For some unconscionable reason, the Straight Dope is not carried in any papers in the greater Bay Area (at least not any I know of; there are plenty, of course) so my Straight Dope introduction came via the world wide web.
I remember coming home from a particularly cheap Chinese dinner and feeling my toes tingling. Then my fingers. As the sleepy, vague uncomfortable feeling crept through all my limbs (and elsewhere, unfortunately), I wondered, “could MSG really make me feel like this?” While Unca Cece’s response left a little to be desired, I nevertheless perused the rest of the site, spent a majority of my next week reading classic columns, and finally signed up for the SDMB when I had a burning question that had yet to be answered: “Why pop-off beer caps vs. twist-off?”
In the days of AOL, sometimes on the menu when you first signed on, they’d have cool links. Things like horoscopes and other kid oriented things…and, apparently, the Straight Dope. (I guess it was considered educational.) This was when I was about twelve or so.
I started clicking around, noticed that the columns (particularly those on the Beatles and on potentially suicidal Wizard of Oz munchkins) were right up my alley! And I got to it. Later, I discovered the message board portion through Threadspotting. At first, I thought the only threads you could post in were the Threadspotting threads. When I clicked around, I realized there was so much more.
I had been searching for years for the correct term for the writing on the front of ambulances that is written so that you can read it in your rearview mirror. Colophon found me the link for retrography. I’ve been hooked ever since.
My older sister found out about the Straight Dope via the short-lived A&E TV show back in the day. We then started checking out the AOL site regularly. I made some unsuccessfull forays into the AOL board, then kind of held back until sometime after the SDMB became regular internet (we had stopped using AOL in the meantime) and joined.
When the SDMB first went pay-to-post, I wasn’t sure if I’d want to post often enough to pay, so I held off initially, and missed my chance to be a “charter member.” Considering I’ve posted something like 200 times since I’ve subscribed, I feel like it was a good investment.
I was talking in IMs with a friend from another message board one night and complaining that I was bored so she linked me here since she and a lot of the regs there post(ed) here as well. I see the admin from that board, MoodIndigo1, around the board ocasionally, though I don’t think we’ve ever interacted here.
I needed to find out how many testicles Hitler had. So I Googled, and Cecil’s column popped up. This would be in 2002.
I didn’t sleep that night, pouring over the archives. I think I had read EVERY SD column within the next two weeks. I signed up for email updates and read them religiously. I didn’t notice the message board for a couple of years.
I used to read a sex column wherein a reader asked about merkins. That columnist linked to Cecil, who went into some detail about the history of wigs for the female nether region. Pretty soon after that I started posting on the board. I had seen the TV show, but didn’t make the connection to this place until later.
I came to the Dope seeking the answer to the mystery of Manhattan sandwiches, and although the teeming millions, alas, failed me, 'twas this thread, on extracting a broken light bulb, that hooked me. It was featured in Threadspotting.
Someone linked a SDMB thread on another board I read. It was a thread about a married woman revealing her extra-curricular relationship. And everyone was giving her loads of shit.
I read the chicago reader cover to cover when I lived in chicago. Now I still read savage love online and check out whats going on around town. I always read the straight dope column and I wanted to know if I could find the answer to “how does hair know when you’ve cut it…does it start growing again or is it constantly growing and falling out” I got distracted by the message board bc so much of it pissed me off. People being assholes. It still does but if you cant beat em, join em
I began reading the Straight Dope in the Chicago Reader when I was in high school and read all of the Straight Dope books. I was delighted to find the website.
I’d stumbled across the first Straight Dope book in a bookstore (the downtown branch of the Intimate Bookstore in Chapel Hill, to be precise) and loved it. Bought every book that came along after that. The columns themselves were rare treats back then, as they weren’t carried in any paper I had ready access to. When the internet came around in the 90s, ultimately I stumbled across the Straight Dope website. Managed to miss out on that “message boards” link - just wasn’t interested.
Until the day someone forwarded me a link to Scylla’s “The Horror of Blimps”. I was reading it, laughing so hard I was wheezing (alarming Typo Knig, who could hear me from the next room). The rest, as they say, is history.
I believe I’m one of the few that saw The Straight Dope on A&E back when Mike Lukas was hosting it in the late 90s, and found the website from there. . . I actually joined in May of 2000.
Side question: Has anyone followed up with Mike to see if he ever joined the boards?
Tripler
I personally believe Mike Lukas is the bald-headed son of Cecil himself.
Someone emailed me Scylla’sHorror of Blimps in a mass email. I followed a link to the board (it was attributed at least), and was hooked. It was the first message board I’d ever read, so I had no idea how lucky I was to have found one with a literate population. I know better now.