I got my first copy of The Straight Dope in 1990 (still have it) from my brother as a going away present before I went into the military. There were a few years that I wasn’t able to catch the weekly columns, but I have treasured every book. I was a fan when it was on AOL and checked out the web site off and on. Sadly I missed the TV show. Been lurking on the SDMB for a while, so I thought it was time to sign up and share my story.
What about you? When did you first get hooked on the Dope?
I think it was 1989 or so - a guy on my dorm floor was talking about liking a particular local free newspaper “because it has the Straight Dope.” I thought he was using a dated figure of speech - nope, turns out it became my favorite column to read, and I picked up a number of books over the years.
Started checking them out of my local library around 1993 or so. Found the Dope on AOL around 1996 or 1997, joined up, and here I am.
I’ve read every column, most many times.
The SD weekly article is in the City Paper (Washington DC). Been a fan since around 1981.
- L.A. Reader.
For pretty much as long as it has been running in the Chicago Reader
The website bored.com has a link to the archives or at least it did at one point. When I was younger, I read a lot of old columns and enjoyed them and ran across the section of the archive that hosted the threadspotting threads. Read a bunch, laughed my ass off and discovered it was still a message board. This was probably sometime around 2003.
I first read it in Chicago, sometime in the schoolyear of 1983-4. It was in a paper that I think came from the University of Chicago.
The column I first read? Ahh, one of the classics.
Is it true that male pigs have corkscrew shaped penises?
It was the TV show that hooked me, originally.
Does anybody know if there is somewhere to view those? Hell, it seems like every TV show that ever existed is on line somewhere, but I can’t find The Straight Dope
I was probably 13 or 14, back in 1985 or '86 and was shopping with my Mom in a supermarket when I blindly stumbled onto the $2.99 paperback edition of The Straight Dope, and threw it in the basket, thinking it looked pretty cool…
That book is probably still around here somewhere, tattered and torn, as I read it over and over again as I got older and would get bored (and possibly stoned).
I still remember Cecil shit-sassing the guy who wrote in a question about the morality of “eating” Betty Rubble, as he felt too guilty about eating the very young Pebbles…
(I had a dirty mind as a kid)
Same as many of you here, someone gave me a copy of one of the books. This was around 1990 or so. Discovered the AOL site sometime in the 90s (1996 maybe) and have lurked on and off ever sense.
Got wind of the SD from a Wall Street Journal Article in the early 90’s.
Started reading the Dope in Isthmus, the alt-weekly paper in Madison, WI, around 1986 or so.
I started reading the books in the early 90’s, I believe. The first book was sitting on a book shelf in my father’s room and I picked it up because I thought the title was strange…
Was in a used book store, in Thailand, with only one shelf of English books, and there was a SD book. I’d never heard of it, or the Chicago Reader, but loved the book. Traded it in for another book to read, the next day.
2 yrs later, again a used bookstore, this time in Kathmandu, and there’s another SD book!
That’s how I got hooked.
A few years later, I returned from a visit to South America with burning questions that needed answering and found this place - awesome!
Those first questions;
Why does Bolivia have a Navy? Why does Machu have only the one ‘c’, when Picchu, has two?
One small Chicago Newspaper somehow managed to hook me in from diverse spots all over the world, really. Have still never visited Chicago, (unless you count Ohare), or seen a Chicago Reader. Weird, huh?
Jokeaday.com linked to it back in the late 90’s. I joined back in 99, but got booted and rejoined in 2001.
You got booted? How?
Bought a copy of the Straight Dope book in an Orlando bookstore in 1986 while in the Navy. Been a fan ever since!
1960 - 1972. Those were rough years. Been clean ever since. I found this place in 2000 and use it as my Higher Power now.
Join Date says 2003, but I coulda sworn I’ve been here longer. It was a link in the Bookmarks for Opera. I downloaded THAT while attending a really boring class on some Microsoft topic a looooong time ago.