Hearing

I feel bad for people who were born deaf or, through no fault of their own, became deaf during their lives.

I, however, am one of the many, many people whose (comparatively mild) deafness is down to my own stupidity. My father was deaf as a post, but his wasn’t down to stupidity. It was down to there being no OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) during his working life. Mill-induced deafness, they called it back then, and it was fairly common. These days they have ear defender...