Cecil vs. Marilyn

"Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know."
Daniel J. Boorstin


"Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle."
Robert Anthony

Every week I get the Sunday paper, and every week in the stupid Parade magazine, I read the column by Marilyn vos Savant. I don't want to read it, you understand, yet I do with a kind of morbid curiosity. I absolutely cannot stand the kind of mushy "there is no wrong answer" kind of questions she attempts to answer. Questions like "Is it better to have loved and lost or not to have loved at all?", and the like. And when she does dare to take on a question with hard facts for answers, she often screws it up.

Bah, give me The Straight Dope any time. The elusive know-it-all behind TSD is Cecil Adams, who has been fighting ignorance in his syndicated newspaper columns (and now website) since 1973. Cecil's doesn't shy away from the tough questions... Here's one of my favorites:

Dear Cecil:


Can man live by bread alone? If so, how long? --Irving Butternut, Los Angeles

There's plenty more where that came from in the archives. Careful, though... you just might learn something.