Well, I was at school today, doing an exam. After I was done failing it, I went to the library to pick up some light reading. Right next to the Faust that I had came looking for, there was a book. It said “the straight” and the rest was covered by the page of another book. I said to myself, " now isn’t that odd, Who would name thier book “the straight”? So, being the curious creature that I am, I took out the book to take a gander at it, and I almost dropped it! It wasn’t “the straight”, oh no, It was “the straight dope”. By Cecil Adams, no less.
Now, you can’t believe how amazed I was that my library would have this book. So I took that out instead of the pride and the prejudice, which is just as well since I heard that it was boring.
I opened up the inside, and it said that it was part of the “Terry Sheasgreen collection”. you know, on thos bookstamps you put on yourself? Well, it seems that he was a teacher at my school a while back, and when he died his will said he wanted all his books donated to my school. So just out of curiousety, does anyone know of him? I take it he died within the last ten years, and I’m pretty sure some of you have been around since then.
And also, has anyone read this book? Is it any good? (I’m sorry, but I have to ask.)
Link to books
Straight Dope Books:
Triumph of the Straight Dope
The Straight Dope Tells All
Return of the Straight Dope
More of the Straight Dope
The Straight Dope
Know It All
I think lots of us have read Cecil’s books (and are waiting for the long-overdue next volume… please have mercy on us, Father Cecil!). I like them all, but I think the first one (the one you have in your hands) is my favorite.
All of the straight dope books are good. I have every single one of them and find them to be a great. You can take them anywhere, plop down and start reading on whatever page you flip too.
I just wanted to add that, if not for the books, I would never have found this place. I was bored one day, way back when, when I typed “straight dope” into a search engine. Lo’ and behold guess what popped up on my screen!
I lurked for a long while and I finally registered and started posting my usual innane drivel.
Have you read any of the columns on-line? They’re kinda like that. Kinda. Make sure you tell your friends about the book so more people can be brought into the cult.
“Pride and Prejudice” is definitely not boring. I think it’s hilarious. But it’s a comedy about love and marriage and society, and possibly the people who told you it was boring prefer comedies about people falling down stairs. Or maybe they couldn’t understand it well enough to get the jokes.
The Straight Dope books are awesome, blew my mind, changed my way of attacking facts and fallacies when I first came upon them in the '80s, and are, like many others here, the reason why I dwell upon this board.
I’ve learned a lot through them. I’ve convinced others from the stuff within them. And I’ve come to know some fabulous people because of them and this MB.
Sheesh. No offense, MM8B, but this is a lot like excitedly informing people that the Lord of the Rings movies are actually based on a bunch of books. (Who’da thunk it?!)
Last I checked it was a free message board. But then again, I heard there were rumors of charging a $300 annual membership fee and signing a sworn allegiance to the Illuminati.
Tripler
And that’s not including the $5.00 “New Idea/Thread” fee.
A while back, someone posted a thread along the lines of “Do you have a Straight Dope twin?” Or kindred spirit, or some such title. Now after several weeks of arriving to thread and getting ready to post to see that Meatros has already posted my exact thoughts, I have come to the conclusion that we were separated at birth.
It’s now undeniable. Incontrovertable. Every thought I’ve had has passed through Meatros’s mind. Every post he’s made has passed through my consciousness as well…
Make sure you tell your friends about the book so more people can be brought into the cult.
