mysql> set names 'utf8';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> show variables like 'character\_set\_%';
+--------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name            | Value  |
+--------------------------+--------+
| character_set_client     | utf8   | 
| character_set_connection | utf8   | 
| character_set_database   | utf8   | 
| character_set_filesystem | binary | 
| character_set_results    | utf8   | 
| character_set_server     | latin1 | 
| character_set_system     | utf8   | 
+--------------------------+--------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> update products set description = "(non-Latin1 characters that pastebin doesn't like)" where id = 49;
** (query hangs indefinitely here)
Aborted