# Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=44 [Latest](https://boards.straightdope.com/latest.md) · [Categories](https://boards.straightdope.com/categories.md) · [Tags](https://boards.straightdope.com/tags.md) **Page:** 45 --- ## [Whatever happened to adoption of the metric system in the U.S.?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-adoption-of-the-metric-system-in-the-u-s/662707)
**Author:** [@dave658](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave658)\ **Replies:** 56\ **Last updated:** [August 1, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-adoption-of-the-metric-system-in-the-u-s/662707 "2013-08-01T22:20:51Z")
HI, this was a very interesting article, but I am curious why Americans always think us brits use the metric system Granted mainland Europe uses metric pretty much exclusively, but we only dip our toes in the European w… --- ## [Killer Nutria Hypothesis (Jimmy Carter Rabbit Attack)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killer-nutria-hypothesis-jimmy-carter-rabbit-attack/662741)
**Author:** [@bowlweevils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bowlweevils)\ **Replies:** 35\ **Last updated:** [July 29, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killer-nutria-hypothesis-jimmy-carter-rabbit-attack/662741 "2013-07-29T16:16:26Z")
One of this week’s Straight Dope Classics, supplemented by a helpful reader: What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit? - The Straight Dope This reader suggested that Carter was not attacked by a killer … --- ## [Happy circumstance](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-circumstance/664761)
**Author:** [@Cheshire\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_2)\ **Replies:** 1\ **Last updated:** [July 29, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-circumstance/664761 "2013-07-29T12:20:22Z")
Whew! Didn’t know this would take so much work. Don’t know which forum to post on. All I wanted to do was say that I was pleased to find The Straight Dope when I asked a question on Google. We followed Cecil when we … --- ## [STI oral sex](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sti-oral-sex/664770)
**Author:** [@aussie\_thorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aussie_thorn)\ **Replies:** 4\ **Last updated:** [July 29, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sti-oral-sex/664770 "2013-07-29T12:13:24Z")
Well we can catch STI s from oral sex, but they would not likely show up so soon "within hours " However - I presume there is some intense mouth to mouth kissing, before / during after - so you may be acquiring “ordin… --- ## [$1,000 per year or $300 every six months?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869)
**Author:** [@nolaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nolaman)\ **Replies:** 64\ **Last updated:** [July 29, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-000-per-year-or-300-every-six-months/663869 "2013-07-29T01:11:54Z")
Marilyn is completely wrong. Try making her the same offer and see which one she accepts. You get a $300 pay raise at the end of six months. Then you get a $300 pay raise at the end of the year. Net increase: $600 O… --- ## [Beauty Queen column](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beauty-queen-column/664616)
**Author:** [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Replies:** 10\ **Last updated:** [July 28, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beauty-queen-column/664616 "2013-07-28T21:55:32Z")
Obligatory link to column Not to disparage the amount of original research that the Straight Dope staff put in on the subject, but isn’t the answer sort of meaningless without context - i.e., a control group? Probably a… --- ## [Vocabulary](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocabulary/664356)
**Author:** [@Calitri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calitri)\ **Replies:** 33\ **Last updated:** [July 27, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocabulary/664356 "2013-07-27T04:09:16Z")
A question that was asked quite a few years ago: Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by? September 7, 2007 \*Dear Cecil: A speaker at a recent school board meeting claimed th… --- ## [Comment / Question : Did Hebrew almost become the official U.S. language?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comment-question-did-hebrew-almost-become-the-official-u-s-language/664517)
**Author:** [@drkrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drkrl)\ **Replies:** 6\ **Last updated:** [July 26, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comment-question-did-hebrew-almost-become-the-official-u-s-language/664517 "2013-07-26T15:56:54Z")
I’m stumped by the meaning of this sentence in the column today: “Tradition has it that he stepped down to cast a negative vote, apparently being the German-speaking equivalent of an Oreo.” What is meant by this? I do… --- ## [Can Cecil Solve this Gometry Stumper?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cecil-solve-this-gometry-stumper/663662)
**Author:** [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [July 25, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-cecil-solve-this-gometry-stumper/663662 "2013-07-25T19:04:58Z")
In the latest column reprint, how about including the diagram of the problem Cecil’s trying to solve? I know it was there for the books. --- ## [Is phi a mystical number as claimed in The Da Vinci Code?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-phi-a-mystical-number-as-claimed-in-the-da-vinci-code/661525)
**Author:** [@peawormsworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peawormsworth)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [July 25, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-phi-a-mystical-number-as-claimed-in-the-da-vinci-code/661525 "2013-07-25T18:18:58Z")
In response to this article: Is phi a mystical number as claimed in The Da Vinci Code? - The Straight Dope The article says: “phi, like pi, is an irrational number that can’t be expressed as the ratio of whole numbers”.… --- ## [Why can't I buy a jet car? - comment](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-buy-a-jet-car-comment/663957)
**Author:** [@Charmbrights](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charmbrights)\ **Replies:** 20\ **Last updated:** [July 25, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-buy-a-jet-car-comment/663957 "2013-07-25T16:30:33Z")
If I had a car with “flames shooting out the back end \[looking\] impressive in the pictures” I am sure the local law enforcement would object bitterly. I would also be sued by pedestrians whose clothes I had ignited (or … --- ## [film digital resolution](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-digital-resolution/664200)
**Author:** [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Replies:** 8\ **Last updated:** [July 25, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-digital-resolution/664200 "2013-07-25T16:29:36Z")
Original article I have often felt Cecil’s answer to this question was a cop out. Finally found this article which does a much better job of answering the question. Http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/pixels.html --- ## [Solomon and the baby](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solomon-and-the-baby/664295)
**Author:** [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Replies:** 15\ **Last updated:** [July 24, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solomon-and-the-baby/664295 "2013-07-24T22:22:56Z")
There is an interpretation that this was not an actual occurrence, but an unsubtle warning parable on Solomon’s part. Solly was not the legitimate heir to the kingdom, but had the throne. The interpretation is that it w… --- ## [Has any non-Muslim ever made the pilgrimage to Mecca? Classic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-non-muslim-ever-made-the-pilgrimage-to-mecca-classic/663939)
**Author:** [@wlinden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wlinden)\ **Replies:** 14\ **Last updated:** [July 23, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-non-muslim-ever-made-the-pilgrimage-to-mecca-classic/663939 "2013-07-23T14:47:41Z")
I can not find an original thread for this, so: In Mary Boyce’s account of the Zoroastrian community in Sharifabad (A PERSIAN STRONGHOLD OF ZOROASTRIANISM, OUP 1977), she notes that one of the Zoroastrians had made the … --- ## [F-16 Keys](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/f-16-keys/663230)
**Author:** [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Replies:** 30\ **Last updated:** [July 20, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/f-16-keys/663230 "2013-07-20T02:34:51Z")
Search engine didn’t find me a thread on this, so here I am. If I’m rehashing old hash, please lock or otherwise terminate this thread. :slight\_smile: The column link: Do you need a key to start an F-16? Well, I was i… --- ## [B.Hall](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-hall/663333)
**Author:** [@admin\_mostlycocoa.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/admin_mostlycocoa.com)\ **Replies:** 9\ **Last updated:** [July 18, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-hall/663333 "2013-07-18T21:59:20Z")
Re the answer about choosing $1,000 per year raise vs $300 every six months, every time I calculate it, if you chose the $300, at the end of the first year you’d have $10,900 vs $11,000, 2nd year you’d be ahead $12,100 v… --- ## [Has anyone ever been killed by a falling piano or anvil?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484)
**Author:** [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Replies:** 54\ **Last updated:** [July 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484 "2013-07-14T17:12:08Z")
The column Dear Cecil, You’re letting Ed write the punchlines again, aren’t you? --- ## [Prince Andrew and royal last names](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-andrew-and-royal-last-names/662948)
**Author:** [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Replies:** 6\ **Last updated:** [July 13, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-andrew-and-royal-last-names/662948 "2013-07-13T11:18:31Z")
Column– Prince Andrew has become the first British royal to join Twitter. His account will be a mixture of tweets from him and his staff. But here’s the interesting part–tweets from him will bear the initials “AY”–“A… --- ## [What would a lunar meteorite impact look like from the Earth?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-lunar-meteorite-impact-look-like-from-the-earth/663336)
**Author:** [@tfabris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tfabris)\ **Replies:** 4\ **Last updated:** [July 12, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-a-lunar-meteorite-impact-look-like-from-the-earth/663336 "2013-07-12T19:03:42Z")
I’m surprised that today’s column didn’t mention the Canterbury Monks and the Giordano Bruno crater. Supposedly these monks watched a lunar impact in the 12th century, and wrote a recorded description of it, in a time be… --- ## [Exploding Goats](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-goats/662727)
**Author:** [@clambam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clambam)\ **Replies:** 16\ **Last updated:** [July 12, 2013, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-goats/662727 "2013-07-12T08:13:21Z")
Normally I’d have nothing to say on this issue but you had to mention “Paddy McGinty’s Goat,” which reminded me of this old chestnut: Bill Grogan’s goat Was feeling fine Ate three red shirts From off the line. Bill … --- ## [Reality, Dimentions, Time, Space, Paradox, And a wrong cecil.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-dimentions-time-space-paradox-and-a-wrong-cecil/661243)
**Author:** [@zWyrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zWyrd)\ **Replies:** 26\ **Last updated:** [July 11, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-dimentions-time-space-paradox-and-a-wrong-cecil/661243 "2013-07-11T16:55:13Z")
Stumbling across this site in my cookies… surfing the tides of corporate idiocracy and the riptides of the new internet - waves once exciting, risen and rode; now the current that flows is but wastewater from the public… --- ## [Whizzing on the third (electrified) rail](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whizzing-on-the-third-electrified-rail/519882)
**Author:** [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Replies:** 44\ **Last updated:** [July 11, 2013, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whizzing-on-the-third-electrified-rail/519882 "2013-07-11T07:38:07Z")
Column here Now I know there has to be a few Dopers that grew up on a ranch or farm and took a pee on an electric fence. So fess up, what happened? I grew up next to a guy that had an electric fence along the road to k… --- ## [Toe Jam Football](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-jam-football/659139)
**Author:** [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Replies:** 11\ **Last updated:** [July 11, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toe-jam-football/659139 "2013-07-11T04:35:11Z")
Not buying Cecil’s explanation that toejam football is the grotty stuff between ones toes that when rolled between ones fingers forms an ellipsoid football. Why would an Englishman write about an ellipsoid football? He… --- ## [Addictive Chap Stick](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-chap-stick/120247)
**Author:** [@JRRobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRRobinson)\ **Replies:** 9\ **Last updated:** [July 10, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-chap-stick/120247 "2013-07-10T15:25:10Z")
In response to the Chap Stick addiction article, I once heard from a (probably unreliable) Television News show that scientists believe that lotions and lip balms fool your body into thinking that it no longer needs to c… --- ## [Any updates on seat-belts in school buses?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-updates-on-seat-belts-in-school-buses/662580)
**Author:** [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Replies:** 6\ **Last updated:** [July 6, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-updates-on-seat-belts-in-school-buses/662580 "2013-07-06T01:05:11Z")
The article is nearly 15 years old. Cecil wrote: “…although only New York and New Jersey currently require them.” Do we have any updated statistics? Specifically comparing injuries (including from passengers hitting… --- ## [Braille drive-up tellers?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/braille-drive-up-tellers/662142)
**Author:** [@David\_Ehrlich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Ehrlich)\ **Replies:** 20\ **Last updated:** [July 5, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/braille-drive-up-tellers/662142 "2013-07-05T20:17:50Z")
Am I missing something? Drive-thru tellers are always on the driver’s side. Assuming the blind person is a passenger, not the driver (a highly presumptuous assumption), he’d have to exit the car and walk around to the … --- ## [Does speed reading training actually work?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-speed-reading-training-actually-work/661928)
**Author:** [@hazmatdance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazmatdance)\ **Replies:** 17\ **Last updated:** [July 3, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-speed-reading-training-actually-work/661928 "2013-07-03T15:23:32Z")
I took Evelyn Wood in the late 70s as a teenager. I already read the way they tell you: scan bunches of words and lines, and use your finger to drag down a column of text to help your eye track faster. The idea is you d… --- ## [Oral sex and sore throats](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-sex-and-sore-throats/662108)
**Author:** [@mlewitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlewitt)\ **Replies:** 7\ **Last updated:** [July 1, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-sex-and-sore-throats/662108 "2013-07-01T16:26:06Z")
There is a form of candida (typically a vaginal infection) called esophageal candidiasis which can cause a sore throat (usually, difficulty with swallowing); the infant form of this is known as “thrush”. Herpangina (cau… --- ## [Is AIDS a manmade disease?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-aids-a-manmade-disease/661464)
**Author:** [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Replies:** 17\ **Last updated:** [July 1, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-aids-a-manmade-disease/661464 "2013-07-01T12:08:05Z")
An interesting 1993 column. Any research in the past twenty years to show that Duesberg really was onto something, or must now be considered a kook like Strecker? --- ## [more info please \[re: secret societies\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-info-please-re-secret-societies/662255)
**Author:** [@ender34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ender34)\ **Replies:** 5\ **Last updated:** [July 1, 2013, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-info-please-re-secret-societies/662255 "2013-07-01T10:40:28Z")
“I’ve participated in this shadowy process myself. Occasionally afterward I go to the public meeting at which the matter is nominally decided, or more often ratified (I live in Chicago, OK?), and I think: most of the peo… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=43) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/c/comments-on-cecils-columns-staff-reports/7.md?page=45)