Like locusts, unsolicited mail has always been a durable plague. It keeps coming back. To stem the descent, an instructor of English at Eastern Michigan University has developed a novel defense. Roger C. Staples, 34, recently complained to local postal authorities that several firms, ranging from Sears to J. C. Penney, were deluging his Ann Arbor home with unwanted "lewd" mail.
Not so, said local postal officials. The department-store and other ads that offended Staples could not be considered pornography. Chacun à son gout, said Staples, obscenity is in the eyes of the recipient; and he took his case to...