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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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062689
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06268900.038
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1990-09-22
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NATION, Page 31TEXASLet Me See Some ID
Many a parent has been shocked and offended by the lyrical
excesses of heavy-metal and rap music. Now Western Merchandisers
Inc., an Amarillo-based record-store chain that operates 119
outlets in the Southwest, has taken a drastic step to ensure that
albums like As Nasty As We Want to Be by 2 Live Crew do not fall
into the hands of minors. Since June 8, the chain has been slapping
little green stickers reading 18 TO PURCHASE on sexually explicit
records and requiring customers to present proof of age before they
can buy them.
The policy began after police filed charges against a Dallas
branch of the record-store chain for selling harmful material to
a minor. The store sold to a 13-year-old boy a rap album containing
a graphic tune about a grotesque sex act. Though the charges were
eventually dropped by a grand jury, the chain decided to be more
prudent about prurience. "We feel we have an obligation to the
customers and the communities we are in to police our sales," says
Walter McNeer, an executive vice president at Western
Merchandisers. "We do not want to be censors."