Letters

No Mere Mr. Nice Guy
The article on Travis Lee ("St. Travis at the Bat," Michael Kiefer, September 3) was awesome. I never knew how "nice" a guy Travis was. I had seen him play many games, but had only seen the baseball player side of Travis, not the man.

I am impressed with the content of the article and how the author seemed to really want to let Diamondbacks fans know how great a guy Travis is, on and off the field. I am really glad we have guys like Travis Lee for children and adults alike to look up to. Travis is setting an example and setting a great one at that.

Thanks for writing such an insightful story that has reinforced my belief that there are still some nice guys out there.

Nikki
Phoenix

Buono Contention
I generally enjoy Howard Seftel's reviews very much, as I find his culinary judgment on a par with his superb writing talent. I was disappointed, however, with his review of Rustico in the September 3 issue ("Mangia Wars").

My wife and I dined there recently with two other couples, all of us Italian-born and educated. Between the six of us, we tried a number of entrees, antipasti and desserts. We found both the food and the service excellent. Ernesto the chef is another native Italian, and we all came away quite content with the experience.

Maybe Mr. Seftel should change his name to "Sefteli" and revisit Rustico passing himself off as another countryman. I'm sure he'd get better service (we Italians have been known to discriminate in our favor) and change his opinion.

Carlo Infante
Scottsdale

Fleecing the Flock
Congratulations on another fascinating report of corruption ("Savings Bondage," Terry Greene Sterling, September 10)! Reminds me of your early work on the scams that Fife was pulling. Hopefully your in-depth work will attract some agency willing to try to stop these frauds. The faithful will continue to invest, I guess, because Christians are such sheep seeking a Christlike figure to herd into their pens at night. It appears from your report that they have a very nasty bunch of wolves bent on taking their money and perpetrating the old stealth theft of pious folks' limited resources. It sure reminds me of a recent trial we had in Phoenix. Please keep up the good work.

Ted Bundy
Tucson

Oval Office Babylon
Barry Graham blatantly contradicts himself in his column about the president ("Modern Maturity," August 27) and in doing so, points up a truth that makes this whole Clinton-Lewinsky matter an easy call.

First, Graham says, the president's affair with Ms. Lewinsky is a personal matter. Later, he acknowledges, the trysts occurred in the president's office.

Which one is it, Graham? It certainly can't be both. I can't believe that more voices in the media aren't beating this drum, that this affair took place on company time in the company office with a company intern.

That makes it the company's business, Mr. President. Yeah, it's between your wife, your daughter and your God. But it's also justifiably between you and your employer.

And that would be me.
Look, I'm certainly not part of any right-wing conspiracy. I voted for this guy twice and I continue to support many of his policies. Nor am I a fan of Ken Starr and his highly questionable investigative tactics.

But this one's a no-brainer, regardless of how the facts have come to light. The man we chose for the top job has admitted to using his position of power to get his ya-yas off numerous times with a company intern on company time in the freakin' company office.

Despite his past accomplishments and future potential, he must be removed from office, as would be the appropriate measure in any corporate or bureaucratic culture on the planet.

To justify a different position, you must either be blindly loyal or selfishly concerned about the impact his resignation might have on your pocketbook. And given the way the polls read, there are a lot of self-centered, shallow-thinking, morally ambivalent Americans out there. How pathetic.

Jim Knapp
Phoenix

Regarding Barry Graham's "Modern Maturity" about President Clinton's affair with Miss Lewinsky, I think the American people have had enough of this crap. The president recently said, "I'm sorry" for the first time. What the hell do they want him to do? Drop on his knees crying, begging for forgiveness? He already apologized to the nation for something that is nobody's business but his. He has done a good job as a president and that's all that really matters.

Ken Starr must be pretty desperate to charge Clinton with something, but after $40 million to find out that Clinton cheated on his wife, he has some explanation to give to the country. What's next? Maybe we need to know if Clinton stays up all night watching porno movies instead of taking care of his job, or maybe he's into bondage. Please, Mr. Starr, spend another $40 million to find this out. This is really important to us.

Rafael Silva
Phoenix

I enjoyed the letters to the editor in your September 10 issue, including those regarding the Starr investigation and President Clinton. However, I was aggravated that you failed to take the opportunity to correct a not-uncommon misunderstanding, repeating without comment your reader's statement, "But he's our commander in chief, so, technically, he is part of the armed forces and should fall under the Uniform Code of Military Justice." The reader then goes on to observe that adultery is a violation of the code.