I don’t remember. It was just this past April… I think I saw a link to it on another site (maybe the Skeptic’s Dictionary, or CSICOP or REALL?). I still haven’t bought a book since these days I spend more time plopped down in front of the computer than reading. I inhaled the archives and then, needing a fix, turned to the mb. I’ll buy a book when my computer is repo’d.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I live for reference and trvial knowledge. Funny thing is that I bypassed the Straight Dope book (the first) for a while because I thought it was about pot. I found the book in hubby’s bathroom when we were dating and, well with nothing better to do at the moment, picked it up and was hooked. It has changed my life. 
I don’t know of any Michigan Papers that carry Cecil, but thank goodness for the internet.
My grandma gave me the first Straight Dope book when I was ten or so. I read it to tatters.
There’s no good bookstores around here, so I was checking out Amazon.com, and out of curiosity looked for Cecil’s name, hoping he might have had a sequal. After I got the books in the mail, I saw that there was a web site for Straight Dope, and the rest is history.
A friend of mine always turned up with interesting sites on the Net, such as the Darwin Awards and The Onion. In the beginning of this year, The Straight Dope entered my vocabulary, and I’ve been hooked on it ever since.
Alien lifeforms have planted me amongst the Dopers in order to begin the long and tiresome process of reprograming skeptics.
Contestant #3
I, too, was one of those folks who was browsing the reference section at the book store (sometime in the early 90’s) and happened upon “The Straight Dope”. It was like HEAVEN! Questions you always wondered but didn’t know who to ask (or didn’t have the nerve to ask). Shortly after that, I found Cecil in the Boston Phoenix and life has been a breeze ever since.
-Leslie
I think you’re smarter than a dumb slug. - Christopher A. Evans
When I started school in DC, I picked up a City Paper and there he was writing interesting articles about interesting things. I went through four years of reading him every week.
Then I moved to California. The dark ages began.
Not only does Santa Barbara not have Cecil in their measly free weekly paper, but the paper you buy here isn’t as good as the Washington City Paper. Even the LA Weekly isn’t as good as the Washington City Paper. I would venture to say that the Washington City Paper is the best free newspaper on the face of the earth.
I should have ordered a year subscription and had it sent here.
Wow, thats a great newspaper.
Oh, and the dark ages ended when I found out about his website, and dedicated about 4 weeks of my life constantly reading the Straight Dope archives.
pat
I had been reading “Straight From the Hip”, by Mathew Alice, in the San Diego Reader for some time. I’d heard there was a guy who wrote the same kind of column, and was syndicated nationally. I was skeptical, but when I saw Cecil’s first book in a bookstore, I gave it a try, and immediately knew Cecil was the master and Matt just an entertaining imitator. I’ve been a fan ever since.
Reference section of the bookstore (at Notre Dame, no less! Take that, Cece). Bought the first one, waited years for the second and the third. Gave away numerous copies to family and friends.
I never lived in Chicago but spent many years traveling through and visiting, and always trying to find a copy of the Reader. Took me six years to find anyone in Chicago who had ever heard of it.
Going online is the best thing ever for TSD. The fight against ignorance goes on !
I started reading it in 1980 from the Isthmus in Madison. Have always picked up that paper when in town since. Tried to type in this url the first day I had a working internet connection. The Isthmus is online sunbear.
When I went to live with my dad in my high-school years, once in a great while he would take me with him when he had to work late, bonding time or whatever. Anyway he was a state worker so he had free internet at work, and he would get me started reading the SD archives then go do his paperwork.
One day a few years later, I couldn’t think of anything interesting to look up on hubbie’s computer, so I stopped here.
Now, I am trying to halt the process of brain atrophy. I can’t think of a better place to do that.
possibly the world’s only naive cynic
Gr8kat said:
Hmmm. I don’t think it was the REALL site. Maybe Skeptic News? I submitted a news item when Cecil revisited vampires. Not sure if that’s the right time frame or not, though.
I saw the (first) book at Barnes and Noble around 1991 or so. Opened it up and found:
What does the H stand for in Jesus H. Christ?
The H. stands for Harold, as in “Our lord, Harold be thy name.”
And from that moment on, I was hooked.
Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
I bought the first book at a garage sale in the mid 80’s and have been a huge fan ever since. Why anybody would want to get rid of Cecil at a garage sale, I don’t understand. But their loss was definitely my gain.
In the 80’s, I bought the Straight Dope Book. It appealed to me because of it’s humor and intelligence. Cecil told a reader–“If ignorance were cornflakes, you’d be General Mills.” That really cracked me up.
The Straight Dope web site came up once when I did a web search on “Ask Jeeves”
I love message boards and I really enjoy this one. Partly because most of the posters spell things correctly and follow grammar rules. I can’t stand misspelling–it’s the school teacher in me.
Gail
“Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend–
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again…”
-Steely Dan
My brother in law gave me Return of the Straight Dope when i was in the hospital following back surgery. I laughed so hard I had to keep putting the book down (it really hurt!). I sincerely think that book helped speed my recovery tremendously…really took my mind off things and made me laugh my ass off…
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
pricciar: you probably already know about this:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/
if not, you can thank me later
Gail: Uh, I guess you meant to say:
“It appealed to me because of itshumor and intelligence” 
I discovered Cecil at our municipal library several years ago and, to use what has become a cliché, I was hooked. I’m also cheap: I borrowed all of his books from said library.
Can’t wait for SD to come to the Internet.
(Now to double check this so as to not fall prey to Gail’s revenge)
Read it in the New York Press when I first moved back to New York City in 1989.
Loved it then, love it now, even if Cecil has yet to return an e-mail or answer a question…
Brian O’Neill
CMC International Records
rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html
ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill
Omniscientnot said:
Er, what are we doing now?
David: Does this help: :D?