I was surfing the net one day for the answer to some random question. I came upon somebody’s blog (which, in retrospect, was probably some Doper’s LJ) that contained a link to a GQ thread on a similar topic. After reading through that thread, and a few others I found on the main page, I did a double-take, exclaimed “Holy crap, a message board with smart people?!”, and signed up right then and there. Of course, I didn’t post anything for a good month or two, and then my first thread mostly got ignored, but hey, these things happen. It’s still the best place on the 'net for my money.
Oh, come on. If “penis ensues” weren’t enough, that time you mis-linked what was supposed to be a picture of your husband to a picture of a dog in a cheerleading outfit had me quite literally on the floor in tears of joy.
I honestly can’t remember. But then I have an attention span problem, so that’s not a surprise.
IIRC hubby turned me onto the Master’s Words via the Straight Dope page, possibly when he first came to visit me which was about April '03. I found the forums at that time, but was on dial and the forums were deadly slow, so after ploughing through some of the threadspotting links, I gave up. Fast forward to '04 when I had my own ADSL connection and a PC worthy of it, and I got back to reading the Dope, and found the boards again. They were cleaner and faster than I remembered, so after about six to nine months of lurking, I did the guest thing, then ponied up for the full 12 months. And I’m another lucky Doper who thinks it’s totally worth it. Especially when I’m stuck at work on the overnight shift, and I haven’t had a call in over an hour.
I blame Mr. Ujest. Which, ironically, he never read. He doesn’t read anything but technical manuals and sport pages. I think he was in a book buying phase of his life then, lucky for me. And he doesn’t completely ‘get’ message boards.
He had the book in his bathroom at home sitting on the floor there for years.
One day, desperate for something to read I picked up " The Straight Dope."
That was it for me. I bought the books and in the back of one of them was the comments from the message board. The bit from the gone and not forgotten and I never met him/her about What is Behind the Vatican Door thingie? made me realize that there was a bunch of smart asses and layabout out there who were just like me…only funnier. and more coherent and cared about stomping out run on sentances. I even made it into the comments in one of the books w00t!, but none of my dumbass questions ever did, which if you ever saw the crap I spewed off to Cecil you’d understand why.
Lurked for awhile on the original boards. Didn’t really fall hard into this world until my kids were born.
It is a bit weird for me to admit this, but I know you dopers will understand, but I found ‘home’ while sitting on the toilet.
:::::sniff:::::::::::
I love you dopers.
Thank you Cecil and Ed! You’re the bestest!1111!!!
Bermuda, where ever you are, thanks.
And to all the other dopers, charter members or not, who have made me laugh or even possibly think thanks! When we meet at the Pearly Gates I’ll buy the first round.
In 1990 I was out of town on a job for a week or so, and was perusing a bookstore for something to soak up some time in the hotel room when I wasn’t at the job site.
I found the original Straight Dope book, and thought it looked interesting. Laughed my ass off at dinner that night as I read through it.
When I got back home, I found a small local paper that carried the column, and read it as I could. As the other books came out, I bought those too.
In about 1996, I found the AOL site. That was probably just a couple of months after it started. Came along for the ride when the site moved to the web in early ’99.
I don’t post that much, but I read the boards pretty regularly. This is the best board on the net, hands down.
Guess I started out reading Cecil’s books, then found the site on AOL. Migrated here when the Reader board started up…changed email addresses, lost my password, been away for a few years, been wanting to come back.
You should email an admin to straighten that out, if you still have your original membership. They frown upon having two, even if the old one is really old.
(Not that I’m trying to Junior Mod here, just sayin’…)
I believe it was sometime in '03. I was reading the posts in DvdTalk.com when I came across a link in one of the posts which led me to the “What if LOTR was written by someone else?” thread in Cafe Society. I fell in love with the SDMB straight away. I lurk most of the time which explains my low post count even after 2 years here.
I owe a big “THANK YOU!” to whoever it was who provided that link in that DvdTalk thread.
My brother sent me a link to the homepage - ‘it’s funny, and interesting’ during a boring, jobless summer. I’d never heard of Cecil Adams, but his columns were indeed funny and interesting. And lo! A messageboard full of people who were (and are) equally funny and interesting!
