Letters From the Issue of Thursday, May 31, 2007

PAIN AND PLEASURE

Paul’s perk: I'm sure your Mistress Seven article gave every male reader a boner ("Belle of the Ball Gag," Paul Rubin, May 17) but what place does it have in the excellent, hard-hitting New Times newspaper? After the fare Paul Rubin has provided over the years, I'm actually surprised that he would lower himself by this subject.

The only thing that made this anything out of the ordinary was that the "lady" had been incarcerated in Tent City, where she had been on "work"- release. Her "work" being the journalistic linchpin here. That and her "legendary" heavy metal boyfriend, whom nobody I know had ever heard of.

Otherwise, this was just Rubin foaming at the keyboard over somebody from the for-pay S&M world, who pretty much does everything every other S&M queen does.

Wait, I know why you did this story: Rubin didn't get a pay raise this year, and his editor was giving him a, well, perk?

Oh, yeah, Seven had such a sad childhood that it was predictable that she'd turn out this way, since her own mother had turned her out at such a young age. Boo-hoo! And all the conflict over whether she liked or disliked the pain inflicted by her ex-rocker boyfriend, whether she likes or dislikes pain in her personal life.

Oh, what a complicated person! The stuff of (porn) novels.

To all that I say: Shut up and whip me some more before you perform fellatio! Right, she doesn't perform sex acts with her "slaves." She saves that for her "boy toys." Ha, she surely made a fetching cover image, and enabled you to write a clever headline. I'm sure your ad staff's jumping for joy.
Tom Lynch, PhoenixArt out of trash: I liked the way Paul Rubin turned what would have ordinarily been a piece of trash aimed at [pushing] papers into a poignant piece of writing. It was interesting how Mistress Seven is so conflicted by her work. How she left guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen because he beat her, and then took up a life of causing and receiving pain.

And please give me the name of her surgeon! My girlfriend's getting a boob job, and I want hers to look exactly like Seven's.
Arthur Serrano, PhoenixSomethin’ for the ladies, please: I would love it if you would, just once, put a male hunk on the cover, all bare-chested and sexy. I've seen New Times put plenty of fetching girls on its front page (like Mistress Seven), but never a fetching guy. Come on, give us straight ladies something to look at, too!
Sally Steele, ScottsdaleToo smart for devil’s work: I read this poor wretch's story and, well, all I can do for the poor dear is recommend that she go to church and get saved. That's no way to live. It's not even a real career, only an excuse to act like a pop-tart.

God has some plan for her, and I don't think whipping men for money is it. She also needs a shrink to work out her sexual hang-ups. She's too smart to carry out the devil's work.
Angalisa Marshall, via the InternetA good find: Now that was a very good story! I'm not interested in that lifestyle, but the way you put it together made me read every word. I don't think I would like to go out with this woman, but I would like to meet her in a group of people. Thanks for finding this out-of-the-way person.
James Garcia, via the InternetBeautiful but sad: Loved the story, though it was very sad in a way. That girl is beautiful, but she is troubled and is trouble. She's the kind of girl my mother always warned me about.
Name withheld by requestYOUNG REPUBLICAN

Match made in heaven: Is it just me, or does Emily Mitchell ("Move Over, Ann Coulter," Megan Irwin, May 24) sound like a young woman in need of a good dicking? Or she probably wouldn't be spewing her vitriol all over college campuses. Perhaps, New Times could start a campaign, similar to television's The Bachelor, and find somebody who hates gays and minorities as much as Mitchell, and we'd have a match made in fundamental heaven!
Sean Carney, via the InternetNASH RAMBLINGS

Let goat-boy off the hook: Your crap on Steve Nash was absurd ("Year of the Goat," The Bird, Stephen Lemons, May 24; see also the Feathered Bastard blog). How can you blame this physically little man (by NBA standards) for what befell his team of (by comparison) physical giants?

It's one thing to say that the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitski needed to carry his team on his back and win in the playoffs. Nowitsky is seven feet tall! But, while Nash is a proficient scorer in his own right, all he can really do (at 6-foot-3,190 pounds) to "take over" a game is pass the ball to his teammates (which he did ad nauseam), and all but one of them (Amaré Stoudemire) couldn't throw the ball in the Grand Canyon for most of the second-round series against the Spurs.