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2001-09-28
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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newshub2.home.com!news.home.com!news.mindspring.net!not-for-mail
From: "RM Mentock" <mentock@mindspring.com>
Newsgroups: alt.answers,alt.fan.cecil-adams,news.answers
Subject: alt.fan.cecil-adams FAQ
Followup-To: alt.fan.cecil-adams
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 15:16:26 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 205
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Message-ID: <9nqijm$ige$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>
Reply-To: mentock@mindspring.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 04.23.e6.54
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Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.answers:57678 alt.fan.cecil-adams:310457 news.answers:215076
Archive-name: misc-facts/cecil-adams
Posting-Frequency: irregular
Last-Modified: September 13, 2001
Version: 1.0.0
URL: http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/afca/afca-faq.htm
Copyright: (c) 2001
Maintainer: RM Mentock <mentock@mindspring.com>
*********************************
The alt.fan.cecil-adams FAQ
*********************************
0. What is alt.fan.cecil-adams (afca)?
1. Who is Cecil Adams?
2. Are there other Cecil Adams resources?
3. Are there other Cecil Adams resources on the web?
4. Must I pay homage to Cecil Adams?
5. What are the guidelines for afca?
6. What is off topic?
7. Who are the Teeming Millions?
8. Who is Ed Zotti?
9. Where can I find this FAQ?
*********************************
0. What is alt.fan.cecil-adams (afca)?
It is a newsgroup developed to promote the stated goal of Cecil
Adams, which is to fight ignorance. It is not necessary for you
to actually read Cecil Adams's work in order to do this, but why
limit yourself?
*********************************
1. Who is Cecil Adams?
The world's smartest human being. We're not going to go into
the implications of that.
*********************************
2. Are there other Cecil Adams resources?
Cecil Adams has written a question-and-answer column for the
Chicago Reader since 1973. The column has been syndicated
around the country, and appears in many newspapers, especially
the alternative-styled press. A list of newspapers where it
appears can be found at:
http://straightdope.com/otheroutlets/newspapers.html
OTB:IF! Cecil Adams has published many books, mainly consisting of
reprints of columns, available through your favorite bookstore:
https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/dopestore/buystuff.bat#kia
The Straight Dope (1984)
More of the Straight Dope (1988)
Know It All (for kids, 1993, by Ed Zotti)
Return of the Straight Dope (1994)
The Straight Dope Tells All (1998)
Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999)
*********************************
3. Are there other Cecil Adams resources on the web?
The Chicago Reader maintains a website where recent and classic
columns appear, and are archived:
http://www.straightdope.com
Columns can also be discussed on the site's message boards:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb
There is another newsgroup dedicated to the Straight Dope, called:
misc.facts.straight-dope
A community page for afca has photos of posters and other curiosa:
http://www.communityzero.com/afca/index.cfm
A casual history of afca and its posters:
http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/afca/afca-his.htm
A Teeming Millions website maintained by Opal:
http://fathom.org/teemingmillions/
An online e-zine called Teemings is edited by several Straight
Dope devotees:
http://www.teemings.com/
And there are dozens of fine search engines, and archives of
newsgroup posts from years past, but you can figure those out for
yourself. In particular, you might be able to find answers to
the following questions, for which answers tend to be dynamic:
Is there a God?
Where can I find out more about American Pie?
Why do usenet newsgroups like to talk about food or sex so often?
How do you spell dyslexic?
What is the cabal?
What is AFU?
Where are these gifs I keeping hearing reference of?
What does OTB:IF mean?
Is there another word that ends in -gry?
Where did churches get communion wine during Prohibition?
Does everything come in threes?
What is the eastern-most point of the USA?
Who is this vos Savant, and why is she so often wrong?
Who are you to tell me what to do with my body, eating habits,
vote, beliefs, grooming, consumer purchases, etc...?
*********************************
4. Must I pay homage to Cecil Adams?
Just as Cecil Adams himself, we brook no reverency. Do so at
your own peril. There be dragons.
*********************************
5. What are the guidelines for afca?
The regular guidelines for newsgroups can be found at
http://www.usenet.org/
and discussion of newsgroup netiquette can be found at
The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, by Arlene Rinaldi
"I'm not Miss Manners of the Internet"
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/netiquette.html
Netiquette, by Virginia Shea
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/
Dear Emily Postnews
http://www.templetons.com/brad/emily.html
and a group of webpages devoted to definitions of logical fallacies:
The Fallacy Files
http://gncurtis.home.texas.net/index.html
Fallacy Tutorial Pro 3.0
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/
Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies
http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/
and dictionaries of acronyms that might be used occasionally:
Usenet Acronyms Dictionary
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tajwileb/abbreviations.html
Freeware Hall of Fame
http://www.freewarehof.org/acronyms.html
Alphabet Soup Explained
http://members.aol.com/nigthomas/alphabet.html
and webpages devoted to the debunking of urban legends and hoaxes are
recommended reading:
Snopes
http://www.snopes2.com/
Urban Legends
http://www.urbanlegends.com/
About Urban Legends and Folklore
http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/
Hoaxbusters
http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org/
*********************************
6. What is off topic?
This paragraph deliberately left blank.
*********************************
7. Who are the Teeming Millions?
"We have met the enemy, and he is us."
*********************************
8. Who is Ed Zotti?
Who cares.
*********************************
9. Where can I find this FAQ?
It is irregularly posted to the newsgroup alt.fan.cecil-adams,
alt.answers, and news.answers. It is also archived at www.faqs.org
Other archive sites include:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/alt/fan/cecil-adams/
http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/afca/afca-faq.htm
*********************************
Acknowledgments: Previous afca faqs have been maintained and
propagated by the Rev. Krikket, J.B. Digriz, James A. Izurieta,
Matthew Jetmore, and Hoyt. There was even a mini-faq about Slug
Signorino, and one about afca for AOL users, posted by Deborah
(as sjf1959, and similar nom de guerre). Thanks guys.
*********************************
Version 1.0.0 changes:
none
Copy of previous version:
none, original posting
*********************************