Talk:Cecil Adams

message: Is there need and/or would it be appropriate for the Straight Dope Message Board to have its own article, linked from the Cecil Adams article? I believe information about the board could fill out an article, much like the Something Awful Forums article. However, I'm somewhat new here and don't want to overstep any boundaries. Any comments?
The message board is already (externally) linked in the Godwin's Law article, under "Gaudere's Law," which originated on the message board.
:If you can fill out an article, by all means do.  dbenbenn | talk 21:36, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Message Board deserves its own article? 

message: Now that it has been established, with the Trademark search, that the pen name Cecil Adams does not belong to a particular individual, but is simply a trademark for the column (possibly, many writers contribute to the column), this article has kind of been rendered outdated. It needs to be established that Cecil is not a person, but a trademark. I'd slap a "inaccurate" tag on the article, if I knew how...
: There's a big difference between saying that Cecil Adams was an attempted (but not granted) trademark of the Chicago Reader (which it is), and that "many" people have written as Cecil Adams.   For example, "Abigail van Buren" and "Ann Landers" are pen names that have been used by multiple people, but both now refer to specific people.  In the same way, do we have evidence that Cecil Adams has been (recently) written by multiple people? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Chipuni (talk • contribs) 22:41, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cecil Adams Redux 

message: Would article written by Cecil Adams be considered reliable source for adding information to other articles? --JimmyT 05:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There are a wealth of articles that use Straight Dope for references - so many that whenever I read a story over there, I come over here and find it already included!  violet/riga (t) 11:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I see, but is it considered a reliable source according to Wikipedia's policies? --JimmyT 12:07, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I would say so - there's significant research goes into them.  It's always best to get multiple sources though, of course.  violet/riga (t) 13:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Reliable source

message: I would like to see a source for the statement that Adams's "editor" is likely the author. I mean, I came to the conclusion myself, but I'd like to see an outside source so that nobody can claim it is original research. I'm too lazy to look up (for the umpteenth time) what tag I'm supposed to use to get '[citation needed]" superscripted beside it. Hopefully, someone will find a source and it won't ever be necessary. -- trlkly 01:19, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Author's Source 

message: Stoker used the phrase in 1897. The phrase was in usage in 1857, which suggests that it was in circulation well before Dracula was written. http://books.google.com/books?id=Kuq1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA16&dq=%22teeming+millions%22 Collect (talk) 15:41, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Teeming millions 

message: The article on Ed Zotti doesn't seem to be anything besides discussing that he may or may not be Cecil.  If he is Cecil, he shouldn't have his own article anyways.  If he's not, he doesn't seem to have any outside notability besides being "Cecil's assistant", therefore he should be discussed on this page regardless.  A section on Zotti, and evidence that he is or is not Cecil, can easily be inserted into this article. --UsaSatsui (talk) 08:17, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I completely agree. Zotti could conceivably pass the requirements at WP:BIO but his notability is so closely tied to Cecil and The Straight Dope that it just makes sense to merge his article here. -- Atamachat 20:52, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Ed Zotti IS Cecil Adams. It was acknowledged a few months ago in either the Chicago Tribune or the Daily Herald in an article about Ed Zotti's book, The Barn House. It was in one of the back sections. I wish I'd saved it. 71.194.62.168 (talk) 03:47, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Unfortunately, without a reliable source, we have nothing. - SummerPhD (talk) 17:48, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

text: I was wrong; it was the Sun Times, not the Herald or Tribune. But here's the article anyway: 
http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/homes/1147264,barnhouse07.article
"Zotti is a local journalist known for his column, The Straight Dope in the Chicago Reader." I guess it wasn't explicit as I thought. 71.194.62.168 (talk) 00:19, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

text: Removed tag as discussion is stale. Ward20 (talk) 03:09, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggested merge 

message: A comment in the Ghostwriting article mentions a controversy about the degree the columns were written by Adams. My impression was that staff were writing at least parts of the columns -- before the point where they signed explicitly. One way or the other, it would be nice to have a few words on the staff's role. Piano non troppo (talk) 18:45, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Staff writing

message: Article currently states "In his columns, Adams has revealed a few details of his personal life (although the FAQ section on his website states that chance references to "Mrs. Adams" may refer to his mother." I think I get what the sentence is trying to say (i.e. He may not be married, despite the fact that he has referenced a "Mrs. Adams".) But, the way it is written, it appears to be saying that one of the few personal details he has revealed about himself is that he has a mother.JoelWhy (talk) 18:57, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Personal Life

message: Notice how some article on the Straight Dope Chicago are billed "By Cecil Adams" on the front page but "By Ed Zotti" in the article itself. zubrowka74 21:27, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  More on the Adams / Zotti connection 

message: Isn't it more appropriate to think of Cecil Adams as a collective pseudonym like Nicolas Bourbaki, considering Zotti's description? --Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:52, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Collective pseudonym