I was having lunch with Joe the Juggler [1] at the City Diner [2] earlier this week. He was showing me some papers he found in the wall of his house. The original owner in 1892 apparently was in the personal rubber products business.
Back then, this was a euphemism for (shocked whisper) a birth control device. The Comstock Act of 1873 [3] made it illegal to send even information about birth control through the mail, much less the rubber products themselves. Several states had laws completely prohibiting such things, as well. So this gent sold coupon books to would-be salesmen, who sell individual coupons door to door along with an instruction manual. 
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The coupon was to be mailed with another fee to the manufacturer, to have a non-descript disk (I’m guessing) of rubber shipped direct to the home. Arguably, such a disk can be used to stop a drain, or something. Very scandalous. That’s why the instructions are delivered by hand. The total cost was about 2 days white collar wages for a single “rubber”. Quite a savings over retail.
Contraception information was decriminalized in the U.S. in 1936. Can we keep it that way? Heard of the “Global Gag Rule”?
So, on October 14, 2008, Christmas Carols assaulted us in the City Diner. Twice. On a 70 degree afternoon. Only 71 more shopping days till the virgin birth.
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