Sex Stores Face Existential Crisis Following Judge's Ruling

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A Manhattan judge has come in on the side of the city in a fight against surreptitiously skeevy bookstores and video stores. You know, the ones that you "accidentally" stumble into hoping to pick up a copy of Serendipity after a hard day's work, but seeing no John Cusack movies at all, end up making your way home with The Story of Schlong Johnson: A Drama in Three Acts instead? Because those adult video stores look exactly like regular video stores, just darker and with less windows, right? Right?

Per this ruling, which has more to do with zoning than sex, city officials say that an unknown number of businesses may have to move if at least 60 percent of their business isn't devoted to non-adult (i.e., non-pervy) items.

"No matter how many copies you have of Disney's Bambi on the bookshelves, if you've got a peep show you're an adult store," said Jonathan Feinblatt, the city's Criminal Justice Coordinator, to the AP.

Personally, I think it's high time we all stopped being polite and started getting real. Another upshot: Next time you walk into one of those stores "looking for Serendipity," you may actually find it.

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