There’s a picture of him right on the official T-shirt!
sigh Slug’s such a gifted portrait artist…
I have to say it. I’m sorry. But I feel strongly about it, dammit.
Sig Line !!!.
Not for nothing, but it’s high time that both the Green Lantern and the Pope gave a respectful nod to the third and equal leg. Yanno? For one thing, the Pope is all-knowing, the Green Lantern is all-glowing. Only Cecil Adams is both.
Things come in threes, like Manny, Moe and Jack, Huey Dewey and Louie, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and the more infamous Trinity.
The only thing of substance that came in fours was Rock, Paper, Scissors and Stone. Nobody’s tried to show the same reverence to them.
Yet. 
Cartooniverse
Like Thing 1, Thing 2, and…Hi, Opal?
You know, that lingerie google ad keeps popping up in the oddest places. The Gamera thread, the kitties smacking the op over the head thread, now this one…and now I’m picturing Cecil in a pink lace teddy with fishnet stockings…
[sub]oh dear og make it stop…[/sub]
Thanks, Cartooniverse! 
You’re welcome to it if you want it.
Alright, my serious answer - it’s a marketing line.
Trying to factually claim yourself the smartest person in the world would bring all sorts of problems, defining intelligence for example - how can one be judged as the smartest person in the world? Writing skills? Math? Chess? Arts?
However, Cecil is a real guy. He runs a doughnut shop in Des Moines with Elvis. Honest.
Given the topic at hand, do you know the answer? If so i’d assume there were some evidence waiting to be shared… Otherwise, you couldn’t possibly know the answer any better than anyone else
Something about the thought of Cecil Adams doing a vanity search, like a run-of-the-mill mortal Doper, seems incongruous and even a little depressing. He seems like he should be above that kind of thing.
Even acolytes would be a little prosaic. Picture the exchange:
“Master, they’re discussing you in a thread in MPSIMS.”
“Be gone, varlet! It’s my message board! Every discussion is about me, even if it purports to be about foolery like the Marianas Trench or the Simpsons. Be gone, and trouble me no more!”
Yeah, usually Ed deals with stuff like this, when it’s needed to be dealt with at all.
Hey, what’s this load of crap in the ads??
Lies! Lies!
Mr. Adams is no less than one of the best researchers we have. And he was that before the Internet came along, as well. Would you like to research the caloric content of semen?
I have it on good authority that Cecil Adams is a woman.
Cecil can’t be the most intelligent person in the world, because that chick who writes for Parade magazine is.
If we do believe, do we instead get the 72 virgins? Because that would really be a good return on my membership fee.
Marilyn has neither the record nor the wit to claim that title, her last name notwithstanding. And her weaseling ability[sup]1[/sup] is subpar to say the least, whereas Cecil is the pinnacle of a basilisk-killing member of genus Mustelidae. Really! I mean just look at their respective venues; Cecil is a celebrated contributor to the Chicago Reader; Marilyn is a mere columnist in the Sunday color supplement alongside celebrity suck-up James Brady and that Jello-mold festisist Shiela Lukins. Need we say more?
And her puzzles suck. I’ve gotten more challenge from the back side of a Pizza Hut placemat.
Stranger
[sup]1[/sup] 'Weaseling out of things is important for kids to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals. Except the weasel." – Homer Simpson
Cecil exists because he told me so. So there.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Cecil Adams. He exists in the hearts of the hippest, smartest people on the planet (and in the hearts of a few dipsticks.)
As serious an answer as is possible: Cecil Adams is the pseudonym of a person. Ed Zotti has been for 25 years his editor. Ed is not him, though he has appeared in loco Cecilis on a few occasions. His columns are written by him, with the able help of Ed and, sometimes, the SDSAB, in research and rewrite. To a certain extent, Ed and the Administrators build up the mystery for the sheer fun of it.
Who is this man? If he wanted us to know, he would have revealed his secret identity already. And, of course, it’s possible that what we are faced with is the Dread Pirate Cecil.
I really resisted going kinda off-topic here, but I can no longer resist, due to the misinformation and completely wrong reporting of Elvis’ (is that the correct use of the apostrophe? well, anyway,[sic] if it’s not) supposed death.
I know for a fact that Elvis is not dead He is stuck in Concourse C of the Atlanta airport waiting for his ASA connection to Memphis; I’ve met him there many times myself. So there!
He is real. And he looks like a turkey.