# 37th Anniversary of first Straight Dope column

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 2, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360 "2010-02-02T10:40:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360/1 "2010-02-02T10:40:32Z")

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Today marks the 37th anniversary of the [first Straight Dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/pages/faq/firstcolumn), which was dated February 2, 1973.

I’m not exactly sure how these things work, but my understanding is that if Little Ed sees his shadow today, he and Uncle Cecil will need to fight ignorance for another year. Otherwise, they will have to do it for another 365 days.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360/2 "2010-02-02T13:11:21Z")

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Little Ed casts no shadow.

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360/3 "2010-02-02T14:25:01Z")

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> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> Little Ed casts no shadow.

And Cecil _is_ The Shadow.

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**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360/4 "2010-02-02T16:26:27Z")

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> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> And Cecil _is_ The Shadow.

But The Shadow has the ability to cloud men’s minds… 😕

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/37th-anniversary-of-first-straight-dope-column/527360/5 "2010-02-02T16:28:40Z")

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> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> But The Shadow has the ability to cloud men’s minds… 😕

Don’t worry-he only uses it on the Bad Guys.