Letters from the issue of Thursday, September 29, 2005

Girl-on-Girl Reaction Curious no longer: Your thesis on bi-curious women is something I’ve always observed, but I’ve never seen anything written about it before in the press (“The Vagina Dialogues,” Sarah Fenske, September 15). The fact is, women are almost always more attracted to other women’s bodies than to men’s…

Under Siege

Fundamentalist Mormon polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border are steeling themselves against law enforcement agencies coming at them from several fronts. Formidable eight-foot walls — built from blocks, wood and steel, and occasionally mounted with surveillance cameras — are under construction around the homes of many of the followers of Warren…

Storm Troopers

Elton Bush loves Arizona. He’s not too fond of his ironic namesake, the president, for taking his time mobilizing the guard while Elton and his wife waited for a helicopter on the interstate for three days. He’s also not too happy with the mayor of New Orleans, for not having…

Letters

Funny Business A “Wonderful Russ” sighting: Really great article on the Valley’s comedy scene (“Jokers Wild,” Jimmy Magahern, September 8)! When I saw the cover of New Times, I just had to read this, having personally done standup comedy a decade ago. Dan Mer still knows better than everyone else…

SuperMix Saturday

“Jesus H. Christ on a crutch!” I cry as I ease our whip a block south of the downtown Phoenix arts venue .anti_space at 815 West Madison Street. “It looks like a freakin’ Rob Zombie flick down here.” “Oh, Kreme, they’re just crackheads,” sputters the J-unit, pooh-poohing my dismay at…

The Vagina Dialogues

Jen Sincero was having the best sex of her life. And while that should have been cause for celebration, it wasn’t quite that simple. After all, in the age of Oprah, you can’t simply live. You need explanation. Analysis. Most important, you need written assurance that your life choices fit…

Boy Joy

Six nights a week, Karamba is all about gay Latinos. But Fridays are more complicated. Friday nights, the club hosts Hot Pink!, a dance scene for the young and would-be fabulous. In most clubs, the women are the pretty ones, but the men here have picked up on the chicks’…

Bible Belted

On its face, the federal law safeguarding religious beliefs in the workplace is a simple one: Employers must make reasonable efforts to accommodate workers’ “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Beyond that, though, there’s really nothing simple about it. What’s a reasonable effort? What does it mean to “accommodate”? And really, what’s…

Letters

Night Galleries Or we could just be law-abiding: About your “T.G.I.F.” article (Benjamin Leatherman, September 1): I was on the Roosevelt strip on August 5 and saw the officers who seemed to be posted on every corner. I didn’t think anything of it because where people gather in the thousands,…

Jokers Wild

In a corner of a packed sports bar, beneath a neon Captain Morgan sign and a blank TV monitor, Erik Miller steps up to the mic and launches into his regular Friday night standup routine at Chilly Bombers Bar & Grill in northwest Phoenix. “Let’s keep it going for John…

Moore’s the Merrier

Maybe it was watching Tommy Lee get tutored by that hot blonde in Tommy Lee Goes to College that inspired us. Or maybe it was just cruising through Tempe the other day and noticing that all the fly Arizona State University chicks are back for fall. Or perhaps we were…

Letters

Base Balls Baseball stage parent: Robert Nelson drives home a timely parable on the over-parenting that is helping transform youth athletics into a modern-day Children’s Crusade. As a father who was once the worst kind of baseball stage parent, I couldn’t help but insert myself into the ego-driven thought processes…

T.G.I.F.

It’s a sticky Saturday morning in mid-August, and Tara Logsdon is fried. The sun beats down on Logsdon, 31, as she arranges her bizarre-looking paintings next to some artful teddy bears and handmade clothing on the outdoor stage at Holga’s, during the downtown Phoenix apartment complex’s monthly flea market. The…

Farewell, My Lovelies

For all but the most breathless pageant addicts, the Miss Arizona competition this past June was low on drama. Miss Arizona 2004, a busty blonde, handed off her crown to the new Miss Arizona 2005, a slightly less busty blonde. People clapped. Surely, someone’s mother cried. To see the fireworks,…

Let’s Get the Party Started

The party’s just getting started inside The Fort, even though it’s well past 2 a.m. on the first Friday in August. Haunts like the Emerald Lounge have long since discharged their drunks, but numerous night crawlers have journeyed to the squat gallery run by brothers Isaac and Gabriel Fortoul next…

To-ga! To-ga!

“There’s more white cloth in here than a Klan meetin’ in Georgia!” I spit as we cross the threshold of Old Town Scottsdale’s Dos Gringos for the club’s toga party last Thursday. “So, uh, how do I look?” “Like someone tried to tie a tablecloth around a hippo,” cracks my…

Letters

ClothesHorses Homegrown talent: With regard to the story about Arizona’s fashion scene (“Angela’s Ashes,” Joe Watson, August 18), I strongly disagree with several points. First, the author suggests that talented designers leave the state. But there are talented designers with very successful lines that choose to make Arizona their home,…

Ladies’ Night

“First off, no pullin’ out your ‘man,'” Mr. Luscious informs his fellow male strippers, minutes before they take to the Celebrity Theatre’s stage as the erotic revue known as The Main Event, Part 2. “You can act like you’re about to pull it out, but you better not.” “In case…

Hardball

I am standing on an earthen berm beyond the right-field fence during the second game of the Arizona Little League Majors State Tournament. If my oldest son’s team wins this tournament, the boys are off to San Bernardino, California, to play in the Little League Western Regionals. If they win…

Letters

Ethic Cleansing Freedom of the oppressed: It’s unbelievable that the misconception is so prevalent that there’s an “oppressed and occupied” Palestine (“Der Füror,” Sarah Fenske, August 11). Your writer touched on the central point when she observed: “[The YWCA leadership] focused on the Palestinians’ mistreatment without a word about [Yasser]…

Bird in Hand

In the weeks leading up to last September’s Republican primary election for sheriff, challenger Dan Saban predicted that someday someone inside Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s inner circle would disclose damaging information that would end Arpaio’s political career. Might that day soon arrive? Federal prosecutors now have a rare opportunity to obtain…

Angela’s Ashes

On a sweltering Sunday night in mid-July, the Pussycat Lounge in Old Town Scottsdale is crawling with twentysomethings pounding shots of Patrón and sipping mojitos. A no-kill animal shelter is trying to raise money tonight by pimping a swimsuit calendar filled with local models in bikinis. Clearly, this crowd is…