I thought it would be a question-answer place for obscure facts, like the column, but it seems to be all over the place. Not that that’s bad, I suppose. But you are directed to post only about old columns on the forum that Cecil stays at. New quesions have to go somewhere that he doesn’t do any answering. And the people who do answer often aren’t even pretending to know or research things. Seems backward.
Right…“Comments on Cecil’s Columns” is the place for that.
“Cecil” is a construct - a construct of the research, knowledge, and experience of many people.
As to the people who answer “often aren’t even pretending to know or research things” - huh? 
Hello, little sausage. From the front page: **Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks **is your best guide to what’s here. Factual questions not related to Cecil’s columns - whether trivial or not - are answered in General Questions. The stench of people of sufficient quality to be interested in Cecil’s remarks attracts people worth questioning, debating, polling, bantering and flaming. Cecil himself drops by rather infrequently, and when he does it’s as often to insult us as anything else. At one point he invited other posters to stretch my anus. Unkind, but curiously it was invited.
Knowledge is sometimes standing on the shoulders of giants, but there’s a whole pile of us midgets here, and you’ll find we do ok.
Cecil sometimes does answer a question from General Questions. However, blue moons are more frequent. Cecil writes ONE column a week, which will consist of one or two questions. The question he chooses must be something he CAN answer, and answer in a funny manner. But there are many other questions out there…computer questions (which I don’t believe Cecil will ever answer), legal questions, mundane questions, and questions that just bug you in the middle of the night. True, sometimes the people who answer on the message board don’t know what they’re talking about, but very often they DO know something, or know where to find the answers. The message board is a great place to increase your knowledge and stomp out ignorance.
I advise visiting all forums for at least two weeks. Then ask yourself if you’ve learned something.
Learning things is just overrated. Hang out and smoke dope.
aftermarketeer, perhaps something has escaped your notice: this is a FREE site. Everyone who posts here is unpaid. (And that even goes for Perfect Master Cecil Adams and his editor Ed Zotti - although they are paid for their work on the column for the Chicago Reader, they ain’t paid for their time on the Board - which is why you don’t see much of them here.)
And while generally you get what you pay for, here you get a hell of a lot more. Often you can get your question answered by a real expert: we have professionals in just about any field you can imagine hanging out here . Yeah, often people who don’t know much about a question will chime in too, but more often than not someone will come along with an authoritative answer.
As he himself has often pointed out, the best way to get Cecil to answer your question is to stuff a couple of C-notes in the envelope.
(As for me, a couple of $20s will suffice. ;))
Some people are experts in some particular field, and don’t need to look things up. Some people are experts, but look things up anyway to be sure. Some are very good at educated guesses, and some aren’t experts in much of anything in particular, but are good at research. Of course, some also just talk out of various bodily orifices, without any qualifications or research at all. With time, you’ll learn whom to listen to, and whom to ignore.