I never actually believed in anal bleaching. I thought it was an urban myth, like Richard Gere and the gerbil, or Tom Cruise being straight. In fact, it turns out there's a spa in New York where they claim to have invented it, and apparently they have quite a following.

"I didn't know how people were going to react from this unusual treatment," said Enrique Ramirez, owner of face to face nyc, which is a pretty misleading name considering they're not looking deep into their customers' eyes. "I was extremely surprised how New Yorkers especially, reacted to this. I received tons of letters accusing me of being sick!!! Many writers and bloggers made fun of me as well. I wanted to take it back but, I stuck it out and eventually all the negative comments and press went away. I now have a good amount of Anal Bleaching cult following."

So, in the end, was it a smart move or not? "I truly believe that I lost some clients from this. During the Fall of 2007, I was in many Manhattan magazines so I really couldn't hide it. I even removed it from our web site for a few months until the storm ended. A few regular clients did comment in a negative way when anal bleaching was introduced and suddenly they disappeared with no explanation."

"No explanation"? Just as a public service, I'll provide one for the man.

ME: Well, see you tomorrow. I'm heading to the spa.

A COWORKER: That sounds like a great idea. Which spa are you going to? The only one I know around here does that creepy anal bleaching stuff.