I believe the urban legend was that the French word for a transom, vasistas , comes from the German phrase was ist das?
Cecil’s back!
Cecil’s back!
Cecil’s back!
Will Cecil bring his Front with him?
{CRICKETS} 
Fantastic news! Can we ask Cecil questions or is he self-generating?
As indicated above, feel free to ask questions or suggest topics. However, if the Master sees an outbreak of ignorance that needs eradicating, he’s not going to wait until he’s asked.
An outbreak of ignorance? These days that’s like looking for an outbreak of carbon dioxide.
Indeed.
He’s only a persona…
Shhh!! Heretic.
I can certainly find the ignorance.
Interesting start. Looking forward to seeing what happens.
I want to know where the phrase “strike a deal/bargain” came from. It’s been all over the news lately and I’m trying to figure out why it came into being.
As a person of color, and a supporter of feminism, I’d like to express my sincere protest.
In many ways this feels like the return of the White Patriarchy to straightdope. It feels the liberal equivalent of MAGA - make straight dope great again.
I do not need a bunch of anonymous people constructing a White Male Persona who uses condescending language while dispersing “knowledge” to lesser mortals. And you may say that Uncle Cecil doesn’t have color - but come on. Anyone reading those columns can see it!!
It’s time to break the glass ceiling at SD. I would support a female persona or a young metrosexual persona fighting ignorance.
Uncle Cecil was great and I loved and enjoyed reading his posts. But I do not see my daughter enjoying columns by a resurrected Old White Avuncular Character voiced by old timers.
I understand that my opinion maybe a minority opinion. Please understand that I took care to express my opinion humbly, and would appreciate abstaining from retaliation.
You seem to be under some misconceptions. While Cecil Adams is a character, he’s not written by a bunch of people. It’s essentially a pen name for a single individual. And that individual is a white man.
That white man wishes to write again. He obviously should not try to write as a woman or nonbinary (which is what I presume you mean by metrosexual, since that old term doesn’t make a lot of sense here).
I can see your point that the character of Cecil Adams seems somewhat out of touch for the reasons you state. I wouldn’t recommend he be created in the modern day. But I would also point out there’s a lot of leeway given to legacy characters. (People don’t tend to say Superman or Batman shouldn’t exist, for example.) I’d also point out that he’s nowhere near as condescending as he used to be. Sure, he does look down on the (white) techbros and con artists, but I think that’s acceptable.
You’re reading a whole lot more into this than I think is actually there.
With due respect Sir, you are not walking in my shoes. I understand that mine is minority opinion; you are free to disregard my opinion, but please do not tell me that “I’m reading a whole lot more into this….” because that feels like an unjust personal attack.
Would you have the person currently writing the column adopt a Woman of Color and/or possibly LGBTQ+ persona to satisfy as many people as possible?
BTW, it is not “a bunch of people” writing the column.
I object to having a White Patriarch aka “The Master” aka “Uncle Cecil” in 2023.
I humbly refuse to reply to any whataboutism like what about a Woman of Color, what about LGBTQ …… etc etc
I think that you are definitely reading far too much into this.
Are there columnists out there that you think could do a general answer column that you would not find so offensive?
Again I object to be told “how I should be thinking or feeling or reading into things”. I expressed my opinion, if you feel my objection has no merit, please proceed.
I feel like this is another form of whataboutism. I am not sure what columnists have to do with this.
Is it your opinion that the person writing the column not write it at all? If not, what changes would you have him make?
Hey, it is possible I feel the same way about Santa Claus. But some jobs are simply more desirable than others. Making and delivering toys while residing in cold and antisocial geographical locales attracts fewer applicants than one might hope. Fighting ignorance is perhaps even more hopeless. It seems to have gained some ground in recent years. Even if the messenger could or should tone down outdated aspects of messaging to embrace modern sensibilities, the message maybe still matters more than the medium.