…in what field do you think his main expertise lies—Biology, Math, Physics, Medicine, etc.?
Journalism. He’s a smart guy, and he’s obviously taken a few math and physics courses, but his main expertise is in ferreting out information from obscure sources.
Either journalism, or liberal arts.
Isn’t he one of those savants from birth, the Rainman kind kept in institutions?
Surely no one thinks that the answers to all the columns (those few that provide an actual answer) are off the top of anyones head? No area of expertise is really needed, unless you call internet research a skill.
Cecil wrote his column for two decades and more before there was a real internet. He’s a good investigator and researcher, though the internet has made those skills less impressive now.
Even so, 90% of the Internet (as with anything) is garbage. Sifting through the dross to acquire the nuggets takes some skill, I think.
Agreed, so his skill is locating previously published information- he’s a librarian then 
He’s an expert in all fields. For og’s sake, don’t piss him off. ::looks around nervously::
He’s also skilled in finding people to interview and interviewing them. That makes him a journalist, which is all he ever claimed to be. (I believe he went to J-school at Northwestern.)
The February, 1995 issue of American Libraries magazine had an article by Paul S. Piper, “a grade school chum of Cecil Adams”, titled “What makes Cecil Adams the world’s greatest reference librarian”, which claims that “Cecil in his previous life had bouts as an electrician, journalist and editor, and always dreamed of driving trains; he is entirely self-taught as a reference artiste…” and also states “When asked if he ever wanted to be a librarian or go to Library School, Cecil answered ‘Good Lord, no!’ Yet his mother was reputed to be a school librarian in Chicago…”