Simple (or maybe not) question: Who knows more/is smarter, our own Cecil Adams or the HowStuffWorks guy,
Marshall Brain?
I don’t see the evidence for Cecil knowing everything. He picks what he wants to write about, he researches it (suggesting he didn’t know it in the first place)
Personally I don’t see Cecil as any smarter than some of the users on this message board. They might not know it right off either, but they have the intelligence to know how to find something out.
How is knowing how to research something proof of ultimate Intelligence?
(I am assuming Marshall Brain falls into this same category)
Now if he was on a quiz show or something, or in a chat room answering questions as they are asked…then there is something to be in awe about.
Actually, he doesn’t research them (at least not all of them); the SD Staff does.
I still cling to the foundless theory that he doesn’t actually exist… 
I know Marshall Brain. He used to teach computer science classes at the school I attended (North Carolina State University). While he was a very smart guy, I would not put him in the super-genius category that Cecil is in. I didn’t even think he was the smartest instructor in our department.
Hey, thanks everyone for the input. Now I wonder if anyone has ever met Cecil. Thanks again.