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Recently in Salon Mothers Who Think

The other side of the closet
After 10 years and two children, my husband told me he is gay.
By Janet Nicolazzo
[04/26/00]

Sleeping with the enemy
While I'm planning security for the IMF demonstrations, my husband is getting thrown in jail. He better not ask me for bail.
By Lisa Guide
[04/24/00]

Born to pop pills
I have a well-chosen capsule for every occasion.
By Elissa Schappell
[04/20/00]

Our town
The place I share with Timothy McVeigh.
By Mark Phillips
[04/19/00]

Baby barf rules
Take the hit, then reach for the tequila.
By Jonathan Kronstadt
[04/17/00]

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Pac Man. Ms. Pac Man. Donkey Kong. I passed on 'em all -- partly out of boredom, but mostly because of a lack of eye-hand coordination.

And then video games got violent. I'd walk past the study and see my otherwise angelic husband, Ray, pointing an enormous, very real-looking gun around the interior of a half-submerged submarine, waiting for a predator to pop out. Boom!

"It's relaxing," he explained, eyes on the screen, keys clicking, mouse poised, muscles clenched.

Also Today Sissyfighter Meet Eric Zimmerman, the brains behind the Net's nastiest little game. By Russ Spencer

As far as I was concerned, being a true video-game junkie required more time than I was willing to spend. I'm the queen of multitasking: I shop on the Internet while I do the laundry. Or I watch "Ally McBeal," talk on the phone, pet the dog and eat a Starbucks low-fat frappuccino bar. Or walk on the treadmill, read the paper, listen to a CD, watch the "Today" show and talk baby talk to the dog.

But that all changed when, a couple of weeks ago, my friend Rob came over and insisted that he had to show us this video game, Sissyfight 2000, that he'd read about in the New York Times. Although the concept is different from traditional video games, Sissyfight is no less violent, let me assure you, than Ray's shoot'em-up games. The players are girls on the playground and the goal is to humiliate the other girls until you win. The graphics were cute, so I watched over Rob's shoulder. But I wasn't really interested -- it was just another video game.

Then one night, after I became tired of eBay and I'd already bought a CD on Amazon.com, I noticed www.sissyfight.com on our bookmarks.

So I pulled it up. I haven't been heard from since.

It's not just that Sissyfight is fun, which it is. Or that I'm getting good at it, which I am. This game has stirred something inside me I thought was dead: the urge to bludgeon someone -- whether with words or fists -- on the playground. It's a vicious pleasure that I never got to indulge in as a child.

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