I can tell you with certainty that I did not edit that post, and I’m almost as certain that neither did any of my fellow GQ moderators. While it’s theoretically possible that one might edit the database directly and thereby edit a post without the edit message showing up, it would require an even greater level of access than even most of our administrators have (jdavis could probably do it, but not Tuba or Lynn), and even then, it would be such a pain in the behind that Jerry probably wouldn’t do it without mucho offers of money, beer, and/or sexual favors. I highly doubt that the cracker (not hacker, as it’s been called) would have been able to do this, even if it wanted to.
It’s possible for a post to be edited quietly (without the edit message) if it’s done quickly enough, within about a minute after the post was made, but I can see absolutely no motive for any moderator to have edited that post, even if they did somehow see it immediately.
If it were random garbage that appeared in your post, I’d be inclined to think that it was some sort of glitch, but the extra words are clearly relevant to your post. I’m almost (but not quite) certain that the boards.straightdope.com server hasn’t yet become self-aware and add commentary to posts.
The simplest explanation is that you did type that, but just don’t remember it. It was late at night (probably; I don’t know your time zone), you were tired, and you weren’t paying attention. Perhaps you started another sentence containing that fragment, and then edited it out? Maybe you missed deleting one part. Or maybe you scooted off to some other webpage to copy and paste the numbers, and accidentally copied a bit too much. Don’t sweat it; it happens to the best of us.
For some reason cutting and pasting was a bitch from this site, the paste to Word did not catch the extra line, but the paste to the board did. When I pasted the info in Word my records then showed that the line was missing, so later I thought something was amiss, sorry about that chief.
I had Trixie Beldane, perky girl detective all ready to come in and, along with her amusing friend “Chubby” Benson, and her faithful flash-light explore the long-deserted tunnel under the cavernous SDMB factory that was closed down long ago but that prompted a nocturnal visit after Trixie noticed lights showing in one of the windows as she drove past in her snazzy new roadster late one rainy night, and since discovering a secret trapdoor, finding an incriminating letter and unmasking one of the town’s leading citizens in a shoddy plumbing racket, garnering admiration from all the townsfolk and especially lanky Tim Brentdale, the best tennis player in town, who would join “Chubby” to laughingly say “Nobody else but you could have plumbed those awesome depths Trixie!”.
But apparently Chronos was right, so there’ll be NO TRIXIE BELDANE TONIGHT!
