angels on he head of a pin, or needle

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

All things sublunary(under the moon) were thought to be composed of the four elements - earth, air, fire, water. Angels on the other hand were composed of the fifth element, ether, which could not combine with any of the above. Therefore it is not a question, it is a typical medieval verbal trick…like the one about unicorns could only be captured by virgins. No unicorns…ergo…

2

This was actually one of Cecil’s columns, not a mailbag answer: Did medieval scholars argue over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin?. I’m sure that CKDextHavn will bump it over there momentarily, and then Arnold can tell us what page of what book it’s on.

3

Arnold can tell us what page of what book it’s on.

But you already have that knowledge–you just weren’t aware of it.

There are currently five Straight Dope volumes – Cecil’s pentateuch, so to speak. (Plus the apocryphal Know it All! by little Ed, which of course is not canonical).

The Master’s five works, in chronological order, are

  1. The Straight Dope
  2. More of the Straight Dope
  3. Return of the Straight Dope
  4. The Straight Dope Tells All
  5. Triumph of the Straight Dope

Moreover, at no additional charge, each page of each volume is individually numbered. Next, look closely at the URL for this column: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_132.html
The a4 refers the the fourth volume, while 132 is the page number. Thus, this column appears on page 132 of The Straight Dope Tells All.

(Also, Mr. Green did it in the Conservatory with a Candlestick. But I’m not telling how I figured that out).

4

Chronos and whitetho have pretty much said what I was going to say (thank you fellow posters to the SDMB), but I still feel the urge to go through my pre-programmed spiel:

Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment.
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL).

Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by Chronos.

The column can also be found in the book by Cecil Adams mentioned by whitetho.