# Triumphs--Adams, Cecil--32 Years **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 2, 2005, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963 "2005-02-02T09:47:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **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, 2005, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/1 "2005-02-02T09:47:31Z")
There is that famous line in “The Boy Inventors’ Wireless Triumph” (Richard Bonner, Hurst & Company, NY, 1912) which reads _Boys, exclaimed Professor Chadwick proudly, that’s what I call a real wireless triumph!_ More than a half-century after the good professor’s pronouncement – on February 2, 1973 to be exact – an equally triumphant event occurred, with the publication of the [first Straight Dope column](http://straightdope.com/faq/firstcolumn.html). Which means that today the whole world celebrates 32 years of Uncle Cecil’s Anti-Ignorance Triumphs, conveyed through weekly columns, five book collections, and an [Internet message board](http://boards.straightdope.com). As we all are well familiar, in “The Boy Inventors’ Vanishing Gun” the boy inventors invented a rapid-fire gun that made airplanes vanish (by shooting them down). And Unca Cece has done the same, except his sacred mission is to make ignorance vanish, by “shooting down” misinformation and fallacies. The last Boy Inventors volume appeared in 1915, while _Triumph of The Straight Dope_, the most recent _Straight Dope_ collection – the allusion to the earlier Boy Inventors volume is obvious – appeared in 1999. And we fervently hope that the gap before the appearance of the next collection of Cecil’s brilliant opuses will not match the length of the current drought for a new Boy Inventors book, because the Cubs – a professional baseball team based in Chicago – _are doomed to never again win the World Series until another Straight Dope volume is published!_. Mike Lenehan was Cecil’s original editor, so he gets the credit for introducing Cecil to an unsuspecting but eternally grateful world. But he (Lenehan) bailed out pretty quick, while Ed Zotti, Cecil’s third and current erstwhile editor, has been on the scene for the last 27-odd years. It would be remiss not to honor Mr. Zotti for his own non-negligible efforts in keeping the Straight Dope editorial ship on course and its gears greased and lubed, so I have written a small tribute: _My name is “Little Ed”. I wear the name with pride. Me and Uncle Cecil fight ignorance. I am by his side. Spelling and punctuation may seem stoic, But cutting and pasting can be heroic!_ Don’t worry, that tribute’s not copyrighted or anything, but if you wanted to pay me for the rights, or set it to music, or something, well, that would be okay too. All Hail Uncle Cecil! etc., etc. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/2 "2005-02-02T13:40:28Z")
Incoherent, much? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/3 "2005-02-02T13:43:46Z")
February the Tooth, Grounchunk’s Day as well. Congrats, Boss! ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/4 "2005-02-02T15:15:55Z")
Was that directed at **Cecil** or your rodent overlord? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/5 "2005-02-02T15:54:25Z")
Did Cecil see his shadow this morning? Are we doomed to 32 more years of ignorance? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/6 "2005-02-02T16:07:37Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > …Ed Zotti, Cecil’s third and current **erstwhile** editor, has been on the scene for the last 27-odd years. [Mandy Patinkin]I do not think that means what you think it means![/mandy patinkin] Anyway, happy Candlemas to you too! ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/7 "2005-02-02T16:09:12Z")
Word, dammit! I do not think that _word_ means what you think it means! I swear that’s how I typed it. Those damn hamsters are out to get me! ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/8 "2005-02-02T17:22:38Z")
Hey, where did those first questions come from? “Dear Cecil Adams: In case you ever start writing a column where you answer questions of various sorts, here’s something I’ve wondered…” ? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/9 "2005-02-03T02:04:54Z")
27 odd years… Odd as in strange or odd as in not even? Happy Anniversary, Straight Dope! It’s taking a lot longer than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/10 "2005-02-03T18:53:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey, where did those first questions come from? > > “Dear Cecil Adams: In case you ever start writing a column where you answer questions of various sorts, here’s something I’ve wondered…” I suspect that shortly before Cecil’s first column, the Reader ran a little blurb along the lines of “Coming soon, a new column, the Straight Dope by Cecil Adams. Send questions on any topic to The Straight Dope, C/O the Chicago Reader…”. And the first few columns were probably also seeded by various other Reader employees. ---
**Author:** ![tadc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@tadc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tadc)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/11 "2005-02-11T01:56:28Z")
> [@Chicago Reader](#): > > Note: The above “blurb” is that originally published with the column and is included only for historical interest. The offer of an lp is no longer valid. Dammit, I want my Beach Boys “LP”! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/triumphs-adams-cecil-32-years/287963/12 "2005-02-17T07:20:47Z")
Wow, I never realized that. Whatever else it means to candles and groundhogs, February 2 is also my birthday! I’ve been going at it a few years longer than the Straight Dope, but then I’ve occasionally spread ignorance (unintentionally of course) in addition to fighting it … so I still give SD the edge.