The Gerbil Stuffing

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

I came across an article about a gay couple in Salt Lake City who were “stuffing” and the gerbil got stuck and it resulted in serious injuries. There was a press conference held by the hospital and everything. This was quite recent. The article was in the Los Angeles Times (I believe).

2

Welcome, Larasque. Arnold usually shows up and tells you to “please post a link to Cecil’s column about which you are referring” or some such.

I assume you mean gerbil this column.

If it appeared in the LA Times, it should be available, with some effort. But as a cautionary note, the story appeared in my Akron Beacon Journal once also. It routinely gets printed, even though no one can come up with real proof later.

There are probably 5-10 threads in our search feature on the message boards about this. While I haven’t read them all, I would be surprised if anyone has come up with “proof.”

But it’s a great urban legend.

3

Cecil’s column about gerbils appeared in the More of the Straight Dope, which was published in 1988, so Cecil never got a chance to debunk the fake story that Larasque alludes to, various versions of which appear to have been floating around on the internet since around 1996.

But fear not – the Urban Legends site http://www.snopes.com reviews the history of this particular hoax in full at The Rectal Rodent – including the information that “Other versions have been falsely attributed to the Los Angeles Times with the events said to have taken place in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

4

…violating my own rules…

Thanks, whitetho.

And me, a snopesian! Sheesh!

5

Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment.
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL).

Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by samclem.

The column can also be found on pages 216-218 of Cecil Adams’ book «More of the Straight Dope».

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