Clarification on the NYT Article

**Reposted from the first Lair, original date: 1/26/04

I had a talk with Mystery today, who gave me the inside scoop on the ”behind the scenes” drama that went on with Neil Strauss and the New York Times regarding the article in last weekend’s Fashion & Style section.  According to Mystery, the article that was printed was a very bastardized version of the original article Mr. Strauss had written, which was a much more positive and balanced view of the community.  I’m told Mr. Strauss fought very hard with his editors who originally did not want to print the article, but which Strauss pushed through in order to beat the Rolling Stones Journalist who is writing an article on the community to the punch.  Apparently, the editors rewrote and re-arranged the article to meet their more ”PC” women-centric standards that the publishers preach, which only reinforces what I thought happened after reading the article for myself.  I’m told Mr. Strauss was not happy with the finished article, but that it could have been much worse had he not fought for it.

Mystery, however, still seems conflicted on how he was portrayed.  He’s worried about it hurting his magic career, and he also elaborated on the pick-up that was featured in the article, telling me how the woman he was pictured with took offence to him going after her friend instead of her.  Had Mystery known that she was going to be the one profiled in the article, he says he could have easily made her his girlfriend as opposed to experimenting and looking for the bridge to her friend (who apparently was a clone of Rachael Leigh Cook, so who can blame him for going for it, eh?  =)

Thundercat