Here’s the link for the “coffee pitch shift” thread.
This isn’t Cecil’s mistake, but I’ve always been mightily peeved by his not correcting a questioner’s claim that the tunes of “Make 'Em Laugh” and “Be a Clown” are identical : http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_365b.html
Do-re-mi (the first three notes of “Be a Clown”) and la-sol-la (the first three notes of “Make 'Em Laugh”) are not identical (nor are many of the rest of the note sequences).
The rising-pitch thing certainly works with hot tap water, but only if the hot water is full of tiny bubbles. Mine sure is (if I fill a bottle with hot water from the faucet, it’s misty white because of the microbubbles.)
It’s hard to tell that small amounts of hot water are full of bubbles, since they all pop as soon as they get to the surface. So, add a little dish-detergent to some freshly-poured hot tap water. Then, if any microbubbles are present, they’ll form a thin layer of white froth as they all rise to the surface. No froth means that few bubbles were present.
I found out about this because I noticed that cold tap water would “superheat” in a microwave oven and could explode, while hot tap water would boil violently without superheating. The tiny bubbles in the hot tap water were acting as nucleation sites and triggering normal boiling at 100C. I couldn’t see any bubbles in the hot tap water, so I added a bit of detergent to both the hot and the cold. Sure enough, a froth of tiny bubbles slowly collected on the sample of hot tap water, but not on the cold.
PS
Another Cecil error was “Aluminum-attacking Lasagna”, which turns out NOT to be from acid in the lasagna which eats aluminum, but instead is electrolysis corrosion. The steel pan, salty lasagna, and aluminum foil form a simple battery. Break the circuit somehow and the lasagna cannot burn holes in the aluminum foil anymore.
Suppose Cecil had never gotten a question wrong.
Now suppose he answered the question, “Cecil, have you ever gotten a question wrong?” thusly:
“Yes.”
Would he shave himself?
– CH
Having much studied the subject, I think that Cecil was wrong in regards to Anne Boleyn’s sixth finger. (There’s a thread open on this subject right now called "Anne Boleyn’s Body.)
Not long ago Cecil said something about not being able to see the flame from the alcohol fuel flame in a NASCAR wreck.
NASCAR uses, of course, gasoline powered engines.
Did you read the thread?
Off to Comments on Cecil’s Columns.
The question has been asked before, and d*ng it, I still have some issues with it. Cecil was once criticized for making an arithmetic mistake, and he admitted fault. But he wasn’t wrong in the first place.
Does “half right” count as wrong?
Years ago a reader wrote in to say that friends of his who grew up in a different locality than he had strinkingly different memories of how the series “The Fugitive” had ended. Cecil gave a brief accounting of the “true” ending and dismissed what the writer’s friends had recalled.
He overlooked the point that the last episode had been shown in two parts as a continued story. Cecil’s summary covered the last week’s episode. The story he dismissed was a recounting of events in the next-to-last week’s show.
Well, that wouldn’t be how it ended then, would it?
Slipster: << The story he dismissed was a recounting of events in the next-to-last week’s show. >>
RM Mentock: << Well, that wouldn’t be how it ended then, would it? >>
That would be how it pen-ultimated.
It’s pretty clear that Cecil is wrong on occasion- note his extremely labored (and hideously biased) “explaination” of the Second Amendment. Any part of it that he doesn’t agree with is “unclear” while any part that supports his personal prejudices are “self evident”. It’s sad that he can’t seperate his own goofy political views from facts, but there you have it.
Personally, I hate it when people inject their own personal views into matters that really ought to be based on merit and fact.
Gee Maven, was the bite yourself in the ass humor there intentional? Welcome to the Straight Dope message board!
Sucks doughnut?
You got some links with that?
Anyone else hungry?
That’s my Unca Cecil you’re talking about! Be nice!
For the record, Cecil’s NEVER wrong - sometimes his facts just need to be taken in a different light. Observe what Obi Wan said to Luke - “What I told you was true… from a certain point of view.”
For example, who’s to say that, in an alternate universe, the rules of assigning radio call letters aren’t different? And that circumcision has totally different consequences? Can we, mere humans, pretend to know from whence The Master draws his knowledge?
(Ok, Ok, I’m pushing it here…)
Except, Cecil has admitted being wrong. To err is human, and he is. We all are, right?? Right?
Only once have I seen the Perfect Master caught flat-footed…The Great Flea Circus article.
Wisely, he declines to enumerate the other occasions. 
Wow, I hadn’t seen that flea circus update. Thanks!
Let us not forget the classic “exception proves the rule” flub:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_201.html
Come to think of it, didn’t one of his more recent books actually have a section on mistakes? I’m goofing off at the office, away from my home library, but I do seem to recall that.
– Beruang