Well, it’s been a while since the last one, and I’m once again grateful to my personal Dope dealer, what with the crash and all, so here it is.
How did you find out about the Straight Dope?
my story My friend Vince pointed me to the old AOL site just before it was closed down. Then I followed it here and read all the archived columns. Before long I wandered into the MB and lurked for a while before making my appearance.
Who wants to go next?
–John
(Thanks Vince)
Wo de qianzi shi Zhongwende.
New keyboard, new mouse, and the Dope is back! All hail the computer gods!
I just stumbled across it one day while surfing a couple of years back; I have no clue as to why it took me so long to join the board!
If I had done so as soon as it was possible, I’d be a ‘plank owner’ today, with mega posts to my credit! Oh well; the view is the same from the top no matter when you get here!
VB
Changing my Sigline 'cause Veb has a delicate stomach right now…
I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when a disheveled, grizzled old man suddenly stepped out of the shadows and grasped be by my lapels. He had a wild, hunted look in his eyes. He shook me violently, and with a hoarse voice he said pleadingly,
"Don’t go there, for God’s sake, I beg you. Once I was like you, with a home, a job and a family. Then I found out about the Straight Dope. It didn’t take long for me to get hooked. I started to neglect my job, my friends, my…
With some effort, I disengaged myself from his manic grip and yelled,
This occurred one day in the early 70’s, before most of you folks were born. I picked up a copy of the Chicago Reader, the then-new free paper. I was hooked instantly.
I saw the TV show on A&E, and liked it. I had never (and still haven’t, actually) seen the SD in print, and had never heard of it, but I thought the concept was pretty cool. Ran into the old AOL forum, remembered the show, lurked for about an hour (I’m bad) and immediately became hooked. That was in, let’s see, October 1997.
I first read the Straight Dope column in one of DC’s free papers in the late 1970s. Loved it, and missed it tremendously when I moved to parts of the country where the free papers knew not Cecil. Bought all the books to keep my sanity. My wife loves the books, too.
Found out Cecil’s columns were on AOL just before ditching AOL in late 1996; didn’t find out that there were message boards there.
Found straightdope.com last spring. Commented on a column or two, then gradually found my way into the rest of the message boards. Despite her love of the books, my wife has no interest in the message board. Too bad…addictions are more fun when they’re shared.
“Living in this complex world of the future is not unlike having bees live inside your head.” - F. Scott Firesign
I go back to the mid '80s, where I read it in the DC weekly, and then in the New York Press.
I always went to this site, even when it was little more than a year of columns and some FAQ’s, but I missed out on the AOL board because AOL sucks eggs.
I was SOOOOO GLAD when AOL did what they usually do - fuck up something that usually works nicely and allow others to do it right.
Great topic, John! I’d wondered the same thing during the downtime but you beat me to it.
I’m with the crew that got hooked in the newspaper days…picked up TCR and promptly got addicted to Cecil. For long dreary years I had to wait for new books to be published to get my fix. Then, voila! it was online and I, too, could get regular doses of SD.
FWIW, it took me ages to even check out the SDMB. I was purely a column-and-archive junkie.
I griped at my better half that he was spending too much time on line (on the AOL SD board) & WTF was so interesting anyway…
It started small. He slipped me the occasional medical question to answer. But while checking for follow-up issues, I sometimes would check out other threads, too. I thought I was still in control, but that was an illusion…
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
The books: the first one, in a Tucson book store, mid 1980s.
This message board: after reading Triumph of SD, toward the end of December. It included an e-mail address, so I posted a few comments about the book. Jill wrote back saying that one of them would be a wonderful question for her Comments on Cecil’s Columns forum.
“A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back, he ever wants to see a cross?” – Bill Hicks
I was in the research/reference section of a bookstore in early 1985, looking for something interesting to read. Of course, the title “The Straight Dope” caught my eye, so I picked it up, opened to a random page and read the following: “Does a pig have a corckscrew-shaped penis?”
I walked directly to the counter to buy it. Didn’t even have to read the answer - any book with questions that obtuse (and accompanied by Slug’s cool graphics) was for me!
Disputin, The Debauched One
1 a archaic : to make disloyal
b : to seduce from chastity
2 a : to lead away from virtue or excellence
b : to corrupt by intemperance or sensuality
I enjoy a good reference book from time to time. Like Disputin, I was browsing the reference section of a bookstore, and found TSD. That was 12 years ago. The column does not appear in any papers up here, so I read the book until it damn near fell apart. Same with the second & third books. Watched the TV show religiously.
Then I got my computer.
I signed on to AOL one day, and there was TSD, on the welcome page. YAAAAAAAH! Went there & stayed there until the AOL site shut down. I was a little nervous about coming here, and it took me a few months to actually post anything. But I’m glad I did.
I’ve got all the books now. But the first is still my favorite–with the exception of OpalCat’s Flame Mail Generator, which appears in Triumph. I don’t remember that from the AOL board, but my Goddess, that is one of the funniest things I have ever read in my entire life.
Changing my sig, because Wally said to, and I really like Wally, and I’ll do anything he says, anytime he says to.
AOL used to, might still have in fact (I dropped AOL a while ago) a roulette wheel type feature that you would spin and it would then take you to a random AOL area. Luckily for me, it was the Straight Dope. I read all the articles in archives, by now all of them at least twice. When the AOL site went down, I did without for a while. Then I realized the true emptiness of my life without it, and went to the website, and now I’m starting to use the message board a bit.
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother.
My brother found the first book in the local library. We both read it through in about 3 days each and have been Cecil worshippers ever since.
I loved it all, but my favorite was the verse question and answer about Shrodinger’s Cat. I gave a copy of it to my Modern Physics professor. I think he’s hooked on Dope now, as well.
All this happened around '84 or so.
It’s from heraldry. The proper heraldic term for things like the “Cross of St. Patrick.” Look it up.
Vestal Blue pointed me in this direction, and I’m so glad he did. Thanks, man! What a pal! I find more and more on the SDMB to like every day. Now, if only I could find my vacuum cleaner, maybe I should do something else for a while.
Nah.
Life is teaching you some painful lessons. But it is from adversity that strength is born. You may have lost the inning, but I know you’ll win the game.
I found the Straight Dope when I was about ten. At that time I had been reading (forgive me, moderators) the Imponderables books by. . . I forget who (see, I’m reformed).
I ran out of Imponderables and was rummaging through the reference section when I found Cecil’s first book. I read the blurb about “answers to the questions you’re really curious about” and decided to pick it up. After that I picked up More Of The Straight Dope, and then. . . nothing. For a long, unenlightened ten years.
Then, joy of joys, another Straight Dope book! And what’s this? A website? Yes! Now I don’t have to wait for the books!
I lurked and finally registered last year.
– Sylence
An ex-roomate of mine first gave me a Straight Dope book to read sometime around '95. Read it in a single day and loved it. Watched the TV show when I could, but had no idea about a message board.
Jump foreward to '99. I am supervising a new assistant ant my previous job. Not being the real strict type, when I saw him typing a LONG reply on a web site my only response was “what’s that?”. Logged on the same day.
Just heard that my former assistant has left the old job for a better opportunity.
Good Luck ed!
“The universe doesn’t give first warnings or second chances”
My grandfather bought the first book shortly after it appeared, and I borrowed it. I was about eleven. When I began to have disposable income, I bought my own copy, and each of the successive books when it came out.
I knew about the AOL incarnation of Straight Dope, but didn’t have AOL. When I got the last book, I learned about this message board, visited, was instantly hooked, lurked for a long time, and finally registered.
The only down side about getting regular doses of the Dope is that there isn’t the excitement of each entirely new book to devour anymore. But, I’ll take it.
