Here’s one I should seriously throw out. This coverless 1947 edition of “True Romance” was already in tatters when I found it in the back of a dusty gift shop in Oatman. But I fell in love with the magazine’s beautiful postwar art direction, as well as its haplessly out-of-date take on feminine empowerment — that is to say, landing a man. The advertisements were especially poignant, offering guidance on how to manage such typically tragic social disasters as halitosis, menstruation and “borderline anemia.” And the advice doesn’t stop at the altar. The helpful hints for homemakers are equally plentiful. No doubt, many of our own grandmothers used Drano to combat humiliating “sewer germs,” treated “childhood constipation” with Fletcher’s Castoria and curbed “spousal indifference” by douching regularly with Lysol brand disinfectant.

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