# Poundstone, Zotti, and Adams **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 13, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751 "2003-02-13T03:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/61 "2004-05-21T07:38:07Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > So, soon after I joined SDMB, I asked a question that was based on a GAMES magazine article. My response told me of Poundstone’s work. I was overjoyed when I found the book (The 2 in 1 Big book). So anyway, Imagine what I planned on doing today after I read the article in the book. It seems as if 60 odd people beat me to it. Boy, does this bring back memories. This may be the one battle against ignorance which can never be won. But I sure got a kick out of trying. Though I would be interested in seeing what you read, **Meeko**. What exactly did the book say about dear Cecil? ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/62 "2004-05-21T14:13:25Z")
Also; Poundstone spells: “Stop on dune”! :eek: \*:: remembering happily, I actually had a conversation with Ed Zotti. _bliss_ :: \* ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/63 "2004-05-21T15:48:16Z")
> [@CuriousCanuck](#): > > Even if Cecil is just a “drunk guy in a red suit at the mall”… I don’t know who Cecil is but from my experience Ed is a “drunk guy in a sport shirt in the corner of the bar.” And Dex, aren’t YOU the rebellious one! For all his bluster can’t Ed fire you if Cecil doesn’t okay it? 😃 As for Paula Poundstone, she may not be funny but I’d do her. But as I’m not a 12-year-old girl she wouldn’t do me. [rimshot] ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/64 "2004-05-21T16:26:32Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > Cecil gets a huge kick out of these discussions, and Ed forbids Mods or Admins to get involved or comment. I think Cecil Adams _is_ a real person. It’s too bad he doesn’t post on these boards, but frankly his rep is way overblown and he’s been coasting for years. The fact is that this topic is not nearly as interesting as it was in 2001 because at this point “Cecil” doesn’t give a flaming cowflop about the column or these boards. Though I do understand why; he knows that he isn’t really “the world’s smartest human” and he knows the Teeming Millions would rip him to intellectual ribbons if he were to venture into GD for an hour. He sure as heck won’t have the guts to post in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/65 "2004-05-21T16:34:39Z")
The thread **IzzyR** linked to in post #4 really puts the debate into perspective. Read the discussion. Look at the user names. Then look at the names in the quote boxes. Some of the people there have changed their username ( **frogstein** = **Running With Scissors** , **Anthracite** = **Una Persson** ), and that doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Is Cecil Adams really named Cecil Adams? Probably not. I know I wouldn’t want some drunk moron calling me up at three in the morning with his Illuminati duck-echo theories. I doubt he’s a committee, though. Collaborations by multiple authors are rarely so well-pieced together, and his personality has remained fairly consistent (though slightly less ascerbic) for 30 years now. Is he Ed Zotti? Maybe. Maybe not. Hell, it’s not like we know either of them. What would would change if they were the same person? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/66 "2004-05-21T18:11:44Z")
> [@furt](#): > > he knows that he isn’t really “the world’s smartest human” Nope. EVERYBODY knows that the World’s Smartest Human is Marilyn Vos Savant. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/67 "2004-05-21T19:30:12Z")
There’s an old saying: “Every public personality is actually the product of many people.” Take our President: he is clearly his own man on some issues – his emotional reactions are either totally authentic, or he deserves a Lifetime Achievement award from every acting recognition group in the country. But to some extent his public persona is the product of Karl Rove and his team of image people, to some extent it is comprised of the stances of his advisors – Cheney, Rove, Rice, Ashcroft, Rummy, Powell, etc., and to some extent it is what will “play in Paducah” – what will recruit and retain a majority to support him. “Cecil Adams” is clearly the pseudonym under which someone writes for the Chicago Reader. The trademark application brouhaha makes that eminently clear. Staff have rough-drafted columns for Cecil in the past – that’s been made clear by several comments over the years. Ed Zotti has final say, as editor of “The Straight Dope,” over what reaches print under the “Cecil Adams” name. But Ed, of course, has denied being Cecil Adams for many years too. Who lies behind this public persona? Part of the fun is in the mystery. There is, however, one interesting clue, though I have no clue where it leads: Ed at one time remarked rhetorically that he was surprised at how many people failed to question whether his name was really Ed Zotti. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/68 "2004-05-21T21:06:25Z")
No Cecil! Thank Og! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Governor Quinn, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of Straight Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/69 "2004-05-21T21:49:59Z")
[sarcasm]Cecil Adams isn’t a real person??!! Yeah, _right!_ Next you’ll be telling me that Moses, Luke, John & Co. didn’t write the Bible.[/sarcasm] ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/70 "2004-05-21T22:20:16Z")
:rolleyes: Of course Cecil is a pen name. Also, not that smart. The real question is, is Slug Signorino a single artist? There’s a massive style shift between some of the old ones & the recent stuff. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/71 "2004-05-21T22:37:33Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > The real question is, is Slug Signorino a single artist? There’s a massive style shift between some of the old ones & the recent stuff. If this is a serious question, illustrator’s styles usually change over the span of their career. Look at nearly any well-known cartoonist: Berkeley Breathed, Jim Davis, Bill Watterson, Chuck Schultz. Or did I just get wooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/72 "2004-05-22T01:19:46Z")
(takes another swig off the bottle) (peers blearily at screen) (fumbles around hunting for keyboard) (can’t find it. One hand occupied. Peers blearily at hand. There is a bottle in it. Forgets about keyboard, swigs off bottle again) (peers blearily at screen. Remembers what he was going to say. Finds keyboard) …_I_ am Spartacus! (grins at his own wit) (takes another swig off the bottle…) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/73 "2004-05-22T02:34:33Z")
> [@](#): > > He sure as heck won’t have the guts to post in this thread. It’s not a matter of guts, it’s a matter of being busy and, ah, somewhat conceited. Cecil does post on the boards from time to time, but he rarely posts outside the forum “Comment on Cecil’s Columns.” It’s his ego, I suspect, he thinks the only stuff worth reading is the responses to his own writings. Do a search, you’ll find lots of times that Cecil has posted to these boards. Well, OK, not lots, but several. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/74 "2004-05-22T02:50:03Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > Cecil gets a huge kick out of these discussions, and Ed forbids Mods or Admins to get involved or comment. You guys never listen to poor Ed, do you? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/75 "2004-05-22T04:26:08Z")
> [@Hey you!](#): > > Or did I just get wooshed? Dude, I’m still trying to figure out if the people in this thread who are discussing the existence of Cecil Adams in a dead serious tone of voice are whooshing us or if they really ARE like that. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2004, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751/76 "2004-05-22T04:54:24Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Dude, I’m still trying to figure out if the people in this thread who are discussing the existence of Cecil Adams in a dead serious tone of voice are whooshing us or if they really ARE like that. [Simpsons solves all] Disaffected youth #1: Here comes that cannonball guy. He’s cool. Disaffected youth #2: Are you being sarcastic, dude? Disaffected youth #1: I don’t even know anymore. [/Simpsons solve all] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poundstone-zotti-and-adams/154751.md?page=3)