No, Zotti began writing the column in 1978. Kehr and Lenehan take it back to 1973.
Sorry. It was a game that’s time has apparently ended. Without further information, this what I believe happened:
It started out as a basic pseudonym that was passed on to subsequent writers. Like all pseudonyms, the point was to retain a level of anonymity, while having an appealing name. But as the column became popular, people started trying to find the real Cecil, and, when they couldn’t, started developing a playful myth around him. Others remained more fact-based, and eventually found some apparent slip-ups from the current writer. But, by then, the myth itself was popular, and some people didn’t want to accept it. Others realized it, but wanted to keep the fun going, and even incorporated the slip-ups into the myth.
Unfortunately, the lines began to blur. You could no longer tell the difference between those who figured it out, those who found the evidence insufficient, those who were playing along, and those that just didn’t get it. There was no way to make sure the people who didn’t get it wouldn’t be fooled by those that did. And, in trying, the whole concept stopped being fun for a lot of people. It seemed like a way to promote ignorance rather than fight it. It dangled on as a bit of a test for critical thinking, but, even as that, it was inherently flawed.
I personally would have preferred to keep it going a while longer, by merely reporting the evidence as fact, rather than the conclusion. (I’d list the evidence here, but I can’t remember it exactly. Hopefully a fellow Doper will help out.) I specifically dislike when we answer the question when it is not specifically asked.
And, by the way, when I started reading the Reader, Dave Kehr was writing the column and he wound up at the New York Times, not exactly a desert in the world of the written word.
The motto may have been written in 1995. But long before there was a WWW, there was a Cecil, and the Straight Dope -
http://www.straightdope.com/pages/faq/firstcolumn
My copy of the Straight Dope book dates from 1982 - when I discovered the wonder of the Straight Dope.
As long as we’re in GQ, then my answer is that Ed Zotti writes the column under the pseudonym of Cecil Adams, and has been doing so since 1978. (He increasingly relies on the research of others and I wouldn’t be surprised if some columns are basically written by others and then re-written by him since I get the feeling he tired of the whole thing many years ago. But those are different issues.)
If people want to play a game, then they’re free to do so in the other forums. But here in GQ we give factual answers to real questions. People are allowed to give joke answers once a factual and correct answer to an OP has been posted, which is why people like gazwart and ianzin get a pass. But the jokes should be as obvious as theirs. Confusing people in GQ should never be allowed.
Thank you, but I don’t believe I proposed otherwise either here or in the linked thread.
Oh really? What kind of pass? From whom? From you? I must have missed that memo.
Since you are apparently so keen to preserve the factual integrity of GQ, I have a fact-based question for you. Since when, and on what authority, do you decide who ‘gets a pass’?
Since I’m smarter than Cecil, and a better writer, and cuter. 
What’s his user name? Does he ever contribute to the boards?
I was referring to his “savantness”. Yeah he’s a good writer. But the answers he comes up with aren’t usually rocket science to research. And he has the advantage of being abler to choose which questions to answer. If he can’t come up with an answer to a question under consideration, he simply doesn’t write a column based on that question.