Just out of curiosity, how did all the rest of you find Uncle Cecil and the Straight Dope Message Board. I’m sure that some of you are in or near Chicago and read Cecil in the Newspaper, but there are over 8000 of us registered and, if you are like me, have never heard of Cecil Adams or the Straight Dope until you found this web site. As for myself, I was looking for the lyrics to “Louie, Louie” (I don’t remember why) and my search engine brought me to the Straight Dope Archive. What a revelation!! I was so entranced by the Archive that I didn’t even look at the message board until I had completed reading the Archives. That’s when I logged on and became enchanted by all my fellow SDers. Well thats my sad tale of woe, what’s yours?
Caloric content of sperm. The book was lying on the floor and interested me.
I so not remember exactly how I first found The Straight Dope. It was back when he was still on AOL though. I think I was browsing keywords or maybe there was an advertisement, I dont remember. Come to think of it, I believe I found it by using KEYWORD: Random. Then after I read it, I returned every week. Then I checked to see what Newspapers syndicate the column and there is a local paper here that runs the Straight Dope. I read it every week until he eventually left AOL. Years later I joined the message boards on this web site.
I started this shitty night job and all I have is a computer to keep me awake. I started checking out the straight dope web site again. I checked out the message boards and the first thing I read was about the Star Destroyer vs. Enterprise thread. I was never really interested in the message boards that much. Truth is, I did not understand them. I would click on Threadspotting every now and then, but that’s it.
ThreadSpotting featured “Wally does it again!” It was a thread about Wally and some girl showing him a hamster or something and he killed it on accident. I read everyone’s responses and I saw how everyone knew each other. I figured I was missing out on something. Later I read “Wally tries cybersex”. A couple days later I visited the page to read yet another funny thread and it was the sad news… I could not believe it! After reading everyone posts, I decided to join. I wanted to be a member of such a wonderful online community.
Well, that’s my story… who’s next.
I don’t remember how I first saw it, I think I saw the Straight Dope banner page somewhere. I bookmarked it but didn’t really check it out for another 6 months. When I did, I started by reading all of Cecil’s columns over the course of a week or two and finally posted the first time when I started a thread about how the word squaw is considered obscene. I posted it in a sarcastic manner, as I might say it in real life when I read or hear something a bit outrageous and the first poster in my thread implied I might be a troll. That spooked me so much I almost didn’t post again, but finally I did and eventually I got hooked.
A friend of mine told me that http://www.straightdope.com was a really good read. Had a look and read a lot and decided to ask Cecil a queston . I did and got a reply saying that Cecil was very busy and probably wouldn’t get to it but I could come here and ask the question . That’s what I did .
Crabs with samuri on their backs?
I liked the answers and have being hanging around ever since .
My friend found it and showed it to me back when it was on AOL. We spent much time perusing the archives. The sex section, mainly.
I found the board just before it moved here.
I read a book, I looked for the website… I found a thread read it, laughed and enjoyed posts by Wally and Coldfire and have been here ever since.
Osip
The “-ury” question was being circulated at work, and someone posted a link to Cecil’s reply. I read pretty much the whole archive, and after several months of looking around the message boards I finally signed up.
Who’s next?
-niggle
I guess I could be considered a classicist. About the time I turn 18, I picked up the Chicago Reader and noticed this weird-ass column. Read it for a while, and then noticed the first book at B&N one night. Got internet access back in '97, and was briefly on AOL for the horrible site there. So, it’s been 9 years since I started on this weird journey.
There’s an alternative newspaper in Montreal called “The Mirror.” I was never a big fan of that paper, as it is generally badly written and self-important, but it’s free and makes for easy reading on the bus. A few years ago, the Straight Dope column was published in that paper, and I found it to be by far the most entertaining part of “The Mirror.” The column was later removed from the paper, presumably because its staff consists of idiots.
As for the site itself, an IRL friend of mine (known to some on this board as dewt) started posting here for a while and told me about this really cool forum he had found. He sent me a link and I checked it out, and immediately recognized it. I lurked around for a bit, but then the temptation to post became too strong.
Of course, I have yet to post anything noteworthy or interesting. Maybe I should start a thread about razor sharp nipples and eventually get called out into the pit by some respected posters. Oh wait… It’s been done.
I was searching the Internet in about 1996 for “humor columns”, and one of the ones that showed up was The Straight Dope. Back then, I think you had to be on AOL to get to the message boards (correct me if I’m wrong). Even though I read the columns online for a few years thereafter, it never ocurred to me to look at the message board until the Threadspotting link came up on the main page. I’ve never seen one of Cecil’s columns in a real newspaper either.
A friend of mine here in Dallas mentioned it - and since I’m a fan of mindless (sorta), addictive web sites…
Simple explanation, really.
Sometime about 15 years ago my brother and I discovered Cecil through his first book. We were both hooked, and got every new book as they came out.
Once I got onto the Internet, one of the first things I did was look to see if Cecil was out there. Thank goodness, he was!
Very funny, Mr. Scott. Now beam down my clothes!
I’m a big fan of the books, and only recently went looking for Cecil’s website
I was depressed and looking for something under ‘humor’ on Yahoo, clicked on ‘columns & columnists’ last year. I thought I’d finally found the place to ask the kind of question that keeps you up late at night… they make no sense to anyone else, other than yourself…know those?? Cecil didn’t answer, but some cool SDer’s did, and I’ve stuck around ever since.
I found it from this site. I started reading the columns archive and was immediately hooked.
I was also kind of surprised to see this column, which contains Dan Drazen (the owner of the aforementioned site)'s name.
I don’t remember how I got onto the message boards, I think I just followed the link. I totally do not remember which post was my first post (I’d search for it, but it’s not worth my time.)
Gee, i think mine might be the lamest of all.
Sitting at work one night, totally bored out of my skull yet again, i decided to start typing in different web site names that just popped into my head. After typing in all the sick sex stuff that came to mind first, i actually typed in bored.com and boom, whadda ya know, it exists. The Straight Dope is listed on there, so while going down the list starting from the top, i eventually got here. The first thread i read was Nazi Groundhogs. Saw how everybody enjoyed themselves here and signed up.
Told ya it was lame. 
Whew. Thanks, JBurton. I was racking my brains, trying to remember. I had figured out I’d seen a link on another site, and now I’m pretty sure it was bored.com. Thanks. FWIW, I’ve never seen the column in a paper and I’ve never read any of the books.
Been reading the books since before the third one came out–first heard of them in the early 1990s. (A friend’s parents had the first book).
Heard of the TV show, but never managed to watch it. :eek:
First heard of the website in one of the books, have been printing out and reading the columns for over a year now. Started lurking on the message boards in April or so, started posting a month later.