Errr… I don’t believe this will be a rant, so I’m not posing in the Pit…
But why oh why when I am trying to relax for a few moments at work and read my favorite message board does someone have to walk up, look at the name “The Straight Dope”, and assume I’m reading about marijuana?
Do any of you other Dopers get this?
I just want to read in peace. I’m the quite nerdy one of the group here at work, and they know I would never venture towards drugs. But yet almost every one of them has made the comment at some point or another. So silly…and missing out on some wonderful people and information.
Marijauna? That’s awful! Don’t they realize dope refers to a term for a liquid or semiliquid preparation of opium?
Dope as drug is both older and more common than dope as information, a fact which may not have escaped editors of an alternative newspaper in the 1970s when they came up with a name for their new Q&A column.
Side note: Although I’m a David Bowie fan, I never dared visit www.teenagewildlife.com at work.
When we explained the board to B’s parents that’s what they thought as well. It took QUITE some time to explain “No, it’s not a board about drugs … there’s stuff about drugs, but it’s not devoted to talking about pot.”
Yes, the first time my older daughter leaned over my shoulder while I was reading the Dope she gave me one of those shocked "Mooooom"s. I explained that I thought learning to grow our own would be much cheaper in the long run and that I was just being fiscally responsible.
I thought my family “got” it until one day my sister asked me “So, how are all your dopey friends?” With a straight face, too. I said “my dopey friends are fine, how are yours?”
Fortunately, I am quite well known for my good judgement and common sense, so they don’t worry about me. Which is kind of depressing when you think of it…
When we had the IndyDopeFest at BW3, one of our number walked up to a table of laughing people, asking if they were the Cecil Adams party. No, they said, they were the Firebird Fanatics (fans of an Arena Football Team.) Oh, she said, I was looking for a DopeFest. Silence. Open mouths.
When i first discovered TSD (about 2 or 3 years ago), i began going through the archives like a fiend, absorbing every bit of useless trivia i could. Well, one evening my sister came into my room, and saw the big tall letters on the front page “The Straight Dope.”
“What the…what are you looking at?” “Huh? Oh…the straight dope…oh…no, it’s not drug related” “Uh…huh…sure…”
Well they could have called it the Straight Poop. But then everybody would think you’re a fecalphiliac, and doesn’t drug-user beat obsessive-over-shit in any situation?
Confusing dope brings up a funny story. My father was a glass worker and they call something they use “dope”. Well, one day my father is telling a story about work that invloves “dope”, I thought he was some sort of drug dealer and was totally freaked out for about for about a week. I don’t think I talked to him the whole week.
I bought some dope at Home Depot a few weeks ago. I used it when I installed a new faucet and drain pipe for my bathroom sink. Works good too, my sink don’t leak anymore.
