nobody with any type of knowledge about ears, specifially how to clean them, suggests using q-tips. the saying "you shouldnt stick anything in your ear bigger then your elbow" is actually true; qtips can cause serious problems for your ears. the proper way of cleaning your ears, according to those educated on the topic, is to wet a cloth and wipe your ears with it.

so why does nobody really know this? why does just about everyone use qtips? why do we, as consumres, continuously spend billions of dollars on qtips each year when it has never been recommended that qtips be used for this purpose?

as moe would suggest, maybe the qtip companies are in bed with the federal government. is it a coincidince that we have to clean our ears every so often? al gore would suggest that global ear wax levels are 3% higher now then they were 1,000 years ago. is it a coincidence that bush maintains the terror alert at yellow? gautam would suggest that the colour code is there to instill the fear of yellow earwax in our minds so we go out and purchase more qtips. is it a coincidence that the biggest topic in the 08 election has been the issue of whether waterboarding is considered tortue? I would suggest that this is the governments way subconsiously putting images in our head of the terrible things a wet cloth can be used for, so that we never use a wet cloth instead of a qtip to clean our ears.

so this christmas, when you are purchasing stocking stuffers for your loved ones, do them all a favour and DONT buy them qtips!