Speaking of Ear Wax

Rob over at Musings of a Distractible Mind was writing about ear wax -- also known as "cerumen" to those of us in the med biz -- and I was reminded of a nifty answer I came up with to one of my kids' questions several years back.

By way of background, you need to know the following line that priests, rabbis, ministers and assorted other clergy have all told me they use when asked at an outdoor event to pray for good weather, or "put in a good word with the Man upstairs," or however the request is phrased:

Sorry; I'm in Sales, not Production.

So there I was explaining to my younger son about how the ear canal produces wax for lubrication and protection and all those other nifty other functions of cerumen, when he asked what appeared to be a perfectly reasonable question about cerumen impaction: Why does the ear keep making wax once the canal is plugged up? I thought for a second, and then came up with this:

Sorry; I'm in Maintenance, not Design.