Re: Sniffle, whine

1

I just took a shower, thinking the steam could loosen things up. But no. Also I had some Theraflu Nighttime, which didn't help either.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-10-11 10:50 PM
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I had the same problem for a couple of years right around Christmas; turned out to be an ear infection. At one point I thought I was going deaf. The relief when the anti-biotics kicked in was immense.



Posted by: Martin Wisse | Link to this comment | 01-10-11 11:15 PM
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Try some ibuprofen to bring down the inflammation a bit?


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 3:57 AM
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I have permanently clogged ears these days, probably due to wax on the eardrum. I've been meaning to go get them syringed but I can't be arsed.

For a while as a teenager I had a terrible time during plane landings. I'd be in absolute agony until they finally popped.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:20 AM
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I've been meaning to go get them syringed but I can't be arsed.

When/if you do, get an appointment when you haven't got to drive or do anything important for an hour or so afterwards. It's a completely painless process, but it leaves you feeling mildly sick and tending to fall over while your inner ear adjusts your balance to the new data.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:25 AM
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I suffer from sinus problems that can sometimes cause terrible pain when flying, but it usually passes quite quickly. Last year, though, I had an infected root in one of my teeth when I flew. Easily the worst pain ever.

I've heard that syringing can sometimes lead to more problems than it's worth, but always wondered if my hearing would magically improve.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:40 AM
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4: I suspect that syringing your ears wouldn't do very much for a blocked ear, because syringing would only clear out wax in the outer ear, and the problem with a blocked ear is (pardon the term) gunge in the middle ear. Syringing wouldn't touch that because your eardrum's in the way.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:46 AM
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It might well improve your hearing, mind you.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:46 AM
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5: I've had it done once before. Can't say I felt particularly woozy afterward, and it wasn't completely painless. But much less painful than the earache I was getting from the wax buildup.

6.2 Indeed. That's one reason I haven't done it again (the last - and first - time was about three years ago). My hearing certainly improved, at least after a day or so. But the main reason I did it was to get rid of the pain.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 4:48 AM
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This happens to me. And I was once insane enough to get on an airplane with clogged ears. Luckily it was a short flight (LA to SF) and resulted ultimately in little more than an hour of stabbing, shrieking pain and about 2 days of deafness. BUT! In order to avoid a repeat performance on my flight back to Chicago, I asked a pharmacist what to do for clogged ears, and his answer was generous lashings of Sudafed (make sure you get the real, sign-the-book kind) and Afrin nasal spray both. It seems to work.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:20 AM
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My nose/sinuses/ears have been clogged since early November. Everyday, the routine is the same (***warning: TMI to follow***): (1) blow my nose thoroughly, wait five minutes while everything shifts around, and then blow again; (2) once the nose is relatively clear, neti pot with warm salt water; (3) blow nose repeatedly and feel dizzy as everything shifts around and drains for the next hour.

It's bearably annoying, and I don't have the ear-popping thing. But I can't remember a time where I was this congested this consistently for this long.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:29 AM
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Good morning! Still clogged.

We do have Afrin around here somewhere; I forgot about that magical stuff. Sudafed makes the rest of me feel really off and horrible. On the other hand, I don't have any flights coming up.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:29 AM
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Not even a flight of fancy?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:31 AM
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Oooh! Oooh! This is called a snot-sucker, and you use it on babies, and it works a hundred times better than the traditional bulb-suckers. It's really fun to see how much you get out of their little noses.

It seems gross, because there's a tube going from baby's nose to your mouth, and you generate the sucking by sucking. But there's a little cigarette filter, and you can see perfectly well that the snot stays put at baby's end. It's actually totes awesome.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:32 AM
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Everything I do is fancy, Stanley.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:32 AM
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I had my ear washed a few months ago. It was gross, but I didn't experience any wooziness. Probably depends a lot on the specific shape of your ear canal.

I seem to recall that several people I knew growing up had little tubes in their ears to help with frequent ear infections. Do they still do that to kids?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:17 AM
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They do. Our friends' kid had it done recently.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:19 AM
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11: it's possible that flooding your nose with salt water every day may not be helping.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:21 AM
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What you need is an ultrasonic noise generator that's been miniaturized, so you can just leave it in your sinus cavity. No, I'm just kidding. Take a slightly dull pencil, stick it as far as you can up your nose, and kind of wiggle it around, you know


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:25 AM
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I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than clogged ears on one side of me.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:27 AM
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They do

What about in civilized nations?


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:30 AM
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18: How could something that feels so right be wrong?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:30 AM
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I've had the hideous flying pain thing, too, and still get a little anxious about landing as a result. A cocktail of Benadryl, Sudafed, and ibuprofen has proved reliable -- taken just as I l the cabin pressure shift for the initial descent. PPA and ibuprofen was even better, but then they went and took PPA off the market.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:50 AM
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A flight after taking pseudoephedrine sounds like my hell, as it makes me twitchy and restless.
A week or so ago I woke up with an ear completely clogged with wax. I used a squeeze bulb and some warm water, and I cannot describe the relief I felt when I flushed out an enormous wad of five dollar bills.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:50 AM
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I got a temporary tube a few years ago because they couldn't figure out why there was so much pain and resultant hearing impairment. It wasn't horribly painful, but wasn't a great time either and didn't fix me as well as they'd hoped, so they pulled it out again.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:56 AM
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Did you hear about the Londoner who heard constant popping while riding the Metro in Washington, DC? He later explained that there had been a problem in the U Station Tube.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:02 AM
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22: it's not meant to feel right. On the veldt, if you enjoyed the sensation of having your nose fill with water, you drowned.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:04 AM
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Yeah, I tried the netti pot thing for a week or two as I have minor but annoying sinus troubles. Gave me horrific headaches and really didn't seem to be helping the problem, so I stopped. Ajay may have a point.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:07 AM
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The neti pot didn't work all that well for me at first (and I got the blinding headaches you're talking about), but eventually it cleared everything out and I'm much happier now. I love that thing.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:12 AM
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26: What is wrong with you?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:14 AM
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Just have a decent curry. Cleans out the sinuses just as well, and tastes great!


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:14 AM
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In my experience, so far, nothing works. Spicy food, nasal inhalers, pseudoephedrine, anti-histamines. Lots of those things help a bit, but not really solve the problem. My mum ended up getting sinus surgery for something similar but more annoying than I have, but I've been avoiding going to the doctor and just living with it.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:22 AM
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On the ear irrigation, if the water is not close to body temperature it is more likely to lead to dizziness. I've had a few and the coldest one did leave me a bit nauseous.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:26 AM
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32: Do them all at once.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:33 AM
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nauseousnauseated


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:38 AM
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re: 34

I have.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:41 AM
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OMG it just popped. Most of the way, at least. Still a little difference.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:43 AM
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36: mix it up; cook with pseudoephedrine and put chili powder into the inhaler.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:51 AM
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My husband uses the neti pot and it generally works well, but his deviated septum seems to keep some of the water inside the sinus cavity such that he'll bend over and a tablespoon of water leaks out.


Posted by: LizSpigot | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:51 AM
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Already building back up again. Damn.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:52 AM
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39: that is epically disgusting. Thanks for sharing.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:53 AM
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41: Some people like nosflow. Just sayin'.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:55 AM
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35:
1) It's an interesting example of the way in which the language can change within a generation or so. It can only be annoying (nauseating, even) for somebody who has painfully learned a distinction between words to find that usage has changed and their knowledge is out of date.

2) Maybe it caused me to break out in large running sores which exuded a horrible smell.

3) WMYBSALB


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:56 AM
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42: Even on their blogs.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 9:57 AM
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This is called a snot-sucker, and you use it on babies, and it works a hundred times better than the traditional bulb-suckers.

Previously.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:01 AM
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I have a secret and awful curiosity about ear candling, of which I am appropriately ashamed.

I knew someone in college who said her doctor gave her baby laxative to put in her ears? Because of the ear wax build up? And then it would just...drain out? I must be remembering this wrong.

But I am now very conscious of my own annoyingly clogged ears. Faaaaaantastic.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:20 AM
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I knew someone in college who said her doctor gave her baby laxative to put in her ears? Because of the ear wax build up?

When I was a kid the traditional remedy was hot olive oil, which would probably work similarly (at least on a baby's digestive system, if not your ears).


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:23 AM
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My mom did the hot olive oil on me, with a turkey baster IIRC. The time that I have the most vivid memory of it, my ears popped dramatically after it had a little bit of time to sink in, so it seemed to work.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:26 AM
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Also, since we're grossing each other out:

I used to get ear infections all the time when I was a kid, because I was a swimmer with, I don't know, inferior ears? Anyway, all the time. And I must have blocked out the pain in the manner of women who've had kids and decide to have more, because when I developed an ear infection as an adult, I pretty much lost my shit. Like, involuntary, animal screaming, banging my head against the wall while waiting for the drops they gave me to take effect. And when they did, it was a very sudden kind of draining relief, except -- ready to be grossed out? -- as I was lying on my side to ensure the drops stayed in the affected ear, all the stuff came out of my nose.

Which, upon reflection, seems to indicate a perforated ear drum? I don't know. I do know that the pain was enough to make me hoard those drops for years on the off chance that that ever happened to me again. Actually, thinking about it now, I'm a little anxious that I no longer have them.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:27 AM
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I worked in a nurse's office for a while, and they did a lot of cleaning wax out of people's ears (I don't understand why) and warm oil was what they used. IIRC, it was pour in some warm oil, plug with a cotton ball, sit around for a while, and then irrigate, maybe with more oil or or with salt water or something, I don't remember which.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:28 AM
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46, 47: SQUEEZE BULB! It's glorious. Aside from effectiveness, the additional upside, according to my cat, is that one side of my face was temporarily covered in delicious earwax water.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:28 AM
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Jammies does not engage in long drawn out discussions of ear-popping when my ears are clogged. That is why you guys are satisfying.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:30 AM
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46, 48: It's vital not to try the warm oil and the ear candling simultaneously, because then your head will go up FOOOOM like a Kuwaiti oil well.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:31 AM
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I used to have an upfoom back when Kid 'n Play made them cool.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:34 AM
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Honestly, thinking back on it, if that happened to me while on a plane, they would have had to land the damn thing. I don't know how you people managed to keep it together. I would have been tased. It was really sudden, too; I went from jauntily strolling down the street to "huh, my ear feels weird," to complete insanity in the space of 30 minutes.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:34 AM
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54: Please provide documentation.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:38 AM
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When I was a kid the traditional remedy was hot olive oil, which would probably work similarly (at least on a baby's digestive system, if not your ears).

When I had my ears syringed, they asked me to use olive oil for a week to soften the wax up. I didn't notice any coming out until the actual syringing.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:42 AM
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Well, I noticed olive oil coming out.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:42 AM
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I just can't imagine getting that kind of reaction from earache. Even pretty excruciating tooth pain -- exploding levels of pure nerve pain -- would be something I'd just bear until I could get away somewhere and sob quietly.

OTOH, I had an endoscopy with no sedation last year, and fuck that. Total visceral 'do not fucking want' with a nice layer of 'make this stop or I when I get free I will fucking kill someone'. All that shit about a thin flexible tube is lies. But ... I imagine some people find that doesn't bother 'em, so, horse for courses, etc.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:42 AM
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I just can't imagine getting that kind of reaction from earache

As a kid I had an ear infection that resulted in enough pain to cause me to vomit.


Posted by: CJB | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:51 AM
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I have surfer's ear with about a 50% narrower ear canal than normal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfer's_ear


Posted by: Lemmy Caution | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:52 AM
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49: I had on and off swimmer's ear for years* when I swam. The Wikipedia article on it (Otitis externa), in addition to being graced with an incredibly gross picture, has more information than you'd ever want on ear wax, skin of the ear canals and what can go wrong (in fact I think it must have been written by The Committee to Permanently Convince You to Never Put Anything in Your Ear Smaller Than Your Elbow). Not fun.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:56 AM
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59: I was stuck straight through to my innards with a giant-ass needle once and I almost turned inside out and exploded. But I sort of realized that it wasn't really pain, more like, as you said, a visceral understanding that this feeling* was WRONG AND GROSS.
*I could feel the needle pass through each layer of me. It was so weird and squicky.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:59 AM
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59: Yeah, I recently learned that I apparently get migraines (according to the doctor I was with when I last got one). I periodically get these headaches where I'm sensitive to light and my tummy isn't so happy with me, and I really prefer to just go lie down in a dark room and not have to deal with anything for a little while, but I never called them migraines because my understanding was that migraines were pain of the "if this does not stop I'm going to walk towards the nearest living thing and kill it" variety. And mostly they made me tired, but I wouldn't describe the pain as much more than irritating. (That said, the doctor who was with me at the time seemed to think it was pretty horrible, even though I kept being like, "no no, I'll be fine, I just don't like the light.") I'm still not totally convinced I should classify these as "migraines" because it seems to do a disservice to people who actually get searing head splitting things.

Ears and teeth though...animal, crazy reaction. Like, mythical beast.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:01 AM
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63: Did you see the needle stabbing you? Because I can see that alone as worthy of a freak out.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:05 AM
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Sudafed makes the rest of me feel really off and horrible.

Also, be careful with decongestants in general if you're breastfeeding -- they dry everything up, including milk.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:18 AM
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61: surfer's ear

Ha. Never heard it called that, but I suspect I had a bit of that, as in my 20s I had a small operation* to remove some bony growth in my ear that I recall the doctor had said was common for people who had spent time in cold water. As I was writing 62 what the doctor had called it.

*That evening I went in to work. After some hours sitting in the terminal room (verily dinosaurs still roamed the earth), I felt a warm trickle on my neck, which turned out to be a small stream of blood. I was amused since sitting to that side of me had been a colleague Who was the first real hacker I knew (older scary guy)--just the kind of person not to mention to you that you were bleeding form the ear.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:21 AM
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65: Good god, no. I averted my eyes and dug my fingernails into a pillow thing.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:21 AM
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55: Oh, do they have tasers on planes for subduing people who have gone bonkers? It would sort of reassure me to know that they do, because if I ever get back on an airplane, I feel like there's a 1% chance I would end up running around screaming "Let me off! Let me off!" like Marge on that one episode of The Simpsons, and it's nice to think that someone would be able to knock me unconscious. Um, if that's what a taser even does which suddenly I think it's not. Oh well, back to the train with me.

More on topic, I can still vividly remember the unpleasant brain squish one experienced during ear infections. You could kind of produce it voluntarily, and though it was gross, it was impossible not to occasionaly do it.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:24 AM
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64: Migraine ranges from dull, low-level pain spread out over days to trippy this-would-be-fun-if-it-didn't-hurt consciousness-bending to head-blasting pain that makes you whimper in a darkened room between episodes of vomiting. So call it migraine, and join the party.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:28 AM
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70: Wheeee!

Completely off topic: I just finally watched video of the flooding in Australia, and, seriously, wtf? I'm not making light, I'm finding it fucking frightening. What the hell is going on in Australia. Someone tell me this is within historical parameters and not another sign of impending global ecological collapse, or whatever it is that's going to happen.

I do, however, kind of love how Australians seem to comment in the videos that they manage to take of biblical disaster. There's giggling.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:40 AM
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Oh, do they have tasers on planes for subduing people who have gone bonkers?

They have handcuffs -- my mother not all that infrequently (every year or two, probably not ever twice in the same year) would have to request the co-pilot's assistance in putting an unruly passenger in restraints. So think before you have that seventh martini.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:40 AM
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The most painful pain that ever pained me was a spinal tap. Holy shit, did that pain go up to eleven.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:46 AM
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do they have tasers on planes for subduing people who have gone bonkers?
They have handcuffs

These days they also have paranoid passengers, who have, on at least one occasion I believe, in a mass pile-on, squished to death or near-death a fellow who was flipping out.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:47 AM
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Stanley is kind of adorable. I expect I am not the first person to notice this? Carry on.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:51 AM
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I require complete sedation for any medical procedure more involved than an annual checkup. If they won't sedate me, I won't have the procedure done.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:51 AM
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I suppose I could also have addressed that directly to Stanley and that would have been...less weird.

Stanley. You are adorable.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 11:51 AM
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78

Stanley has a long-sleeved sweater with horses on the front, some gum, and a lighter, and a knife.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:03 PM
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77: Thanks, donaq. You're too kind.

78: That is a factually accurate statement, although none of those is currently in my possession except some gum.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:13 PM
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Oh, great, just when it seemed we could cure Stanley of his addiction, along comes an enabler.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:14 PM
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24: A flight after taking pseudoephedrine sounds like my hell, as it makes me twitchy and restless.

I'm always confused when people say this. Are you sure you're taking enough? 180 milligrams of Sudafed is pretty much guaranteed to put me to sleep within an hour. I always take it before flights, not just because it helps my ears/sinuses, but because I usually can't sleep on a flight otherwise.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:19 PM
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81: Think you mean Benadryl there, Natilo. Unless you have some kind of highly personal paradoxical reaction*, Sudafed is a stimulant.

*I know folks for whom Benadryl is a stimulant.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:22 PM
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79: Do you have a new deck of cards with girls on the back?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:25 PM
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Does anyone understand what nosflow is on about?


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:30 PM
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delicious earwax water

Seriously, what is up with cats and earwax?

On the pain front, I had chronic teeth pain a year ago that was wretched. I'd just want to curl up and cry and wish for death. For months. It was the sort that would make you whimper when you're alone, but that you could bear with company.

But I think the worst reaction to pain I've ever had was with a kidney infection. I'd throw up when I stood up. It took me awhile to figure out the connection.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:32 PM
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I'm sure some people do. See also.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:32 PM
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82: Nope, Benadryl puts me to sleep too, but Sudafed has knocked me out as long as I've been taking it (since elementary school). Also, I meant 120 not 180. 180 is a really heroic dose.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:37 PM
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Sudafed makes me go bat-shit crazy. That is all.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:37 PM
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re: 76

I'm fairly stoic about that sort of shit. I told the story recently of having my throat surgery re-opened, with no anaesthetic, and while that was a bit odd it didn't totally squick me out. I've had minor dental stuff done with no anaesthetic, etc. I think I've a reasonably high threshold for acute pain.* But the endoscopy** was something I'd absolutely refuse again without anaesthesia. Definitely. They were holding me down during it while I retched and couldn't breathe.

* On the other hand, I whine like a baby about chronic niggles, back and hip pain from sport, that sort of thing.

** not the little tube they use to look inside your throat/larynx/neck, which is a piece of piss and I'd do again any time.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:43 PM
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For months. It was the sort that would make you whimper when you're alone, but that you could bear with company.

That sounds terrible and exhausting.

Chronic pain is tiring (I originally wrote, "draining" but changed that considering the topic of the thread).


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:45 PM
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Stanley's like a barrel of pun.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:52 PM
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I never called them migraines because my understanding was that migraines were pain of the "if this does not stop I'm going to walk towards the nearest living thing and kill it" variety.

Oh, I guess those are too migraines. Consider me on the bandwagon then. Hooray?


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:52 PM
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90: It was really sucky. I used to think I had a really high pain tolerance but that experience made me think that perhaps that was not so much the case. (I've been fortunate to not have to experience a lot of pain in my life, but I've had cavities filled without anesthetic without it being too bad.)

And oh hey, I recently discovered that I get migraines too, in exactly the same fashion as donaquixote. (Ok, minus the intervention of my doctor, plus the intervention of a friend and fellow sufferer.)


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 12:55 PM
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Huh. I've been getting weird headaches recently that are intense, and combined with mild nausea, that sound a lot like what DQ and paren gets. Maybe they're migranes.

I have a hard time thinking of them as migranes, though, because my Dad gets hardcore migranes all the time, where he spaces out and starts to see auras and needs total darkness to avoid horrible pain. My headaches are nothing like that.

In any event, I've been avoiding seeing a doctor for years and don't plan on starting now, so I'll rely on your diagnoses.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:00 PM
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I've been avoiding seeing a doctor for years and don't plan on starting now

Ah yes, the Warren Zevon plan. Also mine.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:03 PM
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Hey, nosflow, I keep meaning to tell you how much Mara's into piling things on top of things, though it's swaddling things in things that is her true love.

I've had migraines where I could hear things going on multiple floors away within the house. I feel so very fortunate I've mostly outgrown them, though I wonder how much my intense teen depression was linked to my daily migraines at that age.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:04 PM
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I wonder how much my intense teen depression was linked to my daily migraines at that age

Jesus Christ, daily migraines*? I'd guess at least a little. Going back to the ear experience, which turned me briefly feral: if I experienced that kind of random smiting pain on a daily basis, I would at the very least be under the impression that God was annoyed, that life was unfair, and that I'd gotten screwed. If I was also a teenager, I'd see NO HOPE.

Painwise, sound doesn't seem to bother me. Maybe because I have very little auditory memory? I dunno. But I definitely would use it as a distraction so I'd have something else to do besides think about how uncomfortable I was. I imagine these headaches would be even less fun if I wasn't able to do that.

*Of the sort other people seem to get, not so much mine.


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:27 PM
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93: I'm more upset about having my teeth drilled than any other kind of pain. And it's not even pain so much as a nails on a chalkboard feeling. As a result, I've stopped going to the dentist. But now I floss so I'm fine...right?


Posted by: LizSpigot | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:33 PM
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98: Is it safe?


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 1:38 PM
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To clean your ears, mix a half a capful hydrogen peroxide with warm water (say, during the shower). Tilt your head to the side and pour in the dilution. Remain in that position for one minute listening to the wax dissolve, then stand aright to let the gloop drain. Rinse and repeat with other ear. Works much better than Q-tips, which just push it in further.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 2:02 PM
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Sudafed makes me go bat-shit crazy.

I was recently taking full doses for a terrible head cold, and boy does it ever. About two hours after taking it, I'd just be sitting there thinking I'm so high. I'm so high. I can't believe this is legal.

Half doses, on the other hand, are awesome. I will occasionally take them for a not-quite-hangover-- that kind where you don't exactly feel sick, but do experience a sort of low-level malaise. About half an hour later you've suddenly gone from 'ugh, I don't really feel like doing anything' to 'I'M VACUUMING THE WHOLE HOUSE! AND NEXT I'M GOING TO CLEAN THE KITCHEN! ANYONE WANNA GO FOR A LITTLE RUN?!'


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 2:12 PM
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I will occasionally take them for a not-quite-hangover

I do this very thing! It doesn't make me quite so productive as you, but then I am starting from a much lower wrung on the ladder.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 2:21 PM
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101: s/b "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!"

I think it's weird that Sudafed has such a strong effect, but not as weird as it putting Natilo to sleep. It never did much of anything to me except, to some extent, its decongesty job.

Benadryl, on the other hand, used to make me angry and argumentative and just plain mean, when I was a kid. I haven't taken it much for years. It would put me to sleep after a while, but in the interval before I was totally knocked out I was a jerk.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 2:35 PM
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Dona: Australia is quite extreme in general. I used to work near a river that was one of the biggest in the world by flow-rate...in the wet. In the dry you could walk across without getting wet.

But that wasn't where this is happening. However, essentially anywhere there's a river in the bush is likely to flood occasionally. While I lived there, Queensland went from "the six years' drought" to "the best grazing season in living memory" in a couple of weeks.

It's going to be more than interesting when this lot drains down the Murray-Darling rivers towards Adelaide, and down the outback creeks that go to Lake Eyre. As in, vast spaces of the desert get their one-in-a-hundred bloom year, and Cessnas washed away in Toowoomba turn up 1,000 miles downriver.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 3:22 PM
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Sudafed messes me up, but it didn't really feel like much of a stimulant, except that I was upright when I might not have been otherwise. Benadryl's antihistamine effect works, but not the knockout part, which has been annoying and surprising and occasion ("Oh, yeah, I was supposed to get tired and go to bed... two hours ago.")

Damn, even when I do take drugs I feel like I'm missing out.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 5:55 PM
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104: This video was apparently shot in Toowoomba.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 6:47 PM
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To clean your ears, mix a half a capful hydrogen peroxide with warm water (say, during the shower). Tilt your head to the side and pour in the dilution.

What dilution?


Posted by: Cryptc nec | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:05 PM
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The hydrogen peroxide that you have diluted with warm shower water.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:42 PM
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In what ratio?


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:47 PM
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One shower per person.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:48 PM
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per week.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:53 PM
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No hippies need apply.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 7:57 PM
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Anyway, I used to get swimmers ear* and I found it would stay away if I used a Q-Tip to put a bit of rubbing alcohol in them after I got out of the pool or shower or whatever.

*I was a very slow swimmer, so the germs could catch me.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:03 PM
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Half a cap hydrogen peroxide, half a cap warm water.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:06 PM
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That would exactly fill the cap. Neat.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:10 PM
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The shower cap?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:14 PM
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Shower cap and trade brings the power of the market to water conservation.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:22 PM
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So does an $80 dollar water bill. The EPA said we put too much untreated shit in the river and need new storm sewers and a case of Pine-Sol.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:25 PM
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117: Classic shower/grower wedge issue.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:35 PM
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I think the fancy ear-cleaning drops you can get at the drug store are either 5% hydrogen peroxide solution or maybe .5%. Either way. It's not going to eat through your eardrum. The fizzing noise is normal.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:41 PM
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The fizzing noise is constant, if you keep putting Alka Seltzer in your fish tank.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 8:46 PM
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hey, I have migraines too, then! I have one right now! boy, I sure wish I were lying down somewhere dark instead of in this speeding taxi on the highway, in horrifying actinic equatorial sun glare, reading my iphone. because reading in moving cars makes me nauseated. and the alan parsons project is on the radio. I feel like someone put a silver net of agony on my scalp with tiny rods connecting the front of my eye socket with the base of my skull. it's too bad tramadol doesn't work better.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-11-11 10:25 PM
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it's nice to think that someone would be able to knock me unconscious. Um, if that's what a taser even does which suddenly I think it's not.

You feel every second of it, and it's pretty bad. Youtube will give you an idea of what your screams will sound like to everyone else.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:39 AM
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The fizzing noise is normal if you normally pour corrosive oxidising agents into your ears.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 2:19 AM
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I lay down in the office with a cold can of soda on the back of my neck and took a shit ton more painkillers, so I was able to work, and now I feel merely awful.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 3:29 AM
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My conclusion from this thread is that Americans are way too ready to pour weird substances into holes in their heads.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 3:43 AM
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re: 126

Heh. Lots of random self-medication, too. Not that I can really talk, tbh, although I suppose by my self-medication tends to take the form of over-the-counter products being used for the purpose for which they are marketed.

re: 118

$80 for how long? A week? Month? Year?


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 4:26 AM
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127: A month.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:03 AM
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re 118/127
yeah, how long? I paid a combined water/trash/power bill for over $1000 last month, first time we cracked into 4 figures, because my whole family is here doing laundry and swimming in the pool.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:04 AM
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$80 a month doesn't seem high. We paid about the same in Oxford. That was a fixed monthly fee, not a metered bill.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:06 AM
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I'm used to water bills being too low to have to budget for. The trash doesn't send a bill (taxes) and the power bill isn't bad this time of year, unless you count natural gas as power.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:10 AM
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this is getting up to like a fifth of my rent. gas is nothing, trash not so bad, but narnia is ass-raping me on water and electricity. I use the air-conditioning as little as I can, and the house is well suited to the climate, but that shit has to be on sometimes. everyone thinks it's ridiculous that LKY named air-con as the technological advancement that added most to productivity and quality of life in the 20th century, but if you've ever tried to write a paper when it's 95 and 95% humidity you'll see the man has a point.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:23 AM
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Water is just folded into rates here (in cities, rural water's different & fucked up). The idea of paying for water is a complete no-go area here.


Posted by: Keir | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:27 AM
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132: I couldn't even take North Carolina without AC.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:31 AM
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re: 133

It varies here. In Oxford it was a separate charge [but fixed rate], where we live in London I think it's bundled in with the local tax.*

* but might be wrong as we live in a managed building so some of the building costs are bundled into our rent.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:32 AM
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Holy shit. You pay a lot of rent, even if that's in Narnian dollars. Is that a normal-priced rent, or what? How much do all the migrant workers pay; are they housed in barracks or something?

The importance of AC is indeed huge, especially in a place like Narnia. It's a bit more complicated with the US, since there are some places that don't get so hot & humid in the summer--I worked one summer for an economist who did some work on this. People care more about location-dependent quality-of-life, including weather, than they once did, which, I guess is pretty obvious since the USA is much richer than 50 years ago.

Do businesspeople wear full suits in Narnia?


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 5:34 AM
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How much do all the migrant workers pay;

Whatever they are ordered to pay. Their passport is in the safe.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:13 AM
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How much do all the migrant workers pay; are they housed in barracks or something?

Domestic servants live with their employers; there's normally a very, very small "maid's room" included in the flat.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:24 AM
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Do businesspeople wear full suits in Narnia?

They used to. There are lots of old photos of Brits in Narnia walking around in three-piece suits. Yes, presumably cotton drill or linen rather than wool, but even so.

It's such a surprise for the Eastern eyes to see,
That though the British are effete,
they're quite impervious to heat...


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:27 AM
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I use the air-conditioning as little as I can, and the house is well suited to the climate, but that shit has to be on sometimes. everyone thinks it's ridiculous that LKY named air-con as the technological advancement that added most to productivity and quality of life in the 20th century,

I don't think that's a ridiculous claim. I also don't think it's a ridiculous proposition that it will be the technological advancement that detracts most from quality of life in the 21st century. The energy (and hence carbon) footprint of developing countries is going to explode as air con becomes more prevalent there. Already in places like Saudi AC accounts for the vast majority of residential energy consumption.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:32 AM
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139: That though the British are effete,

The French, they are a funny race...


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:35 AM
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140: arising from 139, I think the best thing to do would be to utterly destroy the notion that a sort of clothing invented to allow you to survive in a non-central-heated Victorian building in a British winter should be the essential business wear for everyone from the Sahel to the Torres Strait. The 21st century should be the Dishdash Century.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:37 AM
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141: I looked that up and was stunned to realise that Hollywood actually made a film with that title in the 1950s. Amazing what you could get past the censors in those days.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:39 AM
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142: I think that would be a capital idea, regardless of global warming. I hate suits. I'm slightly lucky in that while I need to wear a suit some of the time, my job means I can get away with not wearing a tie.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:41 AM
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The 21st century should be the Dishdash Century.
agreed. then offices are made super-cold for the dudes in suits and women have to go around carrying little sweaters with them everywhere and even wearing tights to work sometimes. it's idiotic.

I pay a lot of rent because I live in a great huge house, right downtown, with a pool. almost all the old colonial housing is owned by the government and managed by a private company, and partly rent-controlled (increases are limited to 30% every two years. ha.) It's way better than buying, though, because narnian condos are a nightmarish bubble that never pops. foreign money streaming in has kept the whole thing afloat, but as I look at the endless towers rising around I keep thinking it has to stop someday. insh'allah I will never move again, but if I should have to, I would still rent. I can get so much more house for x a month renting than paying x in mortgage fees. well, that's obvious, but I mean orders of magnitude more. all the mortgages are floating rate too. not scary right this minute, obvs, but I wouldn't like it to be possible for my monthly payment to vastly increase in size.
foreign workers are either in barracks out in the 'suburbs', such as they are; in containers that have been crudely converted to housing on the site of the condo; or paying huge amounts to hot cot at an illegal place in little india. or in their employer's homes, like our helper.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:48 AM
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145.1: Texas especially; I know someone who worked in an office in (I think) Dallas where the air was chilled down to below 20, and so all the men wore jackets and some of the women had brought in space heaters to put under their desks. This when it was 30 plus outside.

need to wear a suit some of the time, my job means I can get away with not wearing a tie.

You're Mahmoud Ahmedinejad?


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:51 AM
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as air con becomes more prevalent there

Not to mention the menace of second-hand copies of Con Air flooding the DVD market in the developing world. *Shudder*


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:56 AM
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There are lots of old photos of Brits in Narnia walking around in three-piece suits.

The bolt of Tash falls in a graceful drape from soft shoulder with a small armhole.*

* Too obscure?


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 6:56 AM
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then offices are made super-cold for the dudes in suits and women have to go around carrying little sweaters showing off their nipples for Knecht


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:03 AM
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If people have to wear suits, they should at least be Nehru-jacket-collared. Are those common anywhere? I mean, besides India. Are they even common in India?


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:08 AM
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148: Using Narnia as a word for "where alameida lives" always bothered me; it's obvious to me that Narnia is really Afghanistan.
The books make it clear: the basic plot is "let's take a group of basically nice if rather self-centred kids from a peaceful, affluent country, give them incredibly advanced weaponry, armour and technology, and send them off to intervene in the convoluted politics and civil wars of a far-off, ancient nation, about whose history, culture and society they know absolutely nothing. And I'm sure it'll all end up fine. They'll be welcomed as liberators!"
And decades later, they're still there, growing old in their fortified bases trying to sort out the mess their previous interventions made. And every time they knock down one bad guy another one pops up.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:08 AM
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husband x wears tropical-weight wool pants and a tailored dress shirt to teach, but no tie. it's rare he has to wear an actual suit. I was happy when we had them made last he consented to a faint windowpane-type design rather than plain blue; he still maintains no one but "british bankers" can wear chalk stripes. I love chalk stripe!

our children never wear anything but underwear at home; our maid is modest and would be offended if I walked around naked all the time, as I would normally do.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:09 AM
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If people have to wear suits, they should at least be Nehru-jacket-collared.

No.

[H]e still maintains no one but "british bankers" can wear chalk stripes. I love chalk stripe!

In the late '90s Richard James had a lovely series of worsteds with pinstripes of cerulean, maize and even lilac. They looked really nice.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:23 AM
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it's only the ready availability of rose-flavoured turkish delight that started the nickname. ooh, I wonder if turkish delight has gluten? I'm trying a gluten-free, dairy-free diet along with my older daughter to see if it helps our stomach problems/general sick all the time-ness. it's gay, and not in a good anal sex way. husband x insisted we give it a try before defaulting to more medicine. I think the solution to the problem is...children's liquid valium! no lie, the child psychologist wants to give her older tricyclic antidepressants like i take in a low dose if obvious physical causes for her "functional bowel pain" aren't found, but also maybe valium. I'm convinced liquid valium is the solution to all our waesuck.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:26 AM
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154: That just sounds awful. I cannot imagine how miserable chronic stomach pain must be, especially for little kids.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:28 AM
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You're Mahmoud Ahmedinejad?

He doesn't usually where a suit jacket, does he? In most photos he seems to be wearing some kind of casual lightweight jacket.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:37 AM
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last night I was trying to cheer her up and put things in perspective, talking about our beautiful house, and how we can afford to buy medicine and see doctors, and should be grateful for the things we have, and she gut-punched me: "but mom, except for the part about how you're actually living your life every minute. I'd rather we had a small apartment and I didn't feel so sick." :-((((


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:38 AM
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156: Or a dinner jacket.


Posted by: Benquo | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:05 AM
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157: Ow, poor baby. Do you think there's some shot that she'll just grow out of it -- that it's a developmental thing?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:10 AM
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she started complaining about abdominal pain before she could talk, with gestures and grimaces. my sister was sick like this as a kid and is a wreck now, with lupus and every other fucked up thing. I pray she'll grow out of it, yes. baby sister just got to stop taking antibiotics every day pretty recently, after 1 and 1/2 years, and she grew like 2 inches. I think it was nuking her gut flora so she couldn't digest properly. hopefully she has grown out of the kidney valve problem that necessitated it.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:31 AM
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but I will be very upset if they grow up to be as ill as I am. I am waiting for husband x's sturdy norweigan genes to start kicking in here.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:34 AM
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Oh, a niece of mine was on the daily antibiotics thing for kidney reflux(? I think) as a kid, and never had a moments difficulty after they told her she could stop. Anecdote, but hopeful.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:41 AM
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There is of course the Bermudan/north Australian option. Tropical-superfine cloth in lightest colours, linen jacket, sharply creased shorts.

Hmm, perhaps we could keep the a/c and get one of those concentrating solar power plants..


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:45 AM
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The Samoan version -- suit coat in tropical fabric, matching tailored knee-length wraparound skirt, is cool and practical for hot-weather businessmen's wear.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 8:48 AM
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If people have to wear suits, they should at least be Nehru-jacket-collared. Are those common anywhere? I mean, besides India. Are they even common in India?

Not that I saw, though I'm not that observant. Certainly not at the effete nonprofit I worked at.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 10:21 AM
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165: What exactly did this nonprofit that you worked at do for effete Indians?


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 10:27 AM
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Bucked them up, I should expect. Put some vim into them.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 10:36 AM
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If people have to wear suits, they should at least be Nehru-jacket-collared. Are those common anywhere?

A version of them — Nehru-collared short-sleeved shirt with matching pants, generally made out of a lightweight wool blend — were common in Ghana as a kind of businessman or politician's suit up through the 1990s. A few older men still wear them, but they are mostly seen as stuffy or out of style.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:05 PM
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I'm encouraged enough to want to try a Nehru jacket, if I can find one made of sustainably-farmed nehru.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:08 PM
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169: You do all realize how embarrassingly privileged sustainably-farmed nehru is, right?



Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:34 PM
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I'm convinced liquid valium is the solution to all our waesuck.

I don't normally call for new mouseover text, but this is a thing of beauty and should be entered in the queue.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:53 PM
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Without air conditioning, though, your body will adapt to the climate. My parents lived in Narnia many years ago, and they said that, if you never used air con, after a few months you got used to it. You would still get hot and sweaty, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Also, you would find yourself putting on a sweater in the evening.

(They also said that, back then, putting someone in a really cold air conditioned room was one of the interrogation methods used by the police.)


Posted by: YK | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 12:53 PM
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And while we're at it, let's plunge newborn babies into ice water so we don't need to heat them place.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 1:01 PM
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I definitely think it's true that the more you use air conditioning (or heat for that matter), the more you "need" it.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 1:11 PM
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I haven't run my air conditioner since October and now I never feel too warm.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 1:18 PM
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175: We never run the air conditioning. Just the daily walk to keep its weight down, on the advice of the vet.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 1:24 PM
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168: I thought that outfit was a South Asian thing, not that there aren't plenty of Indians in parts of Africa of course. I remember distinctly when the international Lions convention was here in the 1990s, seeing two ethnically South Asian Lions dressed that way on the bus, going to the Mall of America.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:05 PM
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Minnesota messes with peoples' minds, regardless of race.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:16 PM
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narnia's secret police weren't the first to use extreme cold to torture people, but there is something perverse about doing it with maxed-out air-con while it's 90 outside. they reportedly haven't done anything like that for years but I don't know how accurate that is. one of the popular speculations about m/as se/lama/t's escape was that he had been tortured to death and the "escape" was a cover-up. Bo one could believe the police would be that slack, to let him get away. turned out that he really did escape alive, though.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01-12-11 7:35 PM
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