# Straight Dope's 45th Anniversary **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 2, 2018, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013 "2018-02-02T10:40:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/1 "2018-02-02T10:40:11Z")
Cecil’s Adam’s [debut missive](https://web.archive.org/web/20170705145551/http://www.straightdope.com/pages/faq/firstcolumn) ([archive.org](http://archive.org) link) to the teeming masses appeared on this day 45 years ago, on February 2, 1973. The traditional 45th anniversary standard promoted by marketing mavens is sapphire. Unca Cece would want something practical, so I’m going to suggest a sapphire record player needle as the perfect, thoughtful, gift. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/2 "2018-02-02T11:05:38Z")
I’m still waiting for my LP. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/3 "2018-02-02T15:36:18Z")
Amazing 45 years. Of course, in some respects, the Unca Cece of old was just a fore-runner of fashion; he was that generation’s Princess Google. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/4 "2018-02-02T16:01:51Z")
That date was also a Friday. (I can calculate day-of-week within seconds, and have done so on stage. I’ll cover this in a MMP thread soon.) 45 years often works out to be an exact number of weeks, and it does in this case. 2348 weeks to be exact. 52 weeks from now will make… {an exercise for the tms!} ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/5 "2018-02-02T18:38:20Z")
Happy ‘A’ day, Unca Cece! My sapphire encrusted cork screw is in the mail. Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/6 "2018-02-02T18:45:10Z")
There was Internet 45 years ago, or did the site start in another way and morph to an online message board? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/7 "2018-02-02T19:24:48Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > There was Internet 45 years ago, or did the site start in another way and morph to an online message board? Map of the internet in [1973.](https://www.sciencealert.com/old-nasa-papers-have-revealed-a-map-of-the-entire-internet-from-1973) > [@](#): > > Back then, the World Wide Web was known as the ARPANET, and consisted of just 42 computer hosts connected to 36 nodes spread across the US. > > It wasn’t until 20 December 1990, that Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at the CERN research facility in Switzerland,[turned on the world’s first website](https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-first-website-just-turned-25-years-old), hosted by the World Wide Web. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/8 "2018-02-02T19:48:11Z")
Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/9 "2018-02-02T20:30:33Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > There was Internet 45 years ago, or did the site start in another way and morph to an online message board? The origin was [The Chicago Reader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Reader), an early alternative Newspaper in Chicago, started in 1971. Cecil’s column started in 1973. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/10 "2018-02-02T21:03:45Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > The origin was [The Chicago Reader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Reader), an early alternative Newspaper in Chicago, started in 1971. Cecil’s column started in 1973. That’s some amazing history. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/11 "2018-02-03T03:56:32Z")
Chase Sapphire card? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/12 "2018-02-03T16:17:39Z")
I’ll have a Bombay Sapphire martini in honor of the Dope’s milestone. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dopes-45th-anniversary/808013/13 "2018-02-04T01:59:28Z")
Before Cecil started up in '73, we hand a number of free papers in Albuquerque patterned after various San Francisco free rags around the UNM area. Maybe some of the same people ran them. I graduated in '72, well before Cecil. Yet one of the papers had a _Straight Dope_ column. I believe, but could be wrong, that it was in a specific paper called _The Seer’s Catalogue_, with an R Crumb (like) cover and a Mr Natural type character going, _Oh, I get it._ Anyway, this old _Straight Dope_ column was actually about dope. They had some chem students from UNM testing samples of local street drugs circulating and listing what was good or dangerous in any given week. They were probably using the University lab to do it.