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Welcome to the Straight Dope archives!
IMPROVED MORE THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE!
It's true. First we brought you the complete Straight Dope archive. (More or less. See below.) Next we made the archive searchable. Now we present our ultimate achievement--a search engine that actually works! Check it out for yourself. Thanks to Sean Phelan of the Chicago Reader tech staff for making this a work of art.
The following Straight Dope resources are now available online:
(1) Weekly Straight Dope Columns dating back to the mid-1990s, complete with piquant illustrations by the legendary Slug Signorino. We are currently in the process ofupdating the older columns and consolidating them with our archive of classic columns, described below. The past year's worth of columns as they originally appeared in our subscribing newspapers will always be available in publication date order in the browsable index below.
(2) Straight Dope Classics, consisting of virtually everything of significance Cecil has written since the inauguration of the Straight Dope in 1973. This collection is being added to at the rate of one column per day and represents a distillation of 6,000 years of human progress, conveniently divided into 800-word chunks. A sampling of columns is available for browsing below, including a dozen or so from each of Cecil's five books.
(3) Staff Reports (formerly Cecil's Mailbag), consisting of columns written by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. The most recent Staff Reports are available below. A browsable listing of all previous Staff Reportsis available by clicking here.
(4) Browsable listings for our Threadspotting (classic SD message board threads) and Weird Earl's (nutty or otherwise interesting stuff we found on the Web) features may be found below.
All items except the Threadspotting and Weird Earl's backlists are available through the search engine above. The Straight Dope Message Board database may be searched by clicking here.
Thanks for joining us--we hope you'll choose the Straight Dope for all your information needs!
The Straight Dope (1984)
More of the Straight Dope (1988)
Return of the Straight Dope (1994)
The Straight Dope Tells All (1998)
Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999)
| Pub Date | Headline |
| 05-Jan-2007 | How come if you dig down far enough, you hit water? Where does that water come from? |
| 12-Jan-2007 | Are the earth's magnetic poles shifting? |
| 19-Jan-2007 | The China (Flats) Syndrome: Was there a reactor meltdown in Southern California? |
| 26-Jan-2007 | Has there ever been a mutiny aboard a U.S. naval vessel? |
| 09-Feb-2007 | Is fluoride in water a good thing or a danger? |
| 02-Feb-2007 | There goes the judge: How do we get rid of whacked-out judges? |
| 16-Feb-2007 | Is it better to fill your tires with nitrogen instead of air? |
| 23-Feb-2007 | What is the origin of the song "There's a place in France/Where the naked ladies dance?" Are bay leaves poisonous? |
| 02-Mar-2007 | Why is the alphabet in alphabetical order? |
| 09-Mar-2007 | Going postal: Are employees of the United States Postal Service more likely to be violent towards coworkers? |
| 16-Mar-2007 | Did ancient conquerors punish their enemies by sowing captured fields with salt? |
| 23-Mar-2007 | Electrifying: Is living under power lines harmful to your health? |
| 30-Mar-2007 | Can urinating on your feet in the shower cure athlete's foot? |
| 06-Apr-2007 | IgNobel: Has the Nobel prize ever been awarded in error? |
| 13-Apr-2007 | Is breast-feeding really better for babies than formula? |
| 20-Apr-2007 | We know about global warming, but what about global dimming? |
| 27-Apr-2007 | How do snowflakes grow symmetrically? What causes patterns in frost? |
| 04-May-2007 | When one spouse dies does the surviving spouse tend to follow soon afterwards? |
| 11-May-2007 | Is higher faster? Does time pass more quickly when gravity is reduced? |
| 18-May-2007 | What's the fastest-acting, most lethal poison? |
| 25-May-2007 | Hair today, more tomorrow? How effective are treatments for baldness? |
| 01-Jun-2007 | Could the floating islands of "Life of Pi" really exist? |
| 08-Jun-2007 | Did mercury in vaccines cause autism? Do vaccines cause autism? |
| 15-Jun-2007 | Whatever happened to the accusers from the Salem witch trials? |
| 22-Jun-2007 | Take me out to the ball game: Is there a real "home field advantage?" |
| 29-Jun-2007 | Why do banks use that awful robotic looking type font for routing and account numbers? Why do people hang catfish heads from fences? |
| 06-Jul-2007 | Why do statues of Buddha have long earlobes? What's the difference between fat Buddha and regular Buddha? |
| 13-Jul-2007 | Have federal automobile fuel safety standards increased the number of automobile deaths? |
| 20-Jul-2007 | Was there a real Trojan war as depicted in the Iliad? Is "Agamemnon's death mask" real? |
| 27-Jul-2007 | Is sea salt better for you than regular salt? Why does salt enhance the flavor of almost all food? Why add salt to water for boiling pasta? |
| 03-Aug-2007 | Are there deposits of methane under the sea? Will global warming release the methane to the atmosphere? |
| 10-Aug-2007 | Is strength of will in fighting illness a factor in whether you live or die? |
| 17-Aug-2007 | What's better for the environment, electric hand dryers or paper towels? |
| 24-Aug-2007 | Are weathermen checked for forecast accuracy? Have advances in technology improved the accuracy of weather forecasting? |
| 31-Aug-2007 | People take medications. They excrete them. What happens next? Could it affect the water supply? |
| 07-Sep-2007 | Does the average American student have less vocabulary today than in days gone by? |
| 14-Sep-2007 | Prehistoric, it's what's for dinner: Have explorers had feasts of woolly mammoth? |
| 21-Sep-2007 | Are there submerged towns under lakes created by dam building? |
| 28-Sep-2007 | Does smoking organically grown tobacco lower the chance of lung cancer? |
| 05-Oct-2007 | Did pirates bury their treasure? Did pirates really make maps where "X marks the spot? |
| 12-Oct-2007 | Why are pirates depicted with a parrot on their shoulder? What's the origin of the skull and crossbones pirate flag? |
| 19-Oct-2007 | Who's your Daddy? Is it true 10-15% of children in modern society were not sired by their putative fathers? |
| 26-Oct-2007 | And they lived happily never after: Were the original
versions of classic fairy tales more dark and bloodthirsty than what we know today? |
| 02-Nov-2007 | Are UV rays really more powerful on cloudy days? |
| 09-Nov-2007 | Why does my husband stop snoring when I nudge him? Is there a real way to make snoring stop? |
| 16-Nov-2007 | Is there a correlation between vasectomy and dementia? Can men with vasectomies have wet dreams? |
| 23-Nov-2007 | Is ethanol derived from cellulose a truly viable energy source? |
| 30-Nov-2007 | A prescription for death: Does doctors' illegible handwriting kill more than 7,000 patients annually? Is drinking alcohol a good cold cure? |
| 07-Dec-2007 | Did Victorian era doctors use vibrators to treat hysteric female patients with orgasm therapy? |
| 14-Dec-2007 | Why do Americans refer to the main course of a meal as the "entree?" What happened to the kilocalorie? |
| 21-Dec-2007 | Pajama Game: What's the straight dope on children's sleepwear? |
| 28-Dec-2007 | Does wearing headphones increase bacteria in the ear? Do refrigerators promote cold-resistant bacteria? |
| 04-Jan-2008 | When doctors go on strike does the death rate go down? |
| 11-Jan-2008 | Earth Mother: Has there ever been a true matriarchal culture? |
| 18-Jan-2008 | Pay for Play: Did the Romans issue sexually depictive tokens for use in foreign brothels? |
| 25-Jan-2008 | Unshiny day: Is there more sulfur in the air than in preindustrial times? Is this making silver tarnish faster than before? |
| 01-Feb-2008 | Do mice fear the scent of a cat? Do mice really love cheese? Why isn't there mouse flavor cat food? |
| 08-Feb-2008 | Would life insurance be paid out on someone executed for a crime? Can death row inmates get life insurance? |
| 15-Feb-2008 | Does giving sweets to kids produce a "sugar rush?" |
| 22-Feb-2008 | Are Teflon-coated pans a health risk to birds and humans? |
| 29-Feb-2008 | Is the body mass index (BMI) chart an accurate indicator of obesity? |
| 07-Mar-2008 | Do low-flush toilets actually save water? I blew my nose on toilet paper -- better to flush it or throw it in the trash can? |
| 14-Mar-2008 | What’s the deal with colloidal silver? |
| 21-Mar-2008 | What poisons can I safely take to build immunity to toxic substances? Does eating poison ivy build resistance to allergic reaction? |
| 28-Mar-2008 | Do fancy glasses improve the flavor of wine? |
| 04-Apr-2008 | Are electric cars really more energy efficient? Do "green" vehicles have a worse impact on the environment than a Hummer? |
| 11-Apr-2008 | What was the actual cause of death by crucifixion? |
| 18-Apr-2008 | Why is the bottom end of the music spectrum so boomy and annoying? Can anything be done to block the sound? |
| 25-Apr-2008 | Did all animal life originally have copper-based blood? Does your blood thicken or dilute in reaction to climate changes? |
| 02-May-2008 | What's the deal on vermiculite? |
| 09-May-2008 | Napoleon complex: How did the image of Napoleon get to be a stereotype of crazy? Did tin disease contribute to Napoleon's defeat in Russia? |
| 2006 Column Index | 2007 Column Index |
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