I saw a link to the board on another message board early this summer, followed it and lurked for a while, liked it and here I am.
Hell, I just found this place about a half an hour ago. I am a forum junkie and a USENET veteran. I actually found this place when I was reading a post on another forum that I participate in…www.pyroto.com. Someone there mentioned this place, and I thought I’d check it out.
I had never heard of Cecil Adams or the Straight Dope until this evening, I don’t think, anyway… Old farts, losing brain cells and all that. As a matter of fact, right after I leave this post, I’m going to the Home page to check out Cecil, and see what he has to say.
Hope to run into y’all around here again!
Regards…
I discovered the Straight Dope books in the bathroom at my friends’ parents’ house sometime in the 80s. A lot of the reading in that house took place in the john. Don’t be offended, Cecil! The bathroom was a place of honor reserved for only the most respected reading material.
"i discovered it back in '24 when my pop (we called them that back then) would read it on the toilet, i walked in on him accidetally…
that was a lie.
i found the link was already on the Opera browser when i installed it, i found this site about 3 hours ago, first thing i read was that insane and brilliant thread on the new world order of easter bunnies. i joined up straight away.
Welcome, vte157!!
I had never heard of Cecil before someone posted a link to this board on alt.books.stephen-king. Been hooked ever since. What a great bunch of folks!
I was mailed the link by someone, I don’t remember who, maybe a month before I joined the board.
I obviously read all the Cecil material first, then looked for more and found the message board.
I’d never seen the books or newspaper column, but then I usually only read trade papers and get news from TV.
There are books???
For as long as I’ve known him, a friend of mine has been sending me cut and paste quotes and messages from here but neither of us were signed up (I didnt even know where they were coming from). One day he sent me a link to the Who’s your favorite monkee post so I HAD to sign up and reply. Not to be out done by me, he finally got a name too 
I’m proud to say I’m still ahead of him by about 3 posts! 
I also, saw it on A&E (is there anything they can’t do?). What happened to it. Where did it go?
I have never heard of the Straight Dope till one day I signed onto AOL in December of 1997, I only had AOL for a few months at that time. On the “AOL Today” screen there was a link to one of Cecil’s latest answers to a question that someone had wrote to him. It was about hiccups or something like that. I followed the link and discovered the message board and everything else. If it wasn’t for that link the “AOL Today” screen, I don’t think I would have ever found the Straight Dope.
Back when I was still a Catholic, with my Catholic Youth Group, in High School, around 1990, in a long car ride to some event. JP had one of Cecil’s book and even though I generally disliked JP, since he was very nerdy and I was a jerk, he ended up reading a couple funny things out of it. I found it so funny and intelligent that I asked him to read more of it to me. He ended up reading to me the entire “how to get rid of cockroaches” saga, as well as the “Why do pigeons bob their heads”. I loved it. Ah the memories of being read to by JP…
I have always wanted to stay up on the Straight Dope but I don’t buy paper newspapers. Now that I have found it online I am very happy. Not to mention the pleasant suprise that their is a wonderful community of intelligent people who hang out here engaging in witty and intelligent discussion!
My husband and I found it in the local alternative press weekly paper in Ventura, CA, while having breakfast as the Ash Street Coffee House in late 1994. We discovered Tom Tomorrow’s “This Modern World” at the same time, and I have faithfully read both each week since then.
I’ve been a nut for weird trivia for a long time, and have a collection of rather unusual reference books. So The Straight Dope fits right in!
I first found the books in 1992 while at college, and devoured the first two in less than a week. Then I had to wait until 1994 for the next one! I found this website in 99 thanks to my hubby, and lurked for awhile before joining up.
–tygre