# Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=323 [Latest](https://boards.straightdope.com/latest.md) · [Categories](https://boards.straightdope.com/categories.md) · [Tags](https://boards.straightdope.com/tags.md) **Page:** 324 --- ## [Homeplates in the NW?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeplates-in-the-nw/36)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [April 30, 1999, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homeplates-in-the-nw/36 "1999-04-30T05:38:00Z")
Well, your treatment of the question was accurate, and comical considering the passion with which traditionalists cling to the way things were. But I believe you forgot to actually address the why. Yes all parks are SW o… --- ## [2+2=5.....](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-2-5/876)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [April 30, 1999, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-2-5/876 "1999-04-30T05:33:00Z")
Your answer is accurate, but I recall a high school calculus teacher who every year began his semester with a lecture stating something absurd like this. I thankfully don’t recall the precise details, but I believe it wa… --- ## [GM and the PE in LA](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gm-and-the-pe-in-la/37)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 30, 1999, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gm-and-the-pe-in-la/37 "1999-04-30T03:44:00Z")
Blaming GM (or alternately oil companies) for the demise of the Pacific Electric Railway in LA is always popular and almost always laughable. Southern California developed in such a pattern that it was nearly impossible… --- ## [the monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-monkey/35)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [April 29, 1999, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-monkey/35 "1999-04-29T03:29:00Z")
In this song “Pop goes the Weasel”, what does the monkey have to do with anything? --- ## [Entire Archive](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entire-archive/34)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 5\ **Last updated:** [April 28, 1999, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entire-archive/34 "1999-04-28T05:53:00Z")
What??? And to think I just finished reading all columns since May 6, 1994… Now I have to read 10 years of Straight Dope? Here goes my social life for the next six months… --- ## [smoking benefits, 2/3/95 column](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-benefits-2-3-95-column/32)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 4\ **Last updated:** [April 28, 1999, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-benefits-2-3-95-column/32 "1999-04-28T05:33:00Z")
In the 2/3/95 column there is a discussion of whether smoking prevents Alzheimer’s disease. I just want to mention that smoking causes strokes, which can result in multi-farct dementia, which is just as bad as Alzheim… --- ## [Burping, farting and sneezing](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burping-farting-and-sneezing/33)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 28, 1999, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burping-farting-and-sneezing/33 "1999-04-28T01:56:00Z")
Cec, Randy S. Lavine is half right. The rumor was indeed printed in The National Lampoon, but it was not a contest it came from, it was an article written and illustrated by Gahan Wilson about childhood rumors and be… --- ## [toilet plumes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-plumes/31)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 47\ **Last updated:** [April 26, 1999, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toilet-plumes/31 "1999-04-26T04:03:00Z")
As I get the Reader, the column on Charles Gerba and aerosols getting everything in your bathroom dirty leaves out one thing. He was probably doing his test with powerful siphon jet flushometers (you know, Sloan Royal’s)… --- ## [Easter](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easter/30)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [April 24, 1999, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easter/30 "1999-04-24T05:13:00Z")
Dear Cecil: Oops! You goofed. In your first book, “The Straight Dope,” you say that “Easter falls on the first Sunday subsequent to the first full moon after the vernal equinox.” This isn’t necessarily true. The date of… --- ## [worms](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worms/29)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 23, 1999, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worms/29 "1999-04-23T12:53:00Z")
Somebody point me to the column on worms during rain, the 06-Jan 95 column only discusses worms mating. --- ## [just venting](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-venting/27)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [April 22, 1999, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-venting/27 "1999-04-22T21:14:00Z")
sometimes i just want to vent and this looks like a good place to do that . . .at least it is quiet and peaceful here . … i was driving home in the rain tonight and i noticed that a lot of people were driving with just … --- ## [Cutting boards](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-boards/26)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 21, 1999, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cutting-boards/26 "1999-04-21T23:42:00Z")
Re: cutting boards. There is a common misunderstanding about this issue. What you should do is keep your salad board separate from other boards. You can cut vegetables on the same board as meat, as long as the vegetables… --- ## [Dogs' frozen little paws](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogs-frozen-little-paws/25)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 21\ **Last updated:** [April 21, 1999, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogs-frozen-little-paws/25 "1999-04-21T03:26:00Z")
I think Cecil missed out a whole aspect to the dogs getting frostbitten feet thing. From my experience (and I grew up in the Yukon, where dogsledding is considered a perfectly legitimate and popular sport) frostbite is n… --- ## [Premarital blood testing](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/premarital-blood-testing/24)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 2\ **Last updated:** [April 20, 1999, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/premarital-blood-testing/24 "1999-04-20T13:47:00Z")
While reading the April 19, 1996 column, I noticed that Cecil didn’t mention one of the main reasons why premarital blood testing is still required. As a bride-to-be several years ago in Nebraska, I had to take a premari… --- ## [Hocus Pocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hocus-pocus/23)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 4\ **Last updated:** [April 18, 1999, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hocus-pocus/23 "1999-04-18T18:51:00Z")
There may be an earlier origin of Hocus Pocus than your conjurer. I remember reading (I thought it was in one of your books, but obviously not) that “Hocus Pocus” was used by an early Protestant theologian to belittle th… --- ## [Cholera Belt](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cholera-belt/21)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 14, 1999, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cholera-belt/21 "1999-04-14T01:15:00Z")
Cecil, you’ll be happy to know that the cholera belt survives in Japan, and is in fact quite common. Known as a hara-maki (belly-band), these knitted woolen bands are worn by many older men (especially in the countryside… --- ## [Concave bottle bottoms](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concave-bottle-bottoms/20)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 21\ **Last updated:** [April 12, 1999, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concave-bottle-bottoms/20 "1999-04-12T01:50:00Z")
I think Cecil gave an incomplete answer on this topic. OXY bottles and such have concave bottoms to help make the bottle strong enough to withstand the high pressures. They are not designed to be stacked one atop each o… --- ## [Helicopter column of 12/30/94](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helicopter-column-of-12-30-94/18)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [April 7, 1999, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/helicopter-column-of-12-30-94/18 "1999-04-07T01:20:00Z")
Browsing through the newly-available past columns, I happened upon an article about how helicopters work. Although I loathe to suggest that Maestro Cecil may have made a boo-boo, I must suggest a slightly different answe… --- ## [8th man vs cecil's witless minions](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8th-man-vs-cecils-witless-minions/15)
**Author:** [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Replies:** 0\ **Last updated:** [April 5, 1999, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8th-man-vs-cecils-witless-minions/15 "1999-04-05T23:25:00Z")
Oh wise windy sage- I mean wise sage of the Windy City: in “Triumph of the Straight Dope”, scott dropped the ball. “The 6 Million Dollar Man” is based on the novel “Cyborg” by Martin Caidin M.D. A brilliant novel punted … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=322)