Did you ever back the wrong horse so hard you wanted to delete your whole account? I did that with a YouTuber a couple years back, some guy who did cooking videos and seemed super chill. I went to bat for him in like 4 different comment sections when people called him out for being rude to fans. Turned out he had a whole history of scamming people on some crypto thing and I looked like a total clown. The worst part was one guy replied to my paragraph with a screenshot and just wrote "aged like milk" and honestly he was right. My new rule is I just shut up for like two weeks minimum and let the internet do its thing. Nine times out of ten the truth comes out fast anyway and you save yourself the embarrassment.

Man that broom handle trick bugs me too and you did the right thing keeping your mouth shut in the store because that kid would not have listened anyway. I have seen the same thing around here and every head I pull that got the poke test is packed with dust or paint overspray. Spend the 12 bucks and sleep at night, it is cheap insurance.