# Who is Matthew Alice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 1999, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765 "1999-07-03T01:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/1 "1999-07-03T01:32:00Z")
Here in San Diego, we also have a weekly _Reader_ that features a column that is uncannily familar. It is called _Straight From the Hip_ and answers the various niggling questions that you can’t get answered anywhere else. Matthew Alice, the putative author, who doesn’t seem to really exist, answers the questions with the authority of brilliance backed by impeccable research. Of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t throw in a little smartass humor where it fits. In fact, the only difference between _Straight From the Hip_ and _The Straight Dope_ seems to be that the former is local to San Diego. So does Cecil have a little brother or what? Does he have imitators in other cities? I hesitated at first to bring this up because I love the column and wouldn’t like to see it shut down by Cecil’s lawyers, but I figure I’m safe because 1) Cecil knows everything already anyway, 2) Cecil isn’t afraid of a little competition, and 3) Cecil probably couldn’t do anything about it anyway. It’s the style, not the content that’s being copied. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/2 "1999-07-03T05:51:00Z")
There’s also Joel Achenbach who writes a column _Why Things Are_ for a Miami paper and has published three collections of his work. But I’m sure Cecil would agree that there’s enough ignorance out there for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/3 "1999-07-03T12:17:00Z")
**Hey, Greg!** Now that you mention it, I’ve always wondered the exact same thing! Matthew Alice, who writes a column for the weekly _San Diego **Reader** _ is almost an **exact** one-for-one doppleganger for Cecil Adams, who writes for the weekly _Chicago **Reader** _, right down to their identically reclusive natures and wry senses of humor. In fact, I had been reading Matt for many years before I ever even _heard_ of Cecil, so at first glance I thought that it was _Cecil_ who had ripped off _Matthew’s_ gig! (Sorry, Unca Cece! You’re my _favorite_ Uncle - really you are!) I’ve never read Joel Achenbach, but I’d be **very** surprised if he was as close a ringer for Cecil as Matthew Alice is. Hell, I don’t know if either Cecil **or** Matthew really exist as individuals or if there’s some busy writer somewhere ghostwriting both their stuff (Ed?), but the parallels are more than suspicious, they’re downright eerie! Do you think we’ll _ever_ learn the truth, Greg? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 1999, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/4 "1999-07-03T13:13:00Z")
You hve committed gross HERESY!!! To question the existance of Cecil! You will spend eternity in Barbeque Pit!! Repent now!!! * * * Zymurgist ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/5 "1999-07-04T05:23:00Z")
For what it’s worth, Achenbach’s similarity to Adams is that they both are very smart and answer questions in a newspaper column. Achenbach does not apparently shun the spotlight as Adams does (his picture is on the cover of his books). And Achenbach’s humor is less edgy than Adams’. But I’d recommend his _Why Things Are_ books for anyone who enjoys _The Straight Dope_. As for Matthew Alice, is there any way for those of us who don’t live in southern Califonia to check out his work? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/6 "1999-07-04T05:41:00Z")
Repeat after me: Cecil is my Shepherd, I shall not want… Cecil is the original. Cecil does exist, Ed assures us. All the others are pretenders to His throne, and read His mighty works as reference material and despair - Cecil has trod that dark ground before them, verily. This has been a public service announcement from the First Church of the Holy Frisbee. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/7 "1999-07-04T00:42:00Z")
I repent! **I REPENT!!** It was a moment of wretched weakness… I don’t know what came over me! I’ll behave! Really I will! I’ll even say 100 Hail Cecils! Just please, oh PLEASE don’t exile me to an eternity of horrible and endless torture in ZUG!! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 1999, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/8 "1999-07-04T01:03:00Z")
I just went to [www.sdreader.com](http://www.sdreader.com) and there’s nothing there on M. Alice. However, you may want to go and check out the lamest, most useless movie reviewer in the world. He hates everything except artsy-fartsy films that only play at one 20 seat house in your local gay neighborhood. He gave Private Ryan a whopping 2 stars, and that’s generous. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/10 "2021-08-11T12:38:23Z")
Here is the answer: " For more than 25 years, Matthew Alice answered readers’ questions in his column, [Straight from the Hip](http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/straight-hip/). No subject was too obscure for Alice, and the notorious answer man settled bets on everything from astrophysics to the word origins. This is an archive of Q’s and A’s dispatched from the Alice Research Institute over the years. Matthew Alice was written for about 20 years, ending in mid-2012, by [Linda Nevin](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/linda-nevin/), who passed away on Feb. 15, 2013." [Matthew Alice | Staff | San Diego Reader](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/matthew-alice/) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/11 "2021-08-11T12:50:23Z")
Too bad System doesn’t post here anymore… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/12 "2021-08-11T12:52:31Z")
I know. I just wanted to put a cap on that one. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/13 "2021-08-11T21:59:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I know. I just wanted to put a cap on that one Thank you. I lived in San Diego from 1950 to 2005 and found this _very_ interesting. Always wondered who MA was. The other, still unresolved mystery for me is what Duncan Shepherd looks (looked?) like. Sheer curiosity, only because contrary to System’s opinion, SDReader movie reviewer Duncan Shepherd was the best I’ve ever read. His reviews were extremely intelligent, he set his standards high, and he never gave a rat’s ass if a film was wildly popular. It was my observation that people either loved him or hated him. I almost never disagreed strongly with his reviews. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan\_Shepherd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Shepherd) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/14 "2021-08-12T02:23:17Z")
I remember Matthew Alice from when I lived in San Diego in the 80s. The San Diego ready always had Matthew who often answered more San Diego centric questions and at times also Cecil. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/15 "2021-08-12T02:56:17Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Too bad System doesn’t post here anymore… I donno, seems like a pretty weird guy, carrying on a dialogue with himself. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/16 "2021-08-12T03:37:13Z")
If you mouse over the small shield next to his/her/their name it says “this user is a moderator”. I am guessing that it is a name used by more than one person over the years. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/17 "2021-08-12T06:49:13Z")
I don’t know if this reply was intended as a joke, but in any event, since the “System” posts date to 1999, I’m pretty sure they were standard posts that lost the names of their original posters during one of the board software conversions. In any event, the fourth post has a signature, which I assume is the poster’s name, of “Zymurgist”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/18 "2021-08-12T12:14:01Z")
Yeah, those posts were made under UBB. Some of the UBB posts lost their names in the conversion to vBulletin; I don’t know the exact criteria of which ones (I think it had something to do with those users not posting for a while). vBulletin showed such posts as just not having a name; in Discourse not having a name isn’t possible, so it instead assigns them to the name of System. And System is a “moderator” because it also does a fair amount of work behind the scenes; for instance, it sometimes automatically flags, or even hides, posts that it suspects are spam (it’s almost always right). ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/19 "2021-08-12T13:11:04Z")
Possibly a new record for an answered question. 22 years. The ‘zymurgist’ above was a poster named Carl Berry. He never did post a lot, and he died some years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-matthew-alice/1765/20 "2021-08-12T13:38:13Z")
Thanks for the info, @Chronos.