Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with eww

Foot-in-mouth

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:41:41 -0800

I compulsively eat bits of myself when I shed them. How bad is this for me? I will eat any skin, nail, earwax, booger, eye goop, scab, toe cheese, or nose hair that comes free. If I have a blister or callous that peels, I chew and swallow it. When I have athlete's foot, at least some of the skin that's shed will end up in my mouth. I don't chew my nails, but if I split or tear some I'll chew it up. Hangnails too.

I'm a 30ish white straight American male. I've been doing this for as long as I remember. Honestly it didn't even seem strange to me until I began to worry about someone seeing me doing it.

Nothing sexual about it, specifically, I'm not interested in semen, urine, or feces.

Yes, I know this is totally gross. Especially seeing it written out. Yuck.

Anyway, is this totally abnormal, and am I facing any major health risks? I'm willing to be 'scared straight' if this is bad for me.

Flies on my Mane

Schlimmbesserung — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:30:17 -0800

Here's a fun one. My hair got caught in flypaper. Now what? I managed to pry the paper off of my head (OW. Owowow) and pick out the flies (EWW. Ewewewew), but the glue has jammed my hair into a permanent, sticky Ace Ventura flip. The nastiest shampoo in the house won't put a dent in it. Any suggestions for how to ungoo my `do, or is it time to find an especially merciful hairdresser and buzz it all off?

Dishwasher versus roach

rolypolyman — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:28:07 -0800

Does a regular consumer dishwasher chew up food particles? Reason is that a live roach that was in there when the cycle was started is now missing, and I think I saw an insect bit. Short story is it was already crawling over the dishes, so I decided to kill two birds by (A) rewashing and (B) drowning the roach to get it rather than take a chance of it escaping. I checked on the dishwasher a minute later and the roach was trying to swim, and another minute later there was no trace of it. The drain cycle hadn't kicked in. I removed the nozzle and top plate, and can see a very fine screen, but can't get below that as about 25 allen bolts hold the rest of the housing on.

Dishwasher is a $250 Whirlpool Gold, about 10 years old, no fancy features.

What's the music used in films to represent spiders?

hoverboards don't work on water — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:36:31 -0800

What instrument is used to make the fast, tinkly, skin-crawling picking-on-a-harp high-pitched sound effect that accompanies spiders and other insects in movies? Is it in fact a harp?

I seem to recall it being used in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the "It's not fortune cookies" scene. I know it's been used in The Simpsons many, many times. I'm struggling to come up with a definite example, but c'mon... you must know what I mean.

Also, any ideas who first used this sound effect?

My nose did something very odd (potentially icky question)

tomble — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 22:45:56 -0800

This may be considered a little disgusting for some - it involves ingrown nasal hairs and a MYSTERIOUS DEVELOPMENT (queue twilight zone music) So, about two weeks ago I developed a hard and painful lump inside my left nostril. It's happened before and I've always had the impression that it was an ingrown hair or pimple of some sort. It was tender to touch, and even gently touching the outside of my nose above this point hurt.

I decided it would be best if I left it alone for a while.

Earlier this week I noticed that a red lump had formed on the outside of my nose, with a white circle of dead skin on top of it. I scratched this off, and noticed that it had formed a head.

A gentle and inquisitive squeeze and then - to my amazement, a perfectly straight nostril hair, about a half inch long, slid out from the lump, along with some other goo! It had somehow travelled through the flesh of my nose and popped out the wrong side! (It was definitely a nostril hair, I took the time to examine it, and I don't grow hair on the outside of my nose).

This has been freaking me out all week. I was at the doctor about an unrelated issue, and told him about it. He was amazed, and insisted that if it ever happened again I should make sure I had a digital camera with me - he wanted the pics!

Has this happened to anyone? Has anyone heard of this? Did I experience some sort of automatic nose piercing?