the cynosure of all eyes. Even now, I still bump into folk who affectionately recall the 'three little heads' in Partick Highland. And I can still give the impression of listening with rapt attention when, really, I amn't. We are all much more dentally conscious these days. When you recall public figures of the Seventies – Denis Healey springs immediately to mind – it is surprising how many had awful teeth. Alert to detail and conscious of image, as always, Margaret Thatcher used to have a distinctive gap in her upper fangs. But, by the 1983 election, it had been discreetly disappeared. Though I have always drawn the line at professional whitening, having no desire to go around leering like Liberace. I hope Colin Robertson enjoys his retirement – this is actually his third attempt – and, no doubt, it will involve a lot of golf. Meanwhile, I am booked in for the services of his faceless successor on 21 August. But if he looks remotely like Dr Szell, I shall turn on my heels and flee.

Mortgage Rate Predictions for Week of June 16-22: Will a Fed Meeting Help Rates Fall?
Mortgage Rate Predictions for Week of June 16-22: Will a Fed Meeting Help Rates Fall?

CNET

time16-06-2025

  • Business
  • CNET

Mortgage Rate Predictions for Week of June 16-22: Will a Fed Meeting Help Rates Fall?

As the Federal Reserve likely holds interest rates steady, mortgage rates are expected to stay in a narrow range. Tharon Green/CNET With each passing day, it seems like average 30-year mortgage rates could remain stuck near 6.8% for the rest of the year. Yet conflicting economic forces could push mortgage rates up or down in the coming months. Housing market experts say the same thing: The direction of mortgage rates depends on the economic impact of policies by the Trump administration and the projected pace of the interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, the Fed plans to keep borrowing rates the same at its fourth monetary policy meeting this year. Given ongoing political and economic uncertainty, markets don't expect any interest rate cuts until September. "While two Fed rate cuts are still projected for 2025, they continue to get pushed back due to the global trade war," according to Colin Robertson, founder of The Truth About Mortgage. "Ultimately, economic data related to inflation and employment is what matters to the Fed (and bond traders)." Mortgage rates are linked to 10-year Treasury yields in the bond market, and they are also sensitive to other factors such as investor sentiment. "Concerns remain about higher inflation and federal debt, which would drive both the bond yields and the mortgage rates higher," said Selma Hepp, deputy chief economist for Cotality. Overall, Hepp noted that mortgage rates are unlikely to move outside the narrow range of 6.5% to 7% unless there's an economic downturn or a spike in joblessness. Homebuyers waiting for mortgage rates to fall for the past few years are adjusting to the "higher for longer" rate environment. Costly borrowing rates are just one stressor prospective buyers face in a housing market plagued by high home prices and low inventory. Here are some possible scenarios affecting if mortgage rates move up or down over the next period. CNET Interest rate cuts could help mortgage rates fall While the central bank does not set mortgage rates directly, its policy decisions indirectly influence consumer borrowing rates, like mortgage rates, over the long term. After inflation showed signs of slowing in late 2024, the Fed cut interest rates three times but shifted to a wait-and-see approach this year. Despite market volatility, the central bank has held rates steady, a stance it is set to uphold at its next Federal Open Market Committee meeting on June 17 to 18. The complex economic landscape presents a challenge for the Fed, which is tasked with maximizing employment and containing inflation. The latest inflation report for May came in softer than anticipated, making the Fed more likely to resume cutting interest rates in the fall. If joblessness climbs due to a recent wave of layoffs, the central bank could cut even sooner to avert a recession, putting downward pressure on Treasury bond yields and mortgage rates. Tariffs could keep mortgage rates elevated "Mortgage rates appear mostly stuck until there's more clarity on tariff impact," Robertson said. For bond yields (and mortgage rates) to fall, or at least stabilize, there needs to be greater clarity on geopolitical relations, the global supply chain and government debt. Trump's tendency to flip-flop on trade policies could spotlight instability for a while. "The impact of tariffs is uncertain, depending on their ultimate impact on inflation and economic activity," Hepp said. "Slowing of economic activity would bring rates lower, while higher inflation would keep rates higher." Inflation is still expected to rise as domestic companies pass expensive duties onto consumers through higher retail prices. If inflation ends up increasing due to Trump's sweeping tariffs, the Fed may have to delay rate cuts until 2026. Bond yields could cause disarray in the market Treasury yields are directly linked to mortgage rates. When bond yields rise, so do borrowing costs on home loans. Fewer interest rate cuts combined with the Trump administration's budget bill, which is expected to significantly raise federal deficits, are likely to keep upward pressure on longer-term bond yields. What we're seeing now is somewhat of an anomaly. Normally, during times of economic uncertainty or turbulence in the stock market, investors flock to the safety of Treasury bonds, causing yields to drop as demand for these lower-risk assets rises. Ongoing concerns about inflation, unemployment and government debt levels have kept Treasury yields volatile and elevated, pointing to declining investor confidence writ large in the economy. A recession could drive mortgage rates lower For mortgage rates to drop significantly, the overall economic picture would have to get a lot bleaker. "Concerns about a recession, driven by rising unemployment or a decline in consumer spending and demand for loans, would drive mortgage rates down," said Hepp. However, if cheaper mortgage rates come as a result of an economic downturn, with households facing job losses, tighter budgets and financial instability, it could also keep homebuyers locked out. Though a recession is not a foregone conclusion, the risk remains elevated. Unemployment is on the rise, consumer sentiment has soured, and economic growth declined in the first quarter of 2025. So the prospect of a slowdown or even stagflation, an economic downturn marked by high inflation, is still in the cards for now. What to know about the housing market now In this unaffordable housing market, costly interest rates have contributed to keeping inventory tight, as homeowners hang onto their cheaper below 5% mortgage rates they scored just a few years ago. While prospective buyers have multiple reasons to wait for the market to shift, homeownership offers the promise of long-term financial stability and generational wealth-building through equity. "Despite higher rates and home prices, homebuyers are finally finding themselves in a position of greater power as inventories continue to grow and sellers are finally ready to make a move," Hepp said. Remember that each lender offers different mortgage rates and terms. Comparing offers from multiple lenders can help you negotiate a better deal. You can also take steps to improve your credit score or buy mortgage points to secure a lower rate. If you can't snag a cheaper rate but are ready to buy, you can always refinance down the road. Experts recommend making a budget and sticking to it. Creating a realistic financial plan can help you decide if you can handle the costs of homeownership and provide you with some estimates for how large your mortgage limit is. Watch this: 6 Ways to Reduce Your Mortgage Interest Rate by 1% or More 02:31

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