The date on the guy-in-a-lawn-chair-with-helium-balloons column (which I happened to be looking at because it was linked to in this thread) is 28-Oct-1988.
Yet, according to internal evidence, the column, at least in its present form, could not have been written then. Cecil says, “It’s been a mere 16 years since Larry Walters made his legendary flight” and he “went aloft July 2, 1982” (bolding mine); and later in the column Cecil refers to Larry’s death in 1993.
Unless I’m being obtuse, something doesn’t add up here. I know scholars sometimes err or are uncertain when dating ancient texts—is that what happened here? Does this cast doubts on the dates of other columns in the Straight Dope Archives?
I noticed this too. It… it makes me question my faith.
Cecil wrote that column in 1988, but the line read “…it’s been a mere 6 years.”
Also, the last paragraph was added for the online column. It wasn’t there in the original.
Buy the books!
:eek: Are you suggesting that we should have lower standards for online materials than for print ones… even when it’s *Cecil’s material? *
Cecil’s online columns are often updated after their original publication. Somewhat annoyingly, there is rarely any explicit indication of when the updating took place. C’est la vie.
Doesn’t matter, because we have always been at war with Eastasia.
Some of the columns were updated when we went online in 1996.
Some of the columns were updated when they were published in the Straight Dope books.
Not all of the columns have been (or will be) updated.