# Fun with store clerks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055 "2016-12-06T21:37:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/21 "2016-12-07T19:32:51Z")
The hardware would have Drano but I wouldn’t recommend using it for ear wax ! LOL! I have this stuff happen to me a lot being HOH . I once asked where the flashlights where at grocery store and the guy was telling me where the frozen fish was! :smack: I have HOH accent so people misunderstand me a lot . ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/22 "2016-12-07T19:35:29Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > Thanks for the science, but isn’t the intention that you use the emptied body of the pen? Not the cap? I was thinking about whether you could breath if you accidentally got the cap stuck in your windpipe. Agreed that the whole tube in a tracheotomy won’t be hard to breath through (at least going by size of the air tube). ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/23 "2016-12-07T20:07:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I have a periodic problem with ear wax buildup, probably from all the loud music and construction noise over my lifetime. Just how would loud music and construction noise cause earwax buildup? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/24 "2016-12-07T20:32:51Z")
[QUOTE=gnoitall;19836070Sticking something into your ear rotating at least 5,000 RPM will make your ear canal smoke. [/QUOTE] Which leads to addiction and then one has to use nicotine gum, which is more difficult to remove from an ear than wax. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/25 "2016-12-07T20:43:25Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Just how would loud music and construction noise cause earwax buildup? :dubious: My doctor told me that one of the causes of excessive ear wax is a noisy environment. The body produces the wax to protect itself. Also, scroll down [here](http://clearearinc.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-ear-wax-build-up/) for a reference. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/26 "2016-12-07T21:01:25Z")
That’s hilarious **Chefguy**. My latest “interesting” encounter with the girl working drive through at Jack-in-the-box: Me: “… Bacon Cheddar Potato Wedges with extra topping” Her: “Extra what?” Me: “Extra topping” Her: “What?” Me: “TOP-ING!” Her: “I don’t understand” Me: “You know the bacon and cheese that goes on top of the potatoes? I want more of that.” Her: “Oh cool!” (her actual words) ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/27 "2016-12-07T21:17:36Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My doctor told me that one of the causes of excessive ear wax is a noisy environment. The body produces the wax to protect itself. Also, scroll down [here](http://clearearinc.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-ear-wax-build-up/) for a reference. Interesting link, thanks. I didn’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/28 "2016-12-07T23:14:09Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > Not on the subject of earwax, but still on-top WRT having fun with store clerks, whenever I am buying something at a store and I don’t need a bag, my standard response to, “Would you like a bag?” is always, “No, thanks … I’m going to eat/drink it in the parking lot.” > > Doesn’t matter if it is two bottles of motor oil, a gallon of paint, cement crack filler, or rat poison. > > Most of the time, I either get no reaction or “Wha???” > > But sometimes, I get someone who actually heard me, and looks all worried because I just might be serious. Mine is much nerdier and off-putting: Clerk gets done ringing up the purchase: “That’ll be 16.97” (Any number where they don’t say the word “dollars”) Me: “Hm, that was a great year…it was the year I was born.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/29 "2016-12-08T02:11:45Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > That’s hilarious **Chefguy**. > > My latest “interesting” encounter with the girl working drive through at Jack-in-the-box: > > Me: “… Bacon Cheddar Potato Wedges with extra topping” > > Her: “Extra what?” > > Me: “Extra topping” > > Her: “What?” > > Me: “TOP-ING!” > > Her: “I don’t understand” > > Me: “You know the bacon and cheese that goes on top of the potatoes? I want more of that.” > > Her: “Oh cool!” (her actual words) Maybe she thought it was a gay thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/30 "2016-12-09T15:50:51Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, you certainly wouldn’t want to stick a Flat Earth in your ear… And if he’s limber enough to get a Bic cap stuck in his windpipe while using it to clean his ears… um, that’s kinda frightening actually 😃 Of course, Ace does sell power drills… ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055/31 "2016-12-09T15:54:20Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > … > As a point of reference, I was once a guinea pig for an experiment trying to measure the activity of a hypoxic brain. The researchers put me on a ventilator that gave me just enough oxygen to keep me conscious at some clinically relevant level of acute hypoxia. That was… memorable, and a lot worse than the breath-through-a-pen-cap experiment. > … ::::::::::CRINGE::::::::::: As an asthmatic, I’m hyper-aware of my ability to breathe, to the point where I can’t even wear turtleneck sweaters that are remotely snug around the throat. The thought of having my breathing restricted like that is literally the stuff of nightmares to me. I’d have lasted roughly 2 seconds at most. /hijack here, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-store-clerks/774055.md?page=1)