Clearing the zone on November 9, 1998…

Dear Breakup Girl,

My boyfriend loves hockey. I think he might actually love it more than he loves me. Just this weekend we were having an intimate moment and then hockey came on and he blew me off. Should I end our relationship because I feel that he has no time for me during hockey season?

— Kathy

Dear Kathy,

There’s a hockey strategy called “dump and change.” That he’ll hear you say.

Love,
Breakup Girl

PS Caveat: Is he really, totally, fully blowing you off, or do you think he just ducks behind the Zamboni when he gets all shy about “intimacy” and stuff? You guys should have separate hobbies and interests, you know. Just, yeah, make sure that you are a major interest when the game’s not on.

Ask Lynn, Breakup Girl’s alter ego’s advice column at MSN.com (powered by Match.com), is now being updated monthly rather than weekly, so now you’ll get two new letters each month…

1. Warhammer Widow feels like she comes in second to her beau’s gaming — but then, so does paying his car insurance. Eeep!

2. Confused and Hurt, who is not a virgin herself, has a boyfriend who said he was. That is, until he finally admitted that she wasn’t his first. This is both confusing (why lie?) and hurtful (the lies!).

Fear not, Xbox widows (and widowers) everywhere! There is now proof that your next video game experience could not onlybe fun, but could also save your relationship. Rachel Shukert’s hilarious new article on Salon.com (it’s Premium, so you’ll need a subscription or day pass; of course, I’ll summarize here too) tells the story of a frustrated wife and her video game-addicted husband in a marriage. He spends his time shooting things in a video fantasy world; she fears the man she married has become one of the very aliens he’s always trying to blow up. (“…[N]oise-canceling headphones,” Shukert writes. “You could lock Rush Limbaugh, Phyllis Schlafly and Mullah Omar in a room together with a stack of Hustlers and 10 ounces of meth, and they couldn’t come up with anything more misogynist.”)

The solution? (more…)