So here I am in Bawstin, the infamous Combat Zone to be exact, longing for those good ol' bad ol' days. I'm in town for a few days, visiting friends, thinking about times here in the not so distant past. I changed Bawstin in 1993 when I opened New England's first female friendly sex toy store, Grand Opening!, in Brookline, a mere mile from Fenway Pahk (Go Sox! - and oh, my acquired accent sneaks in there even as I type!). Grand Opening! now happily lives on the web at GrandOpening.com, natch.
Today I was knockin' around the aforementioned Combat Zone and strolled into one of the last remaining adult bookstores there, Downtown Books, owned by my pal John. It's kind of an old school "dirty bookstore" which I always find exhilarating and refreshing to visit and I always do when I'm here to see John or Eddie workin' behind the counter.
And lo and behold, hanging on a hook, was one of those tan, hard plastic, wake up the neighbors, 2 C battery vibes... you know, one of the original vibrators that might have been the first one that you used that you bought in the back of Spencer Gifts. One of those Ultimate Vibrators. Lots of times, people buy what they are familiar with and if you don't already stock one of these kinds of vibrators in your store, perhaps you should. It would open conversation with lots of people ("I remember I had one like that and it was really good!") or at least give your customers something to point at and laugh. They're also really great for first time use and especially great for those "hard to reach places" like they used to be described in many mainstream catalogues. You can always say your Mom left it at your place when she visited the last time...
Now about that "family meeting" that took place last week concerning CalOSHA and it's intrusion into our industry. Well, there were about 70 performers/directors/producers there and another 30 or so people such as myself, who make our living in one aspect of this wacky biz. Turns out CalOSHA wants to require the use of not only condoms but additional barrier methods such as latex dams for oral ANYTHING (aside from kissing) and get this, latex GLOVES for penetration!! WHAT?!?! But it gets better, CalOSHA believes that if every performer used barrier methods, regular testing wouldn't have to be mandatory! As if every performer practices safe sex like this in their real lives! I don't think so.... Things worked so much better when AIM was handling the whole situation but CalOSHA just doesn't see it that way. I can tell you that I personally don't think latex gloves are a turn on in porn but used during, um, uh, other practices, they can be pretty sexy. I just don't want my smut to be mandated by CalOSHA rules, thankyouverymuch. For more coverage of this hotly contested topic, look at Diane Duke's FSC report here on XBIZ.
Now, those of you who know me know that I'm a real jokester and the creases of my brain contain more dirty jokes than I care to admit, so I decided that I am going to start a "joke of the blog" feature in every posting. I want to apologize in advance for upcoming blonde sex jokes but, truth be told, my roots are mouse-shit grey and my adopted color is blonde, so I'm one of the crew, too. Plus, when I'm blonde, it makes me seem more intelligent... hee hee!
So here's this installment of JOTB...
Once, a young native American boy asked his mother "Mother, why is my sister's name Running Brook?" His mother responded "Because she was conceived by a running brook." "Oh," the boy sighed. His mother then looked at him and asked "Why do you ask, Broken Rubber?"
Now back to toy testing... it's a dirty job but...
Old School Vibes and Wassup With That "Family" Meeting?
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