Straight Dope
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The Straight Dope is a popular question and answer column published in the Chicago Reader, syndicated in thirty newspapers in the United States and Canada, and available online. The column is written by Cecil Adams, whose real identity is unknown (Adams is a pen name). Editor Ed Zotti is widely believed to be the current writer of the column. The "Straight Dope Staff" answer some other questions.
The columns have dealt with a very wide range of subjects, frequently covering popular old wives' tales and urban legends.
The columns are archived at the Straight Dope website, which also hosts a popular internet forum (the Straight Dope Message Board). In 1996, the A&E Network briefly aired a show hosted by comedian Mike Lukas called The Straight Dope, which was based on the column.
To date, Adams has published five collections of his columns, and he has watched as his "assistant" published a children's collection in The Straight Dope style, Know It All.
Straight Dope Message Board
The Straight Dope Message Board (abbreviated SDMB) is a collection of forums inspired by The Straight Dope. The board is owned by the Chicago Reader, and it is operated mainly by volunteer moderators. It uses the popular message board software vBulletin and has over 58,100 registered members, of which about 3,500 are paid subscribers as of August 2005. It is ranked 80th by big-boards.com in number of posts as of May 1, 2006.
The SDMB had its fifteen minutes of internet fame when the thread [If LotR Had Been Written By Someone Else!?] became a victim of the Slashdot effect. The thread garnered a little over 2,000 replies and over 432,000 views.
External links
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