Last night I watched the season finale of “Smallville” and the final episode of “Angel.”

I was really impressed with “Smallville” — particularly the last few minutes, in which they managed to juxtapose at least seven different cliffhangers:

1) What will happen to Clark (naked, ooh) on the other side of the cave wall?
2) Who poisoned Lex and what will happen to him?
3) Will Lionel be executed?
4) Will Lana really get on the plane to Paris? (God, I hope so.)
5) Will Chloe and her father survive the explosion?
6) Will Jonathan survive Jor-El’s attack?
7) What’s that big symbol doing on the ground of the Kent farm?

Also, is Clark’s friendship with Lex really over?

It was neat that the writers managed to bring in Kara, who, in the original Superman mythology, was Supergirl. I was disappointed that she turned out to be human, though. And I loved hearing the opening movement of Mozart’s “Requiem,” one of my favorite pieces of music, during the last few minutes, even if I was distracted by the editing of the music.

As for “Angel” — what a way to go. I wasn’t looking at the clock, so I was utterly floored when the words “Executive Producer: Joss Whedon” suddenly appeared on the screen at the onset of the huge apocalyptic battle. There won’t be a Buffyverse next fall, so we’ll have no idea what happens, unless there’s a Spike spinoff (unlikely) or a TV movie (unlikely) or a comic book series (possibly). If none of those pans out, the surviving characters will be frozen in time, forever on the brink of battle. I liked it — well done.

Poor Wesley; he really didn’t have anything to live for anymore, did he? His character has come so far since he first appeared in the Sunnydale High School library in season 3 of “Buffy.” As for Lorne, I was moved by his elegant, disillusioned “Good night, folks.” And Spike — he unfortunately never had much to do during his one season on “Angel,” which was anticlimactic given his heroic sacrifice at the Hellmouth last spring. But I loved his recitation of the “effulgent” poem. It’s so much fun when Joss winkingly alludes to prior events.

Anyway, just one more finale to go — “Alias” on Sunday (although I have to catch up on the three most recent episodes first) — and then that’s it until the fall. Oh, the vast TV-less wasteland of summer… I guess I’ll finally be able to make some headway on my Netflix list and start tuning into Turner Classic Movies again. My TiVo will not go gently into that good night.

I’m getting my wisdom teeth removed on Saturday.

The right side of my jaw has been hurting for the last three weeks, and I’ve also been getting headaches on the right side of my head. I saw the dentist right before I went to San Diego, and he said they needed to come out.

I’ve heard bad things about wisdom-teeth removal. My brother’s ex-girlfriend’s face got all swollen when she had hers removed, and she was home for a while. My dad didn’t get his out until he was 50, and he was miserable for a few days as well. Matt said that his experience wasn’t so bad. I’m hoping mine isn’t, either.

Coincidentally, while I was in San Diego last week, I read a passage from Cryptonomicon about one character getting his wisdom teeth removed. It turns out (of course) that it’s online (it takes up the first half of that page). It sort of scared the bejeezus out of me (not that I had any bejeezus in me — I’m Jewish). Fortunately, though, my dentist X-rayed my teeth and it doesn’t seem like there’ll be a problem.

I’ll still be happy when it’s over, though.

I’ve finally, finally cancelled my AOL account. From now on, I will access AIM with AOL’s stand-alone client (or, more accurately, with Trillian). My new screen name is Tinmanic73; when I cancelled AOL I had to give up my old name. And for some reason, “tinmanic” by itself was already taken, which is odd, since I invented the damn word. So I just tacked on my birth year. Tinmanic73 it is.

It is so frickin’ hard to cancel AOL. I got DSL in March 2003 (along with a new computer); before that, I used AOL dial-up. But when I tried to cancel AOL last spring, the guy on the other other end of the line told me that they have an AOL-via-Broadband package at a lower price; if you have broadband Internet access, you can still use AOL’s features at the lower price. I figured it would be nice to have an extra e-mail account and keep my screen name. Plus, the irrational side of me wanted an Internet backup in case something happened to the DSL. But most importantly, the guy on the phone offered me two free months of AOL. Figuring there’d be nothing wrong with getting something for free that I didn’t really need, I accepted (plus I wouldn’t have to get a new screen name). Two months later, I forgot about it, and they began charging me again. So I called back and got another two free months. This happened several times, and now here it is, May 2004, and I’ve still got AOL. It came in handy last week when I was in San Diego, but I’ve finally decided to get rid of this stupid AOLbatross.

So I called up today, and I must have had to tell the guy four or five times that no thank you, I really appreciate the keywords you want to send me that could show me some great stuff, but I’d really just like to cancel.

I was beginning to worry that AOL cancellation was really a myth and that they actually didn’t have a cancellation process and that I’d get stuck in AOL-purgatory or they’d threaten to kill my first-born if I didn’t keep my service or something.

But no. I managed to hold my ground and make it to the end of the obstacle course. At the end of my current billing cycle, my AOL service will end and my billing will automatically stop and I’ll finally be AOL-free. This was according to a legal statement that I had to listen to.

It’s always nice to get rid of clutter. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything — even cancel your AOL service. Hallelujah.