Me: -I use it to clean my anal cavity, it´s really dirty you know. Why?
Clerk: -There is no need to be rude.
Ohhh damn. That just made SWIM's day.
SWIM has only been asked what his purposes were on a couple of occaisions. One was while getting a tank filled with Argon at a local welding supply place. "So... Whatchya doin with the this here Argon?" SWIM: "Gettin into a bit of welding, actually." (SWIM didn't know shit about welding) "Ahhhh, you going to do some MIG welding?" SWIM: "Yea, some MIG welding!" at that point the clerk laughed, "Hahaha! I sure am glad you didn't say TIG welding! I'd have told you you'd better hit the books some more! Phew"
Moral of the story there- Let the clerk do the talking, as he was only being friendly...
Another time, SWIM was picking up a 5 gal drum of acetone from a local chem supplier. This was for legit reasons, for a company SWIM was working for. They had SWIM sign some DEA shit. SWIM's comment, "You know, we used to just pick this up fromt he hardware store by the gallon, but that was getting to be inconvienent. What's all this about?" The clerk responds, "I know, it's these crazy meth-heads got the government all worked up. Making it a pain in the ass for us all, eh?" myself, "I hear that. Damn those druggies!"
Now the other, more serious incident came when SWIM ordered some Sodium Azide.. SWIM heard back from the company, requesting a signed statement of intent for law enforecment purposes before the product could be shipped. SWIM explained that NaN3 was further down SWIM's list on possible route to a particular compound, and if it was going to be that much trouble SWIM would get back to them later if he really needed it. They said no problem, and by the way here's this nice link about just how poisonous NaN3 is. SWIM checked it out, and did in fact learn something... Then found another source for NaN3. SWIM thinks the concern was more based around explosive/poisonous issues though.
-SpicyBrown