Down the drain

Today ended up being one of those days.  This morning I noticed my bathroom sink was full of water; very strange since I didn't put it there and there was no stopper in the sink.  The water was clear but very warm and I'm thinking, Where did it come from?  Never mind; I removed most of the water, grabbed the plunger, and proceeded to plunge. I've done this before when the sink was clogged or drained very slowly, not a big deal.  This time was different.  As I plunged the water became darker and darker until it was almost black.  Not a pretty sight, and the sink refused to drain.  I put my hand near the drain to see if anything came out and something did: a couple of plastic Q-Tips.  What the what?  How do Q-Tips end up in a drain?  They're not mine, I use the generic ones with the rolled paper sticks.  I fell into a routine; plunge for five minutes, wait ten minutes to see if anything changed, and repeat for a few hours.  After giving up I marked the water level with a piece of tape to see if any water drained after an hour.  Some did, the level dropped maybe an inch.  Not good.  I'm handy enough to replace the washers in a leaky faucet but this is beyond my skill and tool capabilities so it's time to call the maintenance guy.  That's a perk of apartment living; you don't have to fix stuff yourself and it doesn't cost anything extra but it doesn't hurt to remember the maintenance guy come the holidays.  So the guy shows up an hour and a half later, looks at the sink and checks the bath tub drain.  I explain the situation, show him the Q-Tips  and he says nothing except "I'll be back in a few minutes."  I figure he's going to get some tools or something, but no.  He returns after ten minutes, goes into the bathroom and the next thing I know is that there is the sound of running water.  I was in another room and didn't hear anything like tools being used; there were none.  It's like he was transported to a mystery place of plumbing magic and pulled a drain plug.  I didn't see him do anything, I didn't hear him do anything, and yet the drain is now functioning perfectly.  I should have called  him first thing and not wasted all that time plunging.  Live and learn but I don't think I've seen the end of Q-Tips.

-----

Did Old Dog's documentary cover Japan eating the rest of Asia before Pearl Harbor?

Why, yes indeed.  The documentary begins in early 1937 and explains how political assassinations and attempted coups drove Japan into the hands of military extremists.  As the most highly industrialized nation in Asia the Japanese considered it was their divine right to rule all of Asia and they embarked on what they considered a holy war.  This plan must have been in the works a long time; the Japanese had a military presence in China since before WWI.  There was a fear of western domination and the first step was to get rid of those pesky Brits in places like Hong Kong and Singapore.  And US support of the British in China was considered an act of aggression which led the attack on Pearl Harbor.  There's a lot of stuff I didn't know in the documentary, like the fact that the same force that hit Pearl Harbor attacked the Royal Australian Navy in Darwin two months later.  Some time later that very same force attacked the British Royal Navy in Ceylon.

There's a lot of meat in this documentary, Uncle Ken, and except for an overly loud musical soundtrack in the early section I think you'll like it