Straight Dope Archive

Has anyone really gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel?
By Cecil Adams
July 18, 2003
An infinite question: Why doesn't  .999~ = 1?
By Cecil Adams
July 11, 2003
How did the phrase "built like a brick shithouse" get to be a compliment? Are today's PCs more powerful than the legendary supercomputers of the 1970s?
By Cecil Adams
July 4, 2003
During WWII, did a Soviet general and his men desert to the Nazis?
By Cecil Adams
June 27, 2003
Man Wrecks Planet: Are the popularly published environmental statistics accurate?
By Cecil Adams
June 20, 2003
Are peanut allergies for real?
By Cecil Adams
June 13, 2003
Why is so much of the Islamic world backward and ignorant?
By Cecil Adams
June 6, 2003
What is "passive-aggressive?"
By Cecil Adams
May 30, 2003
"Own-race bias" revisited:  Do other races really look more alike?
By Cecil Adams
May 23, 2003
How does marijuana cause "the munchies?"
By Cecil Adams
May 16, 2003
Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist?
By Cecil Adams
May 2, 2003
What's the story behind Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven?"
By Cecil Adams
April 25, 2003
Is handwriting analysis legit science?
By Cecil Adams
April 18, 2003
Did George W. Bush go AWOL during his time in the National Guard?
By Cecil Adams
April 11, 2003
What is the Holy Grail?
By Cecil Adams
April 4, 2003
Are gorillas using sign language really communicating with humans?
By Cecil Adams
March 28, 2003
Is cow's milk "the worst beverage on earth?"
By Cecil Adams
March 21, 2003
Why do we travel in space?
By Cecil Adams
March 7, 2003
What caused the massive 1908 explosion in Tunguska, Siberia?
By Cecil Adams
February 28, 2003
Who is Nielsen and how does he count who watches tv?
By Cecil Adams
February 21, 2003
Was Chuck Barris a hit man for the CIA?
By Cecil Adams
February 7, 2003
How do you become a United Nations weapons inspector?
By Cecil Adams
January 31, 2003
What the heck is "leetspeek?"
By Cecil Adams
January 10, 2003
Nature, fossil fuels, and global warming: How many trees should I plant to balance my yearly CO2 output?
By Cecil Adams
January 3, 2003
"Elvis has left the building." Who said it first?
By Cecil Adams
December 27, 2002
Does menstrual synchrony really exist?
By Cecil Adams
December 20, 2002
Was Rachel Carson a fraud and is DDT actually safe for humans?
By Cecil Adams
December 13, 2002
Was J. Edgar Hoover a cross-dresser?
By Cecil Adams
December 6, 2002
Does the center high-mounted stop lamp reduce rear-end collisions? What are growing pains?
By Cecil Adams
November 29, 2002
Can twins be born a month or two apart?
By Cecil Adams
November 8, 2002
Were there really vomitoriums in ancient Rome?
By Cecil Adams
November 1, 2002
What's in female ejaculate?
By Cecil Adams
October 25, 2002
Was Andrew Jackson one of the world's most prolific mass murderers?
By Cecil Adams
October 18, 2002
Is "toxic mold" the next environmental threat?
By Cecil Adams
October 11, 2002
Do Chinese lack sweat glands in their armpits? Why does spicy food make you sweat?
By Cecil Adams
October 4, 2002
How can a Nazi jerk like Martin Heidegger be considered the most influential philosopher of the 20th century?
By Cecil Adams
September 27, 2002
Why do women experience menopause?
By Cecil Adams
September 20, 2002
Is there a bush that spontaneously bursts into flame to reproduce?
By Cecil Adams
September 13, 2002
What's the story on trepanation?
By Cecil Adams
September 6, 2002
After the 1929 stock market crash, did investors really jump out of windows?
By Cecil Adams
August 30, 2002
Are women paid less than men for the same work?
By Cecil Adams
August 23, 2002
Do CDs have a life expectancy of 10 years?
By Cecil Adams
August 16, 2002
Is it possible to get "bruised ovaries" during sex?
By Cecil Adams
August 9, 2002
Can a microwave oven cause a pacemaker to malfunction?
By Cecil Adams
August 2, 2002
How come Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose" flew only once?
By Cecil Adams
July 26, 2002
Is the world more dangerous now than when we were kids?
By Cecil Adams
July 12, 2002
Did Carlos Castaneda hallucinate that stuff in the Don Juan books or make it up?
By Cecil Adams
June 21, 2002
Was Joseph Stalin once a seminarian?
By Cecil Adams
June 14, 2002
Why are women always cold?
By Cecil Adams
June 7, 2002
Were WWII scrap drives just a ploy to boost morale?
By Cecil Adams
May 31, 2002
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