If you're one of the "teeming millions" who have enjoyed reading the Straight Dope weekly in Seven Days, we have sad news: The column in our June 27 issue was the last. We thought you might like to know why, along with a little history of the Straight Dope and its author, Cecil Adams. Longtime Seven Days readers may know that we have carried the Straight Dope since the paper's first issue on September 6, 1995. It was one of three altweekly staples that we picked up and the only syndicated content, other than a few cartoons, in an otherwise Vermont-centric publication. (The other two features? Free Will Astrology by Rob Brezsny, still with us; and NewsQuirks, which ceased when author Roland Sweet died in 2015.) The Straight Dope preceded Seven Days — by a lot. The first column was published in the then-2-year-old Chicago Reader on February 2, 1973. According to lore, a staffer at an editorial meeting pitched the idea of a column whose author knew everything and was never wrong. Readers would write in with questions, and the column's author, with the help of a few researchers, would get to the bottom of them. Mind you, this was well before the internet turned research into a series of clicks. This was the Straight Dope's very first question: Dear Cecil: Remember after the '68 Democratic convention a number of professional/academic associations cancelled plans for future conventions in Chicago because of what happened here. Did they follow through on their threats, and how much convention business has Chicago lost as a result? -D.F., Rogers Park The answer: probably not much. Or, as Adams put it with what would become his signature cheekiness: God only knows what got these people so upset, but whatever it was, it seems to have blown over, since most of the associations involved have returned to Chicago since '68 or have future plans to do so. You can't really blame them — Chicago is an ideal convention site. (Note to young readers who might be baffled: Look up "1968 Democratic National Convention." It can't hurt to learn something about rioting in the streets.) Of course, there was more to Adams' response than that — information about specific organizations and their convention plans. You know, actual facts. "And so infallible answer man Cecil Adams began fighting ignorance weekly in the Straight Dope," explained a 2011 Time Out Chicago…
If you're one of the "teeming millions" who have enjoyed reading the Straight Dope weekly in Seven Days, we have sad news: The column in our June 27 issue was the last. We thought you might like to know why, along with a little history of the Straight Dope and its author, Cecil Adams. Longtime Seven Days readers may know that we have carried the Straight Dope since the paper's first issue on September 6, 1995. It was one of three altweekly staples that we picked up and the only syndicated content, other than a few cartoons, in an otherwise Vermont-centric publication. (The other two features? Free Will Astrology by Rob Brezsny, still with us; and NewsQuirks, which ceased when author Roland Sweet died in 2015.) The Straight Dope preceded Seven Days — by a lot. The first column was published in the then-2-year-old Chicago Reader on February 2, 1973. According to lore, a staffer at an editorial meeting pitched the idea of a column whose author knew everything and was never wrong. Readers would write in with questions, and the column's author, with the help of a few researchers, would get to the bottom of them. Mind you, this was well before the internet turned research into a series of clicks. This was the Straight Dope's very first question: Dear Cecil: Remember after the '68 Democratic convention a number of professional/academic associations cancelled plans for future conventions in Chicago because of what happened here. Did they follow through on their threats, and how much convention business has Chicago lost as a result? -D.F., Rogers Park The answer: probably not much. Or, as Adams put it with what would become his signature cheekiness: God only knows what got these people so upset, but whatever it was, it seems to have blown over, since most of the associations involved have returned to Chicago since '68 or have future plans to do so. You can't really blame them — Chicago is an ideal convention site. (Note to young readers who might be baffled: Look up "1968 Democratic National Convention." It can't hurt to learn something about rioting in the streets.) Of course, there was more to Adams' response than that — information about specific organizations and their convention plans. You know, actual facts. "And so infallible answer man Cecil Adams began fighting ignorance weekly in the Straight Dope," explained a 2011 Time Out Chicago…