Move over, Dr. Ruth! Ryan White's drop-in about "sex-toy" Tupperware house parties turns public radio into -- pardon the pun -- pubic radio! The fact that the women in this piece speak frankly about masturbation and orgasms suggests the post-Vagina-Monologues zeitgeist we're part of in 2007. Although I'm poking fun here, I take "To Peddle Pleasure" seriously and recommend it to PDs on the East and West Coasts.

What could be more innocuous and worthy than treating elderly women with arthritis or hip surgery, making "normal sex" impossible? Even in the aftermath of "The Vagina Monologues," our puritan values militate against the use of autoerotic devices. But one of White's saleswomen is right on target when she declares, "It isn't about the [sex] product. . . . It's empowering [women] to love their bodies again because so many women hate their bodies." What about the young woman who's been raped, who attends a party, hoping to learn how to enjoy sex again? What about the middle-aged woman who hasn't "touched [her] vagina in 15 years"? In the words of one of the saleswomen addressing a customer, "It's okay, you're totally safe here tonight. Welcome."

Strangely, all but one of the pleasure peddlers here have names that end in "a": Helaina, Dana, Theresa, Martha, and Paula. The sole monosyllabic Jane completes the cast of a half-dozen down-home, friendly Romance Enhancement Consultants -- even if the program's liner notes specify that there are five, not six, Consultants. The mix of various women's voices speaking on behalf of their cottage industry is professional; understandably, there are no direct interviews of clients seeking Romance Enhancement.

You may laugh nervously at a line like, "It's hard to hold peoples' attention till the grand finale of the dildo." And I can't imagine a gender switch in which men's sex parties were the subject of a radio feature. But I commend the chutzpah, and appreciate the value, of a piece as devoted to the pure pleasure of human beings as White's drop-in.