# whats the reader (and us) gona do when unca cecil well passes on ..... **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 3, 2017, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882 "2017-02-03T05:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/21 "2017-02-04T19:23:51Z")
I like to think of Cecil as the intelligent option to Flattus Maximus. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/22 "2017-02-04T19:50:20Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > My understanding is that there is a daughter, Licec Adams, who has been groomed from birth to take over. But does anyone lick Licec and live? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/23 "2017-02-04T21:31:00Z")
Long long long ago, on an internet far far far away ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/24 "2017-02-04T21:53:32Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Long long long ago, on an internet far far far away ā€¦ ā€¦One man rose to teach Truth to a few pupils willing to listen, while surviving the ripples, tides, and eddies stemming from near constant grabs for power from those content with petty corruptionā€¦ within an Enormous but Decaying Empireā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/25 "2017-02-04T22:27:55Z")
Iā€™m more worried about the Reader than Cecil. The Reader has been awful the past couple of years and I just canā€™t see it surviving. Red Eye has pretty much shut down. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/26 "2017-02-04T23:05:45Z")
A GQ level question: who at this point actually own the IP rights to the name ā€œThe Straight Dopeā€ and the character ā€œCecilā€? Creative Loafing? ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/27 "2017-02-05T19:41:10Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > A GQ level question: who at this point actually own the IP rights to the name ā€œThe Straight Dopeā€ and the character ā€œCecilā€? > > Creative Loafing? ??? Your answer is right at the bottom of this page. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/28 "2017-02-05T21:57:09Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Creative Loafing? Creative Loafing as a company no longer exists. After bankruptcy, parts were sold off until it was gone. _The Chicago Reader_ was sold to Sun-Times Media and the various _\ Creative Loafing_s were sold to various companies. Many of those _CL_ā€™s no longer exist. The _Atlanta CL_ still exists and is a shadow of its former self. The formerly profitable classified section is barely there. Creative Loafing only owned _The Reader_ for a year before going bankrupt. It took another 4 years for the sale of _The Reader_ to go thru. CL ownership of the Straight Dope mega-empire was just a blip over the last 44 years. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/29 "2017-02-05T22:48:40Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > I like to think of Cecil as the intelligent option to Flattus Maximus. šŸ˜‰ Flattus Maximus died in 2011, RIP. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/30 "2017-02-06T14:36:10Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > ??? Your answer is right at the bottom of this page. Never scrolled that far! > [@ftg](#): > > Creative Loafing as a company no longer exists. After bankruptcy, parts were sold off until it was gone. _The Chicago Reader_ was sold to Sun-Times Media and the various _\ Creative Loafing_s were sold to various companies. Many of those _CL_ā€™s no longer exist. The _Atlanta CL_ still exists and is a shadow of its former self. The formerly profitable classified section is barely there. > > Creative Loafing only owned _The Reader_ for a year before going bankrupt. It took another 4 years for the sale of _The Reader_ to go thru. CL ownership of the Straight Dope mega-empire was just a blip over the last 44 years. Thanks. So thatā€™s the copyright on ā€œThe Straight Dopeā€. Is the character ā€œCecilā€ covered under that copyright? I would presume so but I am ignorant of this stuff. Let us assume that Sun-Times Media at some point either gives up on The Reader and shuts it down (odds are in that circumstance there is no one else willing to pay much for The Reader brand as a paper) or merely retires the column. I suspect the online SD presence is not worth very much. Would there be, you suspect, a buyer interested in the SD and the character Cecil as IP to own, and would Sun-Times Media even be interested in making the effort of selling something worth so little? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/31 "2017-02-06T18:47:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Being serious for a moment, I donā€™t know if the column is important enough to survive the death of its current writer. I mean, maybe someone else on staff can take over (some suspect this has already happened at least on occasion). Maybe you could do it? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/32 "2017-02-06T18:57:02Z")
Perhaps the board could migrate to a user who has access to the necessary capacities and tools. This happened to the former[JREF Forum.](http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/) it was relatively painless and seems to be working. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/33 "2017-02-06T19:36:03Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > The man behind the curtainā€¦ > > [Uncovering Cecil Adams](https://vimeo.com/133916143p://) Mike Lenehan. One of lifeā€™s unforgettable characters. Who once told a roomful of SDMB moderators, ā€œI sincerely donā€™t understand why you f\*\*\*\*\*g do this.ā€ (He brought us coffee and doughnuts just the same.) But the Dope owes a lot of Mike. He was very cool, mostly in that even though he didnā€™t understand he let us do stuff for a long time. There were comments just like the above, such as ā€œI dunno why you would want to do a message board, but okay.ā€ When that _Chicago Reader_ culture got swept away by changing times and advancing technology, by events and corporate sale, everything changed and not for the better. The alternative newspaper business, like all dead tree publishing, is ailing. (And not the most fabulous invalid at that.) The _Reader_ has a great history and all of you are a tiny but meaningful part of that history. The Straight Dope community grew out of something truly wonderful that has ceased to be and will never be again. (The \*Reader \* is still publishing but itā€™s all so different now. You can see more of the story, hereā€™s the documentary, including Lenehanā€™s comments. [![]() ](https://vimeo.com/129857319) ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/34 "2017-02-06T19:38:45Z")
There ought to be a Dopefest sometime where us old timers can come in and give testimony ā€¦ we got so many stories and so much history, it should be stored somewhere besides in our heads. Iā€™m imagining a tableful of us oldsters sitting around and telling tales of our jackbooted days. With big drinks. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/35 "2017-02-06T21:01:03Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Maybe you could do it? Iā€™m afraid I donā€™t get the joke. I do tend to get your jokes, even if I donā€™t tend to find them all that funny. Anyways, my life is so fucked up that I doubt I could be counted on to pull off any work with a deadline. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/36 "2017-02-07T01:38:20Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > There ought to be a Dopefest sometime where us old timers can come in and give testimony ā€¦ we got so many stories and so much history, it should be stored somewhere besides in our heads. Iā€™m imagining a tableful of us oldsters sitting around and telling tales of our jackbooted days. With big drinks. Have several scattered as wide as the Old Silvertips are scattered. Record them to DVD like they do with the WW II vets; seriously. Burn some copies and make them available with the benefits going to the board. Heck - Iā€™d buy an extra set or three as presents. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/37 "2017-02-07T04:55:17Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Have several scattered as wide as the Old Silvertips are scattered. Record them to DVD like they do with the WW II vets; seriously. Burn some copies and make them available with the benefits going to the board. Heck - Iā€™d buy an extra set or three as presents. For the benefit of the Straight Dope Moderators Pension Fund ā€¦ maybe they can buy us a farm where we can live the rest of our lives with our Xanax gumball machines and our many many memories. Remember, PTSD (Post-Traumatic-Straight-Dope) is a terrible thing. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/38 "2017-02-07T16:44:43Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > For the benefit of the Straight Dope Moderators Pension Fund ā€¦ maybe they can buy us a farm where we can live the rest of our lives with our Xanax gumball machines and our many many memories. Remember, PTSD (Post-Traumatic-Straight-Dope) is a terrible thing. šŸ˜ƒ The SDMB Mods Retirement Farm ----- the only zoo where the exhibits trank themselves. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/39 "2017-02-07T16:55:50Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > For the benefit of the Straight Dope Moderators Pension Fund ā€¦ maybe they can buy us a farm where we can live the rest of our lives with our Xanax gumball machines and our many many memories. Remember, PTSD (Post-Traumatic-Straight-Dope) is a terrible thing. šŸ˜ƒ Are you dreaming of chasing rabbits? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882/40 "2017-02-08T01:23:20Z")
Or goats? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-reader-and-us-gona-do-when-unca-cecil-well-passes-on/778882.md?page=3)