Still my (and your) Unca Cecil

When I lived in Northern California, I had a Saturday habit. Take Bart to Berkeley (Round trip $4). Spend morning window shopping for books at music on Telegraph and surrounding streets (free). Go to LaVal's pizza and order Lunch special (slice and small salad--$2.50). Order whatever beer was on special ($1.50). Put $1 in jukebox and play three songs--Bob Marley's "Exodus," Creedence's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and whatever 6 minute plus songs struck me...this gave me 25 minutes to eat my pizza and salad and drink my beer. And read The Straight Dope (also free, in the free mags by the door).

LaVal's is gone, along with their killer Garlic Cheese Bread and terrific ambience. Telegraph gets more and more upscale now...Cody's Books is gone, small music stores are endangered or gone. Those $9 days consisting of walking through the streets and checking out the vendors and the books and the music and eating my pizza and drinking my beer exist only in memory.


Slug illustrates Cecil's answer to "Does a pig really have a corkscrew shaped penis?"

The Straight Dope is still around, though. (And Slug is still doing the illustrations.) Cecil Adams is still the smartest man in the world. He is still answering the tough questions. If you ever wanted to know about why men have nipples, if there's really such a thing as cow tipping, why dinosaurs were so big, and if the stories about Catherine the Great and the horse are true, go ahead and find out here.

p.s. This one is my favorite. Don't know why. Just is.