10 Things People Discuss That Drive Me to Distraction

1. Shopping
2. Dieting
3. Aging
4. Personal Spiritual Journeys
5. Any personal journey that doesn't actually involve a geographical change in position
6. Sports
7. The Amazing thing that their (below the age of three) child said or did
8. Their illness (if not life-threatening or oddly funny)
9. American Idol
10. Their Collection

10 Things that Interest Me

1. Economics
2. Prisons and Criminals
3. Autistic and differently minded people
4. Movies
5. Cultural perceptions of women and how they behave
6. Cultural perceptions of men and how they behave
7. Outer space
8. Scientists
9. Religious beliefs
10. Scientology

Pondering... QTips

Who doesn't love them. The joy of sticking a Q-Tip in your ear swirling it around. The anticipation of a wad of wax stuck to end. The moment of wondering if everyone else has that much/little wax in their ears.

What goes unsaid about this little sliver of unending happiness, is that it is one of the most dangerous products that is still allowed to but sold (un-regulated) to all people, almost everywhere.

If you read the package, you will see in plain type that you are not to stick this cotton ended opiate into your ear. That is correct. Proper usage of this item is on the outside of your ear. Let's think for a moment about the ridiculousness of that direction. Who, really, needs help cleaning the outside of their ears?

This is a clear case of a nefarious manufacturer, the baby swathed J&J, marketing an addictive product to an unknowing and vulnerable public.

Oh I hear you scoffing. Please, addictive. I have lived with two Q-tip addicts. I have seen the pain and unbearable cycle of addiction first hand. They rub the insides of their ears raw. If they try to cut back, they suffer withdrawal. I've watched as they wait for the day they can get their fix again. Their twitching, the twirling motions they make with their thumb and forefinger. Tragic really.

How is this allowed to go on? Are there payoffs? J&J lobbyists palming the deadly baby-blue packets to politicos? Where is the government, policy groups, consumer advocates when it comes to protecting the public from this menace?

Cleaning their ears, no doubt.