Telephone Sanitizing: After Tap's 1984 break-up, Derek attempted to follow in the footsteps of his father, Donald "Duck" Smalls, by returning to Nilford and apprenticing at SaniFone while his dad recovered from a hernia. "I'd come in and say, 'I'm Derek, Mr. Smalls' boy, here to sanitize your phone.' And they'd say, 'You're sure you know how to do it? We don't want germs on the instrument!' I'd say, 'I know, thank you very much, I've been trained by me dad.' But, actually, when they weren't looking, I'd spit in it just to show 'em who's boss." (MD2) As Derek recalled year later, SaniFone used an industrial strength spray that also was used to clean toilets in coal mines. (WP) In the mid-90s, the first telephone sanitizer in the United States recently attempted to set up shop. The June 1995 issue of Harper's reprinted parts of a brochure distributed during the previous year by B. Spencer Sutton of Brooklyn, who was testing the market feasibility of a line of sanitary telephone headset covers. Sutton noted that telephone receivers are "disease- and germ-covered" and that "considering the damage they can cause, they should be at the top of the list of things to use with caution and protection." He then listed 10 questions to ask yourself about your telephone receiver, including "Would you use a handset with an accumulation of earwax and hair oil on the ear cup or saliva and food particles on the mouth cup?"