It was to keep the cashings from curlings up.
Sony E888 earbuds:
A friend of mine let me listen to a pair of these ten years ago and this year I finally got around to buying some for myself.
Ooooh, those earphones certainly look nice and comfortable, qxgnxamy. Also, you have really good photography skills - either that, or you have a good camera. Heheh. 
I suppose I should look around and see what I’ve acquired recently that is worth taking a photo of…
Rachel - Yeah, they are pretty comfortable. About the photo, I’ve never been trained in photography and my camera is just of the “point and shoot” variety, but I think it helped that I used real sunlight. =)