# etiquette: I asked Cecil, now I'm impatient

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [April 29, 2000, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575 "2000-04-29T14:16:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575/1 "2000-04-29T14:16:57Z")

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A couple of months before I joined the SDMB, I emailed a question off to Cecil. As yet, no response. I hope that this is because it’s a good, hard, interesting question and not because it was considered dross, or that I was overly refreshed when I wrote it. At what point is it acceptable to run off to General Queries and let the lesser mortals loose on this question?

picmr

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575/2 "2000-04-29T14:41:25Z")

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Well, **I** never had the impression that Cecil was the Shell Answer Man or anything like that. It was my understanding that your question might be answered if (a) it was interesting, (b) it hadn’t been done before, © it was possible to find an answer to it, and (d) you waited your turn, after 750 million other people who also had interesting, new questions.

Besides Cecil, there aren’t that many people on the Straight Dope Advisory Board working on these, and there are only so many hours in the day, and they do have real lives, too.

There are 12 billion people in the world. Half of them have Internet. Half of those have questions they want answered. Half of the ones who have questions actually get around to e-mailing them. Half of the questions Cecil receives are actually worth considering. If I did the math right, that’s 750 million.

If it’s really driving you nuts, go on over to GQ and ask. It’s a free country. Who knows, it might shake something loose.

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575/3 "2000-04-29T15:14:24Z")

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God, I LOVE it when Teemsters are doing it for themselves!

And thanks, Mama, you said it so good I don’t have to.

your humble TubaDiva  
Administrator

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etiquette-i-asked-cecil-now-im-impatient/16575/4 "2000-04-29T16:24:22Z")

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I can take yes for an answer. Thanks.

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21433](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21433)

picmr