In Should you not throw rice at weddings because birds swallow it and explode? Cecil wrote (the very last line):
Shouldn’t it be “If you’re not out of here by then”?
I’ll assume Cecil had someone else type up this column.
This sentence appears correctly – "out’ is indeed the missing word – on page 87 of Triumph of the Straight Dope. According question #18 from the Straight Dope FAQ, “Veteran Straight Dope readers may remember that a column once referred to ‘talking books for the deaf.’ Very funny. It was a new copyboy’s first day on the job. His body has never been found.” so I would suggest someone may want to go into hiding.