Pauls 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, Phoenix
Art 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, Phoenix
Somethin 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, Scottsdale
Too smart for devils 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 Internet
A 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 Internet
Beautiful 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 request
YOUNG 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 Internet
NASH 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 (Amar Stoudemire) couldn't throw the ball in the Grand Canyon for most of the second-round series against the Spurs.
I do agree that it's time for the Suns to stop whining and start figuring out how to get tougher. We saw a little bit of Suns toughness against San Antonio, but obviously not enough. Maybe they learned more of that from the Spurs, the toughest team in the league.
I mean, you're right, the fast game is great, but some opposing teams' heads need to be knocked for Phoenix to be propelled into the championship round. (Only Raja Bell is willing to knock somebody down and take the consequences.) That and some luck (two crucial players, especially Stoudemire, getting thrown out of a "momentum" game really hurt. And they didn't even do the crime to get the time).
Richard Nelson, Phoenix
The horrible truth about goat-boy: Finally, somebody in Phoenix had the balls to say it! Steve Nash no more took over the Suns' second-round series against the Spurs than Dirk Nowitski did in the Dallas Mavericks' first-round series against Golden State. Well, not enough to matter, anyway.
Remember how everybody was going around saying how Dirk didn't deserve the MVP trophy because of this? It was all anybody on TV sports shows talked about for a few days. "MVPs carry their teams on their shoulders during the playoffs," Kenny Smith said on Inside the NBA. And Dirk didn't do that.
I still think Dallas owner Mark Cuban was right to trade Nash to the Suns because he's never been the closer in the big games. (Dirk may not be, either, but the subject here is Nash.) The fact that he was getting older was secondary in that trade.
I found it interesting that in the San Antonio series, Nash kind of came back in the fourth quarter, but only enough so that his stats looked respectable, not enough to even have any chance of winning the game in the limited time remaining.
Thanks for telling the truth over there in the belly of the beast.
James Todd, Irving, Texas
Goat-boy was right: What you wrote is foolish. Nash hardly complained at all and was very restrained considering what happened [after the Spurs' Robert Horry pushed him down].
Nash was right to point out that the suspensions of Amar Stoudemire and Boris Diaw factored into their loss. Game 5 was obviously a physical and mental drain on the team. Game 5 would have belonged to the Suns if Amar and Diaw had been there. Even dropping Game 6 wouldn't have mattered a lot because Game 7 would've been back at home.
Bottom line: Horry knew the series was slipping away, because, in a seven-game series, the Suns are a better-conditioned team. He took a cheap shot and it worked. Conditioning and execution are everything in basketball.
Name withheld by request
Take it like a goat-man: Yes, Steve Nash complained and complained a lot. I guess he should have shut his yap and taken it like a man.
Yes, they lost, but it wasn't because of his lack of leadership or effort. Spurs defender Bruce Bowen was in [Nash's] shorts pretty much the whole series.
But as you obviously know (being facetious here), Bruce Bowen's a pretty lousy defensive player. Basically, he is a pussy and he doesn't play very tough. So, it is very obvious that Nash is the "goat" in all of this.
How many easy shots did he set up, only to have teammates miss?! The bottom line is this: Nash did not fail to deliver. San Antonio mustered all its experience and ability and did what it does best. Win! That team makes it difficult for teams to beat them.
So, what more did you want Nash to do? It's a team game, and some of his teammates did not pull their weight. The beauty of Nash's game is that he wants his teammates to excel, and he will take a backseat to them. He wants to put them in a position to shine.
Unfortunately, NBA sixth-man-of-the-year Leandro Barbosa did not come through for the Suns, and neither did Diaw.
Why is any of this about Nash's lack of leadership? You obviously don't know much about basketball or team sports.
Name withheld by request
WOE IS JOE
Plenty of time for apologies: Sarah Fenske wrote an excellent article on Joe Watson, touching on a lot of really nice points ("Afraid of the Dark," May 17). I know Joe, and agree with most of what you say, including his refusal to accept responsibility.
However, I don't think you can read his letter asking for legal fees as evidence of him lacking contrition (although there is plenty of other evidence of that). Given the phase of the criminal process Joe is in, if he said anything along the lines of "I'm sorry to the people I hurt," or "to the women I scared," it would be an admission that would come back to haunt him by way of additional jail time.
I'm sure he's accepted that he'll be in jail for a while, but that doesn't mean he should double his time by apologizing in [a journalism] forum when there will be plenty of time to do that later. Whether he'll do that later is another story.
Name withheld by request
Watsons cross to bear: Thank you, Sarah Fenske, for not sensationalizing Joe Watson! He is and always has been a manipulator and has never had the balls to admit that he and only he is responsible for his actions and bad judgment in his life.
I met Joey about 10 years ago. He showed the puppy-dog eyes to me, and, well, four months later I was pregnant.
I can't explain what came over me, but I needed to lose this loser, and so I did. After seven years of him bouncing from job to job, I gave up and agreed to his relinquishing his parental rights without his having to pay a cent of the over $30,000 in back child support that he had incurred.
The kicker is that the last time he ever saw my child was nine years ago.
I just want those who are even contemplating donating to Joe Watson's cause to read this and think for a minute: If he wouldn't pay for his own child, do you really think he would give you a cent if you were in the same situation [as he is now]?
Name withheld by request
