Question is in the title. When was the last time that something posed here on the boards was the genesis for one of Cecil’s columns, and who was the poster who asked? It seems most everything that comes up in GQ is answered pretty well without the divine intervention.
It appears to have been this column, on September 17, 2004:
Does ball lightning really exist?
The member was Ellen Cherry.
Cecil, however, is not one man. He is a composite of a number of differnet people who sit around and dole out different questions to be answered by different people. I know someone who works at the reader who is fairly reliable so I’m going with it. 
The last time may actually be the next time.
The October 29, 2004 issue of the Chicago Reader is out on newstands today and Cecil addresses a question very similar to the one in this thread.
Everyone should print out a screenshot of this thread. Once Lochdale’s ‘disappearance’ is arranged, it’ll be as historically important as a photo of Stalin giving a speech with Trotsky standing behind him. =)
I think a lot of the questions in GQ aren’t really newspaper material. The column would have to be on a topic that is of fairly universal interest. Something like ‘Why do hot dogs come in packs of 8 and buns in packs of 12?’. Posts like ‘What fluid mechanics modeling software could model a flapping flag?’ would have rather limited interest among the Masses. Looking at the current front page of GQ (afternoon of 2004-10-28), I think ‘Should bathroom reading material be ‘red flagged’?’ would be interesting, but there’s already a column about bacteria in bathrooms. Staff Reports are often more specific or technical in nature, and don’t necessarily have to ensure a wide readership.
Does anyone happen to know which forum has been the source of the most message board-derived columns?
Oh, and what section of the Chicago Reader does the column appear in? I’ve never seen a copy – maybe I should look for one.
You mean that Cecil is a gestalt entity? Not a single person but a combination of individuals melded together to form one? Or is he more than that, exponentially more. Does the whole become far greater than the sum of its parts?
Sorry, Lochdale, but that’s just not true. Cecil’s columns are all written by one man (namely, Cecil) and are all edited by one man (namely, Ed Zotti.) The questions are doled out primarily by one man (namely, me, I handle the emails; Ed sorts the USPO mail).
There are several people at the READER who help with fact-checking, but that’s not like they either write or edit the column.
To the OP: Cecil gets paid for answering one question (roughly) each week. And that’s about all he does. He occasionally looks through the Message Boards, sometimes looking for ideas for a column, sometimes looking to respond to something someone said. He primarily looks through the forum “Comments on Cecil’s Columns” because he enjoys the praise (and scoffs at the criticisms).
So, the last question that was posted on the Boards that got answered by Cecil in a column was the one on ball lightning. I can’t think of a General Question that was ever answered by Cecil.
A search on posts by Cecil Adams should show you what he’s posted to, in the past.
Of all the possible people to ask this specific question!
:dubious:
Who’s this ‘Lochdale’ person?
Lochdale may be confusing Cecil’s columns and the Staff Reports. There’s only one Cecil, but there are many staffers. C K Dexter Haven is responsible for administrating the writing of Staff Reports, and writes a good number of them himself. All of the questions not too idiotic to bother with (and some that are, for comic relief) are available for all of us staffers to pick from, and occasionally when one comes up down a particular person’s line of expertise, Dex will e-mail that staff member. He also occasionally taps non-staff board members for such a question; if a person writes a few such guest reports and does a good job, he or she gets promoted to full Staff.
slightly off topic
By some weird stroke of coincidence, yesterday, I was actually thinking of writing a thread about this!
It’s not a coincidence, it’s the gestalt.