DR. WALLACE: I'm a guy who's a high school athlete. I play varsity baseball and basketball. I have an eight-year-old brother who is beyond fascinated with baseball, particularly major league baseball, and the statistics associated with it.

He has this small 4 x 4 inch spiral notebook that he writes down the statistics in pen every day regarding some of his favorite teams and players and what they did in the particular game. He also has a calculator. I've told him repeatedly that anything he wants to know, he can certainly find on the internet these days. To me, he's wasting his time reading these statistics and then handwriting them in a small spiral notebook.

He watches a lot of MLB games, plus he loves the highlight shows. He knows all the players and doesn't really need to write all the stuff down that he compulsively seems to do every day. How can I get him to snap out of it and learn to use the Internet to better find whatever statistics he's interested in? — Little Brother is MLB Crazy, via email

LITTLE BROTHER IS MLB CRAZY: My advice is not to lecture young brother but instead to let him enjoy his childhood in any manner that he chooses, as long as it is safe and reasonable. The fact that he wants to write down baseball statistics in a small spiral book is a good thing, not something to be corrected. He's working on his penmanship, he's studying mathematics and statistics to calculate those batting averages, on base percentages, slugging percentages and so forth.

There will be plenty of time over the course of his life for him to get fully up to speed on all the Internet offers, and especially what artificial intelligence will afford him in the future. But for now, this is a good activity for him. My direct advice to you would be to praise him for his diligence, ask him to show you his notebook and explain it to you. The fact that you both are huge baseball fans should create a tremendous bonding opportunity between an older and younger brother who love the same sport.

I DON'T WANT THIS FAMILY TO BE BLAMED FOR MY TOOTH!

DR. WALLACE: I have a friend who goes to our school, but she must ride a bus because she lives so far away. Her family lives on a farm on the very outskirts of our town. A week ago, they invited me to have breakfast with them on a Saturday.

The oldest brother drove into town right to my front door and he brought his sister (my best friend) with him. He even let the two of us girls sit in the back and talk and joke with each other while he drove us back out to the farm, kind of like he was an Uber driver!

Anyhow, we had a great breakfast that included corn pancakes, which I found delicious. However, halfway through eating my meal of these pancakes, I bit into a bite that had a hard corn kernel, and I think it damaged a tooth in some way at the back of my mouth on the bottom. I've been hoping that it would go away, but it's actually been getting worse as I can feel pain whenever I try to eat something on that side of my mouth.

I realize I'm going to have to mention something to my parents at some point about the pain, as it's been there for a week now, but I don't want my friend and her farm family to be blamed for this incident. How can I avoid explaining details about the origin of the pain I've been feeling without making my farm friends look bad? — I Experienced a Delicious Toothache, via email

I EXPERIENCED A DELICIOUS TOOTHACHE: You may have an opportunity to be diplomatic and say that you don't know exactly what "time" the soreness may have occurred because you almost certainly didn't look up at a clock the moment it happened to you. Your mind, therefore, was not focused on recording the precise minute it occurred.

The key right now is to focus on bringing your affliction to the attention of your parents, so that you can have it attended to as soon as possible. Unfortunate things happen even during the best of times, and hopefully, your family will focus on getting you the dental care you need, versus worrying further about specifically the moment it occurred, and of course, where or when it happened exactly.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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