Rosie O'Donnell in 1985?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

In Cecil’s 1985 column, Is “cracking your back” to relieve a backache a good idea?, Cecil makes the following snide comment about having someone crack your back:

Funny. But too early. IMDB claims that Rosie’s first TV appearance was in 1986 as Maggie O’Brien on “Gimme a Break.” Unless she was a local Chicago star in the early '80s, the general Straight Dope reading public probably would have gotten as much out of Cecil’s quip in 1985 as if he had said “This is not something I would want to try with Monica Lewinsky.”

Is this another case of editing a Straight Dope column for current audiences? I’m not a big fan of this sort of revision (and it’s been discussed here before). It’s disturbing.

-Tofer

2

If you want to know what the column read like when the book was published in 1988, you can always buy the book. In this case, the book version mentions Oprah Winfrey, which presumably at some point lost relevancy on one of the occasions when Oprah became thin. Though frankly, I’m not sure Rosie is much of an improvement on this score.

3

IMDB is wrong about O’Donnell’s first TV appearance being in 1986. She was a four time winner in the comedian category on Star Search in 1984. Granted however, she wasn’t a well known figure until the late 80’s.

4

And if your not familiar with her figure then the joke doesn’t make sense.