I don’t know if I have ever mentioned it here, but one of my favorite past times is cleaning A’s ears. Because A is Asian and has dry ear wax, a Q-tip doesn’t do anything to help him clean his ear wax. I put on his bike headlamp, get an Asian ear stick* and go to town. I tried to find a photo of the stick online but failed. It is a bamboo stick with a smooth curved end and a doll or a feather on the other end.*
Now that you are sufficiently grossed out, you can read more about Asian dry ear wax in this NY Times article . FYI it also mentions another oddity about A, the fact that he has absolutely NO BODY ODOR at all. The lack of smelliness from him never ceases to freak me out.
* There is also a little silver spoon that looks shockingly similar to a coke spoon, but we don’t have one of those. When I was in China, I spend several days wondering about the obvious and rampant cocaine use (they sell the spoons in all the street markets) before I mentioned it to A who set me straight about the ear wax.
I’d love to find those ear sticks! I’m European, but have dry ear wax. No idea how that happened. However, I’m as stinky as any other European! Weird.
That is so interesting…..We’re going to China in a couple weeks to finally meet our daughter, and would be happy to pick up a coke spoon, er, I mean earwax spoon for you if you like….
Yeah, what’s up with the no body odor? My husband doesn’t stink even after working out. It’s kind of freaky.
I totally thought of you when I read that article today. Very interesting.
There was some travel show on TV last night (adventure something or other) They went to a market in Beijing and showed the ear spoon. It was on a chain with a bunch of other stuff…tweezers etc.
But interesting er..um….hobby. Cheers!
I thought they were coke spoons too! I always learn something here
Who the heck funded that research?
I read that article, and I actually didn’t know that there was such a thing. (distinguishing wet vs. dry) Now, it sounds like all of our daughters will have dry ear wax. Learn something everyday.
Um, ew…but interesting.
I think I saw the ear stick in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
what about when he biked across the country and didn’t shower very often? What about then?