Big, Big Boomers Lookout! Some say to shield your Ferret Busshies in a central location or other sealed room in the house this BOOM BOOM holiday of 4th July. Reason: Detonations of high energy ariel blasts produce atomospheric compactions of air. These compactions, or concussions, are concentrated in energy as they travel down a narrowing tube, sort'a like an elongated funnel. So what? Glad you asked...sort'a. One simple explanation would be that the dual ear canals, which in the Busshie, are uncommonly long and narrow with respect to the overall size of the Busshie's head/body, can be compared to radar/sound waveguides. And, I ask again...So what? Most of us veterans of the military know that waveguides guide waves; that is sound/and RADAR waves, not those cute US Navy WAVES. A large commercial firecracker produces a wide spectrum of very strong sound waves. Certain frequencies of a huge BOOM will essentially resonate in the proper sized and length wave guide, which for a slice of spectrum frequencies finds a very comfortable home internal of the ear canals of the unhappy Busshie. Ahhh so desuka...(J) for, Oh, you don't say. Hi!... (J) for, Yes. Eardrum pain directly related to the BOOM energy will be felt and may hurt like h*ll. But just for a moment or so, until the sound energy is absorbed by the paper thin tympanic membrane that occludes the ear canal. Yeah, if that were the only nerve injury felt by the Busshie, then what could be worse, I ask you? Ah ha! I almost forgot. What about that 10 millimeter or so long slug of solidified cerumen or ear wax that's sittin' in there and lubricated over the extent of its periphery with the more liquified or, another way of saying it, greased surface that coats the internal wall surfaces encircling the cerumen plug (CP)? The CP will react to the resonant energy frequency expending itself and may, in all likelyhood, jam solidly up against the eardrum membrane, possibly resulting in a puncture of the membrane, and if not that, will likely maintain the membrane temporarily or permanently distorted inward. Wow. Talk about the Mother of all earaches. As a machine gun turret operator on a B-24 Liberator Bomber, with my head in between two fifty calibers, I experienced hearing loss after combat that lasted several hours. And I had no long plugs of ear wax to be slammed against my tender Polish ear membranes. So you can just compare me to the little, tender Busshie and what he must feel from some of the louder 4th of July fireworks. Just maybe, you should offer your precious One some protection during these days; that is, providing your two are not near the next jihadist car bomb. Edward Lipinski -- Frettchen Freude [Posted in FML 5658]