Wednesday News: Safe sex in romances; Door to door mail delivery on the chopping block; IPad sales are down
Kobo’s newest e-reader leaks, photos show Aura-inspired design – Kobo has a new e-ink reader coming. According to Engadget the battery power is 50% more powerful and the design is similar to the Aura HD which has a kind of V shaped back which makes it comfortable for holding but not so great in the purse.
iPad Sales Dropped in Q3, Apple is Going Bankrupt, End of Western Civilization to Follow – Because of competition from the Android sector, mostly Samsung, Apple’s tablet sales are declining. In one of its worst quarters in recent memory, Apple reported selling only 14.4 million iPads in quarter 3 versus 17 million last year. Apple’s measly profit was $6.9 billion. But the reduction in dominance might mean we are going to see some new products this September instead of just updated existing products. (I’d like to see an iPad Mini with Retina. Nate wants to see the Maxi Pad – yes, I intentionally left off the “i”). The Digital Reader
Postal Service moving away from at-your-door delivery – Darrel Issa, a leading House Republican, is seeking to end door to door delivery of mail. Instead, it wants neighborhoods to adopt cluster boxes or centralized locations where residents can stop and pick up their mail. The USPS is struggling financially and this would shave over 50% off of delivery costs.
It costs $353 per stop for a delivery in most American cities, taking into account such things as salaries and cost of transport. By contrast, curbside mail box delivery costs $224, while cluster boxes cost $160, according to a report from the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. “ CNN Money
Michael Douglas’ Throat Cancer Not Really Caused By Oral Sex, Rep Says (UPDATED) – Long time romance reader Preeti sent this article to me with the question of whether I’d seen any books featuring characters using prophylactics during oral sex. Rarely. The only one in recent memory was “Escorted” by Claire Kent. The hero was a prostitute and he used dental dams.
Michael Douglas has a throat cancer and he initially said that it was due to the human papillomavirus (HPV) that can be passed through cunnilingus. A spokesperson followed up and said that Douglas was only talking about the possibilities of HPV being based through oral sex, not that he’d contracted it that way.
Given some authorial resistance to condoms, I can’t see a host of people writing in the use of dental dams during oral sex or even condoms during blowjobs but that is the most responsible sex a person can have outside of abstaining. But then that’s not really responsible sex at all because you’re missing the, well, sex part. But all these alphahole manwhores ought to wrap it up.
But all these alphahole manwhores ought to wrap it up.. This combination of words made me smile. I’ll have to figure out how to work them into a conversation soon.
I’ve noticed far more responsible use of condoms and *discussions* about their use in many m/m books. The first example that comes to mind is ‘Bad Boyfriend’ by K.A. Mitchell, but I know there are many others.
In the Masters of the Shadowlands series there are a couple of times where a character uses condoms for oral sex. I was very surprised when I read this (well, I was surprised a lot in reading this BDSM series, my first, including the fact that I enjoyed it immensely). Having just recently started reading romance novels again, after many years away, the treatment of pregnancy and disease prevention is quite educational. I find now when I read a contemporary romance I find it quite jarring if condom use is not mentioned, while of course all the historicals I read in my youth would never mention such a thing. Has anyone read a historical novel where they were used? (I.e. the kind made from sheep intestines?)
Lammie, I’ve noticed more and more historical at least mention “French letters” or pulling out to prevent pregnancy. Courtney Milan’s novella, A Kiss for Midwinter, features a doctor hero who goes pretty in depth (for a novella) about possible forms of protection such as French letters and Dutch caps. Milan taught me far more than I had expected to learn about Victorian era safe sex.
Susan Johnson and Robin Schone both wrote about the use of french letters and had great descriptions of them. Johnson, in particular, almost always used them. Man, she was such a pioneer.
I remember reading about contraception in the Didius Falco books (Roman Mysteries by Lindsey Davis) and was quite surprised.
The french letters reminds me of going to an antiques store with my mother. She found a pile of letters written in French, and said “Oh look there are some old French letters here.” We collapsed into laughter.
@Lammie – I know I’ve read a few historicals with condom use, but I don’t remember titles or authors at the moment.
Sex Wars by Marge Piercy is not a romance but it’s set in 19th c NY and there’s all sorts of birth control used in it. One of the protags ends up making condoms and selling them and there’s all sorts of conflict about who controls birth control. It’s kind of a strange novel – sometimes I felt like the politics got in the way of the storytelling. There are several real life figures who are pov characters, including feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was fascinating and I learned a lot about the politics and history of birth control, among other things.
@Lammie:
Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase definitely references condoms – the heroine and her best friend are both courtesans. Also one of Gaelen Foley’s books includes condom use, possibly One Night of Sin. In Jennifer Donnelly’s The Winter Rose, set in 1900, the heroine is a doctor who, among other things, tries to obtain condoms to help her patients avoid unwanted pregnancies.
I’m kind of mystified as to why so many authors make a point of bringing up condoms when the h/h have vaginal sex, but not when it’s oral, as if there’s no need for protection from STIs then – so obviously not true. And condoms are often written in as the main or only form of contraception used, while in real life women often use other/additional forms of birth control.
@Lammie: I’ve seen condoms in historical books, but never used in a historically accurate way. The dried condom had to be soaked in water before use, so they weren’t exactly portable or spontaneous like a modern condom, and they were washed and reused (ick!). This changes once rubber ones are invented, but that’s not helpful for anyone writing anything early-Victorian or older. I mostly have my characters using vinegar soaked sponges in my books (accurate, easy, portable).
@Lammie: And Then He Kissed Her by Laura Lee Guhrke is one for some reason that sticks out in my head for contraception usage. I’ve seen contraception more in recent novels though, and I totally agree that when I read a contemporary, if there is no mention of contraception it pulls me out of the story for some reason.
Also I don’t know how I would feel about a mailbox that was more like a PO box setting. How would deliveries work? I would probably be more apt to chose the convenient door to door UPS/FedEx/whatever over the USPS group box for shipping if I could.
Since I live in an apartment and this is already how my mail and packages work, the USPS news doesn’t sound all that upsetting to me. I suppose it’d take some getting used to for homeowners, though. I didn’t see any mention of how far away some of the cluster boxes would be from homes.
Having lived in apartments and townhouse communities that had centrally located mailboxes, I don’t see too many problems with it except package delivery. I’m not sure if it will save much money if the deliverers have to first put the mail in the mailboxes and then drive around to deliver all the packages that don’t fit. And I can’t see people welcoming the idea of going to the Post Office each time a package arrives for them.
Isn’t Darrell Issa the guy who created the IRS scandal that wasn’t really a scandal?
And who would own and maintain these box locations? Terrible idea on Issa’s part, I believe he’s up to something unethical, again.
My neighborhood already has the cluster boxes. Instead of a mailbox at each house, there’s a larger metal box that looks like a wall out of a small mailroom every block or so, and each home has a locked mailbox in the cluster. For packages, there are a couple of big locked boxes on each cluster, and when you get a package, the mailman puts a key in your mailbox that you use to retrieve your package from the big box, and you leave that key in the lock when you get your package. I don’t know what they do if more than two people in the cluster get packages on the same day, but I doubt that happens often, as the individual boxes are big enough to hold things like trade paperback books or a DVD set. It’s pretty efficient and more secure than the standard curb-side mailbox, since the boxes are locked.
@Isobel Carr: I’ve kind of wondered why more heroines in historicals don’t use sponges – it seems like the obvious choice for all the reasons you name. Of course, I didn’t know about vinegar soaked sponges until relatively recently and I suspect that’s true for other readers and authors. Kind of a secret history. Plus, there may be something about the premeditated part that doesn’t work for some romance heroines (hard to plan ahead if you don’t know you’re about to encounter a magic wang and discover the magical world of orgasms). IDK – I’d read more historicals with sponges.
I had forgotten about sponges. Wasn’t there a Seinfeld episode where Elaine’s preferred method of birth control was a sponge, which came into short supply, and then she had to decide if a guy was “spongeworthy”? Not sure if I would want to use one, but I guess it isn’t much different from a diaphragm, although I am sure it would take practice to use it properly.
As for community mailboxes, I have had them both in Canada (where they were called Super Mailboxes) and Florida. They were never more than a block away, and worked fine, particularly the special larger boxes with a key mentioned above for parcels. The only problem in Canada was the locks froze sometimes if it was really wet and then cold, but it was great. They worked well if you went away for a few days – no need to arrange to stop and restart mail service.
Community mailboxes were the norm for newer housing in Las Vegas for the past decade or so. I do wonder how that would work out in the country where farm houses are fairly far apart already.
I wouldn’t mind if the policy would be applied evenly. But I suspect folks in large mansions would somehow be exempt under the new rules. And I also wonder what people with mobility issues are supposed to do.
Saving money to save the Post Office sounds nice and all, but it would be a l0t easier to do it if Congress revoked the spiteful law that forces the PO (unlike any other business ever) to fund benefits 100 percent for seventy-five years — i.e., setting aside money for possible employees who haven’t even been born yet.
I am sincerely glad that so many Dear Author readers are able-bodied, but I have several friends (and any number of library patrons) who are disabled and homebound. Forcing them to use a remote mailbox (even “just a block away”) would effectively cut off their mail service.
ETA: whoops, posted before I saw library addict’s comment.
Forcing a move to community mailboxes would be a boon to start ups like Outbox which scans your snail mail and then delivers it to you electronically. I’d certainly pay $4.99 a month to no not have to go to the mail box every day (and they could set up something that reroutes everything but packages to a warehouse anywhere in the country).
But considering the ease and speed of Priority Mail is about the only thing keeping the USPS going, not having those deliveries come to the house would be a death knell. I’d opt for another shipping service, even if it cost more.
@cleo: Sponges would almost always have been on hand. Most women carried a vinaigrette on their person. These were small boxes with a vinegar-soaked sponge inside. I used this bit of serendipity in my second Kalen Hughes book and I’m doing so again in the novella I’m working on right now.
@Jane: IIRC, Schone also used lemons–cut in half and inserted.
I don’t recall all the titles off-hand, but I’m definitely seeing more references to contraception/protection in both historical and contemporary settings, including condom use for oral in contemps.
The first use of a condom I ran into was in Boswell’s London Journal. Of course he was using it try to avoid disease and as far as I remember there wasn’t a graphic description of its use in the edition I was reading, it was for school so it could have been expurgated. It also led to a discussion about contraceptive use. But it was the early 70’s so there wasn’t as many options and what we had would probably be considered background for a historical now.
I have no real objection to cluster boxes but I can see a lot of fuss. I’m sure that the USPO if they put the boxes in place would want to charge a rental to cover maintenance– like they do for PO boxes. When the boxes are put in place when a neighborhood is contructed then it’s possible to put the boxes in well lighted, safe areas on public ground. On a main thoroughfare in a small city it’s going to hard to find a place like that. Also packages are delivered separately from letters. The packages are brought around by a little jeep-like thing earlier than the mail is delivered by a post person on foot. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen our current post person when she was not talking on the telephone while walking around and delivering the mail. They could probably track her by GPS on her phone.
THIS. My roomie bought a handgun over the internet (yes, that’s actually legal in Canada), but it was delivered to our unlock-able mailbox at the house. It was waiting when we got home from work, and could have disappeared anywhere.
@Lammie: YES! I remember Elaine and that episode! Loved that.
Canada has had the communal mailboxes for new neighborhoods built in the 80’s. The communal mailboxes function as a mailbox as well. What’s interesting is that in my neighborhood we have door to door delivery and communal mailboxes depending on when your home was built. So the huge mansions down the street have a communal mailbox and the more modest homes have door to door delivery. But then again, we’ve never had Saturday delivery either.
Those sorts of mailboxes have been the norm in new housing developments for over 20 years where I live in Canada. Not sure how packages work though. Older areas have door-to-door delivery. I don’t know if there are special arrangements for those with mobility issues. Never heard of any. Other problem, since this is Canada, is that Canada Post is supposed to clear the snow around them, but I’m not sure they always do a great job of this.
I think in my boyfriend’s hometown, there was never door-to-door delivery. Everyone has a box in the post office.
@LJD: Central mailboxes or curbside mailboxes have been the norm in the U.S. for new build since the 1970s. But older houses/neighborhoods still have mail slots or mailboxes on the porch.
In New Zealand they were / are? tallking about going to 3 day a week delivery (M,W,F). Maybe in the US we could still have Saturday delivery, but cut out Wednesday delivery. Saturday mail has to be more fun than Wednesday mail.
The safe oral sex made me think of a scene in Anatomy of a Boyfriend, an older YA. I remember the very scientific girl/future doctor, telling her boyfriend to grab the dental dam from her purse before he went down on her. Course that killed the mood and he pretty much thought she was nuts being as they’d only been with each other. I kind of loved that scene for it’s unromantic qualities so I can’t see that working too well romance.