As a slight hijack… I asked this question the last time the Cecil question came up and wasn’t sure if I got a straight answer. Does Cecil’s column still appear in print, in the Chicago Reader or elsewhere? With the exception of a post acknowledging the paper’s 40th anniversary, there has only been one column on their website since 2007.
Yes Virginia there is a Cecil Adams.
Yes, the column still appears in print in several cities. I forget which ones, but the last I checked it was more than a dozen. It may be less as so many papers are moving their content online.
I wonder that myself…
Una Persson, or anyone else who knows the answer: why does it matter if we know who the corporeal Cecil is? Is it just that some people find the mystique fun?
I’m Cecil Adams!
Cecil finds it fun, and staff members who are close enough have been told not to spoil the fun. Also, Ed Zotti isn’t smart enough or perfect enough to be Cecil. He’s said so himself, several times, in public.
I don’t think it should matter at all. Even if people believe they know 100%, what’s the point of getting upset over it? It never ceases to amaze me how some people in past threads have become livid over the fact that no one will officially say “yes, Cecil is really…” I can almost imagine them putting their fists through the drywall every time they see Santa Claus on a Coke can.
I personally find the mystique to be neither good nor bad. The Straight Dope message and the facts and entertainment value of what Cecil writes should be the most important thing IMO. I enjoy being part of the official Straight Dope enterprise because of the opportunity to help educate and share knowledge. I also like doing all those experiments for Cecil, although I am starting to accumulate enough lab equipment to make an actual “Straight Dope Labs.” I might need to add another room…
A staff could be two people. Or it could be one person who changed every few years.
I think that if people think that the answers are evasive or coy over a long period, they are going to get frustrated. It’s human nature.
Wait… people get paid to burn bacon with a laser?
See? This is why I haven’t given up on the world yet.
My understanding has always been that Cecil is a rotating group of interns who research selected questions. Ed Zotti edits the end result. Particular contributors who keep chipping in over the years, like Dex and Una, are recognized by name/nom de plume.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Not just bacon, but rich, salty, applewood-smoked bacon. Which was then further cooked and eaten with Aunt Jemima pancakes. Which were not cooked by laser.
I don’t know what this has to do with the question at hand, but since you bring it up.
I have always thought that this whole silly thing is a black eye for the site. A site committed to the “Straight Dope” keeps the identity of its primary author a secret.:dubious:
However cute, it makes the whole enterprise look sketchy.
Cecil Adams must be a real person. There would be no need to construct such an elaborate set of mythology concerning the non-existence of a non-existent person. The mere attempt to cover-up his existence is sufficient evidence of his reality.
I just came here to say that whether a real person or not, I always find it strangely exciting when Cecil Adams posts in threads here on the SDMB. His last one was in 2008 in a GD thread on abortion rights. (He’s posted since then, but mostly in the Cecil’s Columns forum, which doesn’t really count)
This is one speculation that is definitely incorrect.
Cecil Adams and Ed Zotti have separate user accounts. If they were the same person, they would both be banned.
So you’ve narrowed it down to a single person who is not named Cecil Adams currently writing all the columns under the Cecil Adams byline. Zotti is the traditional choice for who that person is, but it could be someone or a string of someones (on a non-rotating basis) who is/are not as well known.
I highly doubt your IRL legal name is “Pábitel”, and yet I don’t weigh your response any less for that.
No it doesn’t.