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10/13/97

Sense-orship

The press release from SegaSoft promised boogers, zits, scabs, poop, and vomit, but when I arrived at the Children's Interactive Expo in San Francisco last weekend to check out the new CD-ROM version of Grossology, the best-selling book series from author Sylvia Branzei that caters to "kids' instinctive love of embarassing bodily functions," all there was at SegaSoft's booth was a large beaker filled with "snot."

For a moment, I simply figured that once again I'd been suckered by typical tradeshow hype and vaporware promises. In fact, the truth was even more predictable than that. Apparently, the Expo's anally retetentive organizers suffered an attack of good taste at the last moment, and asked the Grossology exhibitors to tone down their booger-coated approach to science. But the weekend's snot-only decree wasn't the worst of it. On Friday, when the show was open only to the press and to kids on official school fieldtrips, the Grossologists weren't allowed to exhibit at all.

-- G. Beato




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