# Is Cecil Adams a real person, or a title for a group of people? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 8, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621 "2011-09-08T15:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/41 "2011-09-09T00:38:21Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Cecil is not now nor has he ever been a real person. For some reason, the mods here insist on ridiculous levels of kayfabe about it. Ed Zotti writes as Cecil when he does the column. There’s only one way to know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/42 "2011-09-09T00:39:25Z")
When Cecil is in Rome, they do as he does. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/43 "2011-09-09T00:50:57Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > His citizenship isn’t being questioned, only his existance. Therefore, in this case, even a Kenyan birth certificate suffices. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/44 "2011-09-09T00:52:35Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Jeez. What a buzz-kill. Yeah, the whole _innocent face_ Ed Zotti? Cecil Adams? What? Who? _innocent face_ was cute when I was 14. Now, it’s old and tired. But fluiddruid’s post made me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/45 "2011-09-09T00:58:37Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Cecil is not now nor has he ever been a real person. For some reason, the mods here insist on ridiculous levels of kayfabe about it. Ed Zotti writes as Cecil when he does the column. For the second time this week, I post, “I bet you go into Mississippi bars and yell racial slurs.” Oye. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/46 "2011-09-09T01:06:12Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Yeah, the whole _innocent face_ Ed Zotti? Cecil Adams? What? Who? _innocent face_ was cute when I was 14. Now, it’s old and tired. Jaded at such a young age… 'tis a pity. ---
**Author:** ![sangfroid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@sangfroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sangfroid)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/47 "2011-09-09T01:10:12Z")
It is said that anagrams reveal all… I ran Cecil Adams through an online anagram server (there’s a nice one [here](http://wordsmith.org/anagram/)), and came up with: _Ed’s Acclaim_ So there you have it. Of course, it also spit out: Acid Camels Is Mecca Lad -and- Mad Lice Sac, so…I got nuthin’. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/48 "2011-09-09T01:10:14Z")
Saves time tho’. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/49 "2011-09-09T01:13:00Z")
> [@sangfroid](#): > > It is said that anagrams reveal all… > > I ran Cecil Adams through an online anagram server (there’s a nice one [here](http://wordsmith.org/anagram/)), and came up with: > > _Ed’s Acclaim_ > > So there you have it. > > Of course, it also spit out: > > Acid Camels > Is Mecca Lad > -and- > Mad Lice Sac, > > so…I got nuthin’. “Sad Ice Clam” seems more likely. or “Lace Scam ID” “Lace Dic Sam” also has a ice ring to it. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/50 "2011-09-09T01:23:27Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > You know that Dos Equus guy, the one with all the hot women in the beer commercials. You want to know who that’s suppose to be? You mean that’s not Cecil Adams? I just assumed. “He speaks Russian. In French.” ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/51 "2011-09-09T02:31:12Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Jeez. What a buzz-kill. **Jack Batty** , your little poster Oakminster is wrong. He has been affected by the credulism of a credulous age. He does not accept except what he sees on Oprah. He thinks that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by his little mind. All minds, **Jack Batty** , whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, **Jack Batty** , there is a **Cecil Adams**. He exists as certainly as investigation and research and analysis exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no **Cecil Adams**! It would be as dreary as if there were no **Jack Batty**. There would be no ornery skepticism then, no doubting, no analysis to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood’s demands for truth fill the world would be extinguished. Not believe in **Cecil Adams**! You might as well not believe in the OED, the Encyclopædia Britannica or Google™. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the Chicago Reader offices on Monday morning to catch **Cecil Adams** , but even if you did not see **Cecil Adams** enter the building, what would that prove? Nobody sees **Cecil Adams** , but that is no sign that there is no **Cecil Adams**. The most real things in the world are those that have not been debunked by Cecil or Jan Harold Brunvand or Barbara Mikkelson . Did you ever see Zhou Enlai? Of course not, he used to live in China and he’s dead now, but that does not mean he was not real. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the masters there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the agoraphobic world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only cash, therapy, cash, (perhaps threats), can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, **Jack Batty** , in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No **Cecil Adams**? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, **Jack Batty** , nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of students of knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/52 "2011-09-09T02:35:26Z")
> [@SDMBKL](#): > > I am not sure whether Cecil Adams is a real person, or merely a title for a group of people. The website _does_ say that Cecil Adams is a man and hints that he worked as a _Chicago Reader_ journalist before he started (presumably) the website called The Straight Dope, because the column caught the attention and fascination of some readers. The Wikipedia article about Cecil Adams hints that Cecil Adams is an old American man of Irish ancestry. But on the Straight Dope website, it appears that “we” (the people who work for this group) do not know who this person is, despite that Cecil is the main person behind all these answers. I am beginning to think that Cecil Adams is a title for a group of people who collaborate, research, and answer questions for the public. This group holds one entity: Cecil Adams. At the same time, this group uses wit and humor to pretend that Cecil is a real person. > > On the other hand, it is possible that Cecil Adams may be a pseudonym of a Chicago Reader journalist, who does not want his real name on the Internet. Yet, he tries his best, under this pseudonym, to do heavy amounts of research in order to answer each question in a witty manner. > > I admit that I find the answers rather amusing, such as the “Why is the raven like a writing desk?” riddle. There is NO Cecil Adams. Ed Zotti and other editors before him wrote the columns. The researches were done by Ed himself(in some cases) or others (SDSAB). Now Una does the research and Ed writes the columns. And now you know Cecil is the only official sock allowed in SDMB, when other socks get banned at lightning speed.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/53 "2011-09-09T03:06:49Z")
Once again, I must give the definitive answer from long-gone and much-missed poster **neuro-trash grrrl**. The original of this post was deleted some time ago, but it echoes on in quotes like this: > [@neuro-trash grrrl](#): > > Who is Cecil? What is Cecil? Cecil is as the ebb and flow of the tides, as the solar wind dispersing the cosmic dust, as the pulsating cells of the brain. Cecil is the smile on your child’s face as he or she contemplates the knowledge in a brand new encyclopedia set, and the bill you receive for them afterward. Cecil is the dragonfly that soars on bejeweled wings, and the frog that catches the dragonfly as it zooms too low over the pond, and the alligator that eats the frog as it suns itself on a lily pad, the gator-wrestler who kills the alligator, and the heavy beer stein that smashes in the gator-wrestler’s head during a bar brawl in Baton Rouge. Cecil is as the molecular structure of our DNA, and also as the molecular structure of Grandma’s spinach-Velveeta soufflé just before it collapses, and the cheers of jubilation that follow. Cecil is the structural defect in your ice cream cone causing it to break and spill Rocky Road all over your new pants. Cecil is the physical laws that make airplanes fly, and also the physical laws that airplane designers occasionaly forget, causing devastating crashes. Cecil is the cockroach that refuses to die no matter how hard you stomp. Everything is Cecil, nothing is Cecil. Cecil is in all of us, Cecil is in none of us. Contemplating Cecil’s nature leads to cosmic enlightenment, and also migraine headaches. > > Does this answer your question? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/54 "2011-09-09T03:08:12Z")
Cecil Adams saved my life back in 'Nam. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/55 "2011-09-09T09:23:05Z")
Acid Camels took my virginity. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/56 "2011-09-09T11:09:22Z")
Cecil Adams is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/57 "2011-09-09T13:40:47Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Cecil is not now nor has he ever been a real person. For some reason, the mods here insist on ridiculous levels of kayfabe about it. Ed Zotti writes as Cecil when he does the column. Cite please. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/58 "2011-09-09T13:43:22Z")
To be fair, I have not ever heard Cecil say he believes \*\*Oakminster \*\*to be a real person. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/59 "2011-09-09T13:48:59Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Cite please. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14234484#post14234484](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14234484#post14234484) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621/60 "2011-09-09T14:55:35Z")
Only a fringe element of “existers” continue to raise this issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cecil-adams-a-real-person-or-a-title-for-a-group-of-people/595621.md?page=4)