Ah, male hearing. I will never forget the Twilight Zone episode in which a babbling wife never stopped talking. Her long suffering husband just suffered in silence (he dared not interrupt). Then, one day, while in the car, he rubbed his right ear, and discovered that tugging on his ear lobe shut off the hearing in that ear (the wife was seated to his right) until he tugged it a second time. The episode ended with the two of them cruising down the road, the wife rambling on about who-knows-what, and, having tugged his right ear lobe, a smiling, oblivious husband. I'd like to see someone try to air something like that these days!