I happened to find a thread from 2003 that had links to a couple of Cecil’s columns that were presumably from earlier, although one of them was probably only a little earlier. Both links were dead (404 messages). Are these old columns gone from this site for good? How far back do the available columns go?
Which thread and which columns? They may still be on the site, but with different URLs. The earliest SD column available on the site happens to be the The First Straight Dope Column ever published, in February 1973.
The thread was about Cecil’s explanation of the origin of “OK” and the two columns referenced were that column plus a later one where he talked about leetspeak.
Here is the link to the 2nd post in that thread that has the column links in it.
Origin of "OK" - #2 by samclem
The new system of URLs include words indicating the topic of the column. So the leetspeak column is at https://www.straightdope.com/21343563/what-the-heck-is-leetspeek and the OK column is at https://www.straightdope.com/21341673/what-does-ok-stand-for
The old system of URLs used references to books and page numbers for most columns published before the website existed. The column about “OK” had a URL containing “a2_250” meaning page 250 of the second Straight Dope book (which was More of the Straight Dope, published in 1988). For columns published after the website was established, the URL formerly contained a reference to the date of original publication. The leetspeak column was published on January 10, 2003, so its URL contained “030110”
Unfortunately, the old URLs do no redirect to the new ones, and Google searches seems to be hit-or-miss. I find that the best way to find an old column is to use the search (magnifying glass icon) on the Straight Dope main page.
Got it, thank you.