The mystery man, whose name must never be revealed. Because … reasons?
With all due respect, I think you’re taking this far too personally. Pen names, when used, typically serve a purpose. Whatever or whomever was behind the persona of Cecil Adams, whether is was one person or several, succeeded in conveying useful information in an entertaining way through a singular authorial voice, which is not an easy thing to do. The body of work exists. Why not be glad the columns are still there to be read and enjoyed and leave it at that?
Because the people around here aren’t happy to leave it be and acknowledge that Ed Zotti was Cecil Adams for decades.
They won’t leave it alone. They have to persist in the charade. Why? I have no idea. But they just can’t let it drop.
Cecil Adams was the pen name for Ed Zotti. There.
Starting with the Sears Catalog penis column, I helped research a number of columns. I am NOT saying I wrote them, because I most certainly didn’t. And by far the bulk of the work on all the columns, along with the great writing, was done by Cecil/aka Ed.
One used to be able to search the archive for topics covered by the Straight Dope column and the staff reports. I can’t seem to find that search function anymore.
I’ll bet it’d be really fun to go with you to see WWE wrestling.
About halfway down the main Straight Dope page there is Google custom search. Does that help?
Hey, they dropped the kayfabe decades ago, old timer!
If one could scroll down the front page of the Straight Dope site they would find a search box on the page.
Here’s what it would look like if one had eyes to see:
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
And if we went to a performance, you’d be there to tell us so!
We know that when we watch movies, those characters aren’t real people. We don’t have to catcall. 