I asked The Master inthis little prayer for help and BYGOD he showed right up and answered me. Don’t tell me HE isn’t real. Y’all just don’t have any faith.
and BTW…
U/C, it’s after labor day and the ignorance isn’t getting much better. Except for the summer newbies that went back to school. 
So, where’s that smiting stick at?
Not that it proves anything one way or the other, but there really is an Allen Jaglowski who is a Chicago homicide detective. Someone want to go ask him?
Hey! You know how he doesn’t want anyone to take pictures of his face? Maybe he’d do this for us . . . after all, there’s little chance it would cause him to be mauled at the grocery store!
How 'bout it Cecil? Your awestruck fans (especially Ruby) wait with eager anticipation!
Because I’m a bored lurker, with no life, I went to classmates.com and looked up this Jaglowski fella.
There are three Allen Jaglowskis listed, though I suspect two are the same guy. The first went to Quigley Preparato from 1965-69 ( http://www.classmates.com/user/myschool/class_list.tf?school_id=28806&year=1969&offset=0 ) .
The second went to Notre Dame Boys School ( http://www.classmates.com/user/myschool/class_list.tf?school_id=10322&year=1969&offset=0 ) from 68 to 69.
The third went to St. Constance School, in Chicago, IL, from 1957-1965 (I’m assuming this is an elementary school) : http://www.classmates.com/user/myschool/class_list.tf?school_id=17437181&year=1965&offset=0 .
(P.S. My vote has always been that Cecil is Ed, and vice versa- in one article, about the meaning of “vaffanculo,” Cecil says that he grew up in an Italian neighbourhood. Seems like something a Zotti might do.)
B.
The link above suggests that Cecil was born around 1951, if he and Jaglowski were classmates from 1965 to 1969.
Which would make him 22 when the column first appeared in 1973.
Which isn’t impossible, especially considering the fact that alternative papers tend to hire young writers.
Wow, this is the best investigation of this ever. Estimating his age from a name mentioned? You guys rock.
Tell you what, when I have some spare time today, I’ll peruse the books to add some facts of my own. All for the cause.
And I believe.
I believe too. I also believe that Cecil is gettin’ pretty uneasy right about now.
I believe in the smal of the back and kisses that last for three days. I also believe someone writes columns under the nom de plume of Cecil Adams.
I believe also, but I do want to know what is with all of the trademark stuff. Cecil, did you have your name as a trademark knowing people would find it?
The application was made simply so that someone else couldn’t claim to be The World’s Smartest Human and write columns under that name.
I agree it’s most likely a nom-de-plume, but I see no reason to assume it’s not one person writing under it.
How come Cecil never gets involved in these “is Cecil real” threads?
Of all of the threads asking the big question that I have seen, this one has some real potential. I think one would only need to take a picture of Ed to that detective guy, and see if he recognizes him, that might at least tell us who Cecil * isn’t *.
As for me, I believe in a Cecil though I don’t really believe it is his real name, I think (at this point any way), it has always been the same person – though Cecil makes references to his brother in law writhing the column for a while – sorry, I’m not sure which of his books that is in, some body else must know.
How do you know he hasn’t?
As tomndeb put it so well back in the day:
"Yes, Doc Nickel, there is a Cecil Adams.
He exists as certainly as investigation and research and analysis exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Cecil Adams! It would be as dreary as if there were no Doc Nickel. There would be no ornery skepticism then, no doubting, no analysis to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood’s demands for truth fill the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Cecil Adams! You might as well not believe in the OED, the Encyclopædia Britannica or Google. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the Chicago Reader offices on Monday morning to catch Cecil Adams, but even if you did not see Cecil Adams enter the building, what would that prove? Nobody sees Cecil Adams, but that is no sign that there is no Cecil Adams. The most real things in the world are those that have not been debunked by Cecil or Jan Harold Brunvand or Barbara Mikkelson . Did you ever see Zhou Enlai? Of course not, he used to live in China and he’s dead now, but that does not mean he was not real. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the masters there are unseen and unseeable in the world…
No Cecil Adams? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Doc Nickel, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of students of knowledge."
Nope. L.M. Boyd aka Mike Mailway, lives here in Seattle. He retired a few years ago (his columns are reruns now) and is probably a little too old to be a baby boomer as I used to have a book he published around 1960.
hmmm… Time to bring out a little tidbit I have. Only, I have no cite right now… it’s truly terrible.
about a year ago, when I was just a lurker, I read a book which I cannot for the life of me remember the name or author of. It was one of those “Things you never knew about random subjects” and had all kinds of info like Rorschach testing, lie detector tests, religious practices, I don’t know what else. Toward the end, the author said he had to rat out a friend… and said that Ed Zotti is Cecil. Oh, how I wish I could remember the name/author of the book. Will get it when I go home for Christmas… but that’s still a long way off!
I’d been wondering since I read that if anyone else had seen it or knew that and just didn’t want to say so… in fact, I’ve been wondering for quite a while if it would be completely blasphemous to rat it out. (Guys, if I end up banned after this… you’ll know that I’ve been smote (smitten?) for letting the cat out of the bag!)
Sorry this is so lame without a cite… but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say so.
He has a feminine side. And she likes to sing.
LifeInHIM86, I suspect you are referring to page 33 of William Poundstone’s 1993 book Biggest Secrets. In the “Ghostwriters” section, in the “Secret Identities” chapter, he makes the following claim:
This was discussed a couple years back in The Poundstonian Heresy, wherein we were informed by C K Dexter Haven that