who is cecil really. what college did he go to? where did he get all the smart stuff from? or was he just born that way?
As my mother would say, he just is
As the first sentence in the FAQ on Cecil notes: Cecil’s life and methods are cloaked in secrecy.
Linked from that same page is the “official story.”
Cecil is a very intelligent individual, but doesn’t know everything, contrary to popular belief. When he doesn’t know the answer to a question, he simply researches the topic at hand to provide us with an answer.
Cecil sometimes posts here under the name tomndebb.
Thanks for the vote, but I really don’t think I want to be held to Cecil’s standard. (And I can think of quite a few other candidates to be the “secret Cecil” (whom I shall not name for fear of missing one or more).
Nah. While knowledgable enough to be a candidate, tom is much too polite and reasonable to be the “real” Cecil. Cecil is much more obnoxious.
Unless it’s one of those mild-mannered Clark Kent-type secret identities.
As others have noted, information about Unca Cece is fragmentary and sometimes contradictory. In a 1996 article, “What makes Cecil Adams the world’s greatest reference librarian?”, author Paul S. Piper reported that “his mother was reputed to be a school librarian in Chicago” and “he is entirely self-taught as a reference artiste”.
This article also notes that “Cecil in his previous life had bouts as an electrician, journalist and editor, and always dreamed of driving trains”. I live fairly close to some railroad tracks. Every time I hear a train go by, I can’t help but wonder if maybe it’s Cecil, having given up the fast-paced world of a newspaper columnist.
They might want to update question #10 in the FAQ, Isn’t that what Ann Lander does?, as the late Ms. Landers really isn’t doing very much these days.
That’s popular belief? Huh.
I mean, he’s the world’s smartest human being, but I don’t think he’s ever made a claim to knowing everything.
So, based on what he’s revealed in his columns, what exactly do we know about Cecil? I’ven’t the time at the moment to look up the cites, but I seem to remember:
He grew up in a neighborhood where Italian slang was used.
He is, or at least was raised as, Catholic (consistent with previous fact).
He’s bald or balding.
He’s married, or at least has the accquaintance of a woman known as Mrs. Adams, with whom he has been known to engage in passionate kissing.
He has worked as or with an electrician.
Okay here is some information I have gleened from the column when he deigns to drop some personal information on us, (sorry I didn’t keep links to the original column):
His father had a pigeon loft, which he worked in.
He smokes cigars (or did)
Lives in Chicago
Is (or was) married
Has (or had) a lawn that he maintained
Never owned a dog
Is a baby boomer
Has a sister
That really narrows down the population, doesn’t it?
I was keeping this information for my own personal dossier, so I must again apologize for the lack of cites. Look them up if you want!
Clint
He’s also left-handed.
It’s been broadly misinterpreted. Cecil has said that he “can answer any question.” This has been stretched into “Cecil knows everything.” The two are obviously different – he can answer any question with a wisecrack, for example.
So he’s not the smartest human being? 
Of course he’s the “smartest human being” – he says so. That’s not the same as “knowing everything.” There are lots of thigns he doesn’t know – like, he doesn’t know what you’re thinking right now. Nor does he know what the creatures on the fifth planet from the star Ghhmrm look like.
The Fox network’s television series, John Doe, is based on Cecil’s life.
fnord!
Ha, ha! I know something Cecil doesn’t know!
[sub]and for the record, it’s the sixth planet of Ghhmrm. As everyone knows, the fifth planet is uninhabited.
It used to be the sixth planet that was uninhabited, but then the star exploded, and then when Chekhov came back, he found…
Has any advancement in the field of finding cecil been made since this thread?
I mean, a lot of staff appearantly has contact with him. It should be possible to get the straight dope here, even if this is the one question he wont answer.
He mentioned that he had a science teacher called “Mr. Grayson” here:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_344.html