| 词源 |
plain brown wrapper. The designation plain brown wrapper, often used to describe how sexually explicit material will be sent through the mail, has its origins in the mail-order wars of the 1890s and at first had nothing at all to do with sex. Mail- order companies like Montgomery Ward (the beloved “Mon- key Ward” of rural dwellers) and Sears, Roebuck sent their cata- logs and goods in unmarked “plain brown wrappers” to protect customers from the wrath of local merchants and their allies, who wanted to see the mail-order firms go out of business from the time Aaron Montgomery Ward founded the first great na- tional mail-order company in 1872. |