"Otolaryngologists strongly discourage people from scraping inside their ears. But knowing better, and doing it anyway, is part of what makes us human." — Vanessa Hua, New York Times
As a happy ear spoon user, I loved reading this article about removing excess wax from your ears with a tiny metal spoon. I received my first ear spoon years ago when I was working for a Fujitsu subsidiary in Colorado and I saw my cubicle mate, who was from Japan, using a bamboo spoon to clean his ears. I told him that looked nice, and the next day he gave me a brand new one. I've been using one ever since. I only use Q-tips to clean non-living things now. I have a set of metal spoons and a high-tech one with a built-in camera that connects to my smartphone.
From Hua's essay:
Decades after I first began cleaning my ears, it still seems vaguely illicit, like smoking cigarettes. Yet it also feels virtuous and productive, akin to what I've experienced at Korean baths, where the ajummas scrub me hard enough to slough off rolls of dead skin. I view the detritus with disgust, fascination and pride: I made that.
