7-Eleven’s Ban on Playboy Magazine

It was inspiring and gratifying to learn that the management of the 7-Eleven stores has decided to stop selling Playboy and Penthouse magazines, because of, as The Times article explained, growing public concern over a possible link between adult magazines and crime.

Undoubtedly, the next step will be to change the name of the chain, since the term, “7-Eleven,” is of great significance to craps shooters, and everyone knows of the relationship between gambling and crime--even unto Mafia overtones.

More than likely, the 7-Eleven stores will give up carrying cigarettes, as well. Look at all the great portrayers of crime in our nation’s history--Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, to name just a few--and how important the cigarette dangling from the corner of the mouth was to the establishment of their criminal characters and subsequent illicit behavior.

And then there’s coffee. Recently, the 7-Eleven radio commercials actually have bragged about the quality of the coffee served at their take-out counters. Well, you don’t have to be a doctor to know that coffee unsettles the nerves, could stimulate all sorts of erratic action and certainly makes it easy for shady characters to stay up late at night and plan various criminal activities.

I say, three cheers for the 6-Twelve (or whatever their new name turns out to be) stores.

LES BARRY

Hermosa Beach