The SD was never a column in any newspapers I read. I just found a compilation book at the bookstore one day and was hooked. Given the volumn of this message board I figured I must be the only one here who doesn’t/didn’t read a paper that features the column. I checked around the site and found a list of papers currently carrying the column and was surprised at how few:
Excellent question! I’ve never read it in a newspaper, either, although the books are great. Don’t know why it’s not in more newspapers, unless the Chicago Reader simply prefers the smaller, independent, and free publications…
I’m a Brit and I’ve never seen it in printed form at all. I just stumbled across the website, and thence this board, when Googling for an answer to some conundrum or other (I forget which).
I too, stumbled across the book, back in 1985, never seeing the actual column til the late '90’s in the New York Press. When I got on the web in '95 it was one of the first things I searched for.
Given the content and style of the column, I doubt the New York Times was ever a target subscriber…
The Straight Dope doesn’t run in the New York Times because their editors foolishly believe that “all the news that’s fit to print” somehow doesn’t include the Calorie content of jism. Go figure.
Since this is a question about Cecil’s columns (sort of), I’ll move this thread to CoCC.
I used to read the column when it was printed in the LA Reader, which I assume was somehow associated with the Chicago Reader. The paper has sinced ceased to be (in LA, that is). I think it was absorbed into another weekly free paper, but they did not run the straight Dope column, so I stopped reading it.
Fortunately, I subsequently found Cecil’s column on the web, and my life has been complete ever since.
I have never seen the Straight Dope in papers either. I think I first found the articles through bored.com, and then after reading the entire archives, I registered to the boards to give my opinion on what animal Goofy is (I still claim he’s a Dingo, just because that’s his name in French. Pluto is a Dog, Goffy is a Dingo. Not a Dawg).
I haven’t found a paper in the area that carries the column, but then, I haven’t really looked. The webpage is good enough for me.
I first started reading the column in the Austin Chronicle long ago in college, mid-80’s. It was run next to Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird. I started slinking around this website shortly after its conversion from AOL (I don’t know exactly what that means, but when I first got here every third post seem to mention it).
I first started reading the column in the Austin Chronicle long ago in college, mid-80’s. It was run next to Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird, so the two are indelibly linked in my mind. I started slinking around this website shortly after its conversion from AOL (I don’t know exactly what that means, but when I first got here every third post seemed to mention it).
And might I say that this place has the fastest submit button in the West. Too bad the rest of the site doesn’t work so fast.
About a million or so years ago, I had just finished up Imponderables and Big Secrets and I was looking for something similar. I came across The Straight Dope and was hooked immediately - left those other books in the dust. Not only does Cecil know everything – he’s a smartass, too! WooHoo! My kind o’ guy :). I jumped on More of the Straightdope and the rest the minute they came out, and have been lurking around this site, on and off, oh, since shortly after the move from AOL.
My friends and I went to Chicago for the weekend 3 weeks ago and I got to read the column live and in person in the Chicago Reader – I was excited beyond belief – my friends just rolled their eyes
Not sure how typical my experience was, but I came across the Straight Dope when I was bored in work one day and went to www.bored.com and saw it listed (then) as one of the highest rated sites.
Newspapers? What are those? I found it looking up some other factoid and got linked to a column. Took me a couple tries before being bored at work one day and reading several of the columns. Got hooked, been here ever since.
Dantheman got it right when he guessed that the Chicago Reader has always preferred to run the Straight Dope in small, indy papers. When newspaper editors showed interest in running the column, they used to get a letter back from the CR with an example of a typical Straight Dope column, “Why is shit brown?” Not just any paper is willing to run the complete truth about such topics, either.
So the number of newspapers is down to 24? I used to read it in Westword, in Denver, and the Spectator in Durham, NC. The Spectator has been bought out by the Independent, and Westword is owned by New Times (which does the Jesus of the Week http://www.jesusoftheweek.com/). Maybe they just haven’t got the word yet?
Hmm. Would The Reader have any objection to SDMB members putting together a drive to petition their local alternative papers to start carrying The Straight Dope column?
Even if only a few hundred people actually agitate, it might make a considerable impact. When very large newspapers cancel a particular comic strip, it sometimes gets reinstated because of a relative handful of passionate complaints.
We could even pitch the point that by offering the column, they are also offering their readers a piece of a larger cultural phenomenon – the SDMB – and that by offering The Straight Dope, their paper is supporting the Straight Dope community and the work it does. This might well be a major selling point for some newpapers.
The Reader has supported the SDMB for a long time and I know that there are lots of people who’d like to do something to show their appreciation. Even people who don’t think they’d be able to afford pay-to-post can make a phone call and write a letter. If this only got one additional newspaper to carry the column, it’d at least be some return for The Reader they can directly attribute to their support of the SDMB.
Well, Ed, how about? Any objections to turning Cecil’s faithful minions loose on the world’s unsuspecting alternative newspaper editors?
I found it looking up some other factoid and got linked to a column. Took me a couple tries before being bored at work one day and reading several of the columns. Got hooked, been here ever since.