# What do we know about Cecil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660 "2004-07-18T03:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/21 "2004-07-19T05:00:34Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Cecil is Ed Zotti. > > From the post [post=4800777]The SDMB is switching to paid subscriptions[/post] authored by Ed Zotti (highlighting added): I don’t see how that proves anything 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/22 "2004-07-19T12:26:08Z")
> [@Meatros](#): > > Personally, I think Cecil is a benevolent cyborg sent from the future to instruct mankind… > … > Or a Vampire… > 😃 Or a benevolent immortal cyborg were-vampire! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/23 "2004-07-19T18:39:02Z")
I saw a picture of “Ed” once, but it was almost twenty years ago and I don’t remember it very well. Seems to me there wasn’t a lot of hair on him. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/24 "2004-07-19T18:50:18Z")
> [@jklann](#): > > He is Catholic, or at least was raised as such. He appears to have been rather impecunious during the early days of the column, and was living in rental housing until at least the late 1970’s. He attended college in the East. A security guard once threatened him with a handgun. He belonged to the Cub Scouts as a youth. The column in which he mentions this makes it clear he was in the Scouts before 1955, offering further evidence that he was _at least_ in his late 20’s when the column debuted and is thus pushing 60 today. > > All of this comes from a quick, superficial scan of the first Straight Dope book. I’m sure that a rigorous analysis of his work, both online and in print, would yield a lot more. Computerized analysis of his writing style, and a thorough search for any contradictions in these tidbits of personal history, would provide evidence for or against the “One Cecil” theory. (I’m a firm believer in One Cecil, myself.) I think it’s up to you to lead the effort, **Mighty\_Girl**! Excellent, that is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to extract from his writings. Despite the insistense on Ed is Cecil (I couldn’t care less even if Cecil were Martha Stewart or that guy who plays Will in Will and Grace). Whenever I read an author I try to see how much of his own life he left aside. That is easier with Cecil because we have his writings online and because he doesn’t write fiction (or does he?). ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/25 "2004-07-19T19:31:57Z")
His wife is generously gifted in the [chest region](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_319.html). Sorry, the link is NOT to a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660/26 "2004-07-19T23:35:33Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > Whenever I read an author I try to see how much of his own life he left aside. Just as telling as what Cecil says is what he doesn’t say. In 30 years of columns, he has never once referred to holding down any other type of professional job or having any sort of technical degree. Most likely his only career has been as a writer, and we can be certain that he has published more than just the Straight Dope, which would hardly have kept him alive before the advent of the books and this mega-lucrative message board 🙂 ! Perhaps the need to maintain a separate identity accounts for his reluctance in revealing more of himself. (The persona of Cecil Adams may be inconsistent with his other writing endeavors.) Maybe, just maybe, he’s nearing an age when he can afford to retire from whatever else he does and finally be able to reveal himself in the flesh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-we-know-about-cecil/255660.md?page=1)