2020-10-28

James Randi RIP

James Randi    
The Amazing Randi passed a week ago in Florida at the age of 92. He was a magician and scientific skeptic who engaged various debunking of psychics and paranormal phenomenon and he was a lively conversationalist and presenter who I followed through his many public appearances on television and stage over the years.

Randall James Hamilton Zwinge was born in Canada August 7, 1928 and was always in the face of the paranormal and pseudoscientific purveyors of those claims in which he simply could not bring himself to believe. I became a fan back in the Uri Geller days and I would always take a moment to hear what he had to say since that time.

My encounters with him were typically under the auspices of his Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and and of course the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and he was one of the only people able to lure me to YouTube with personal interest.

He called paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims "woo-woo" and retired from the practice of magic at age 60 and subsequently from his educational foundation at 87.

His was a long and illustrious career which caused him to be continually in demand. His passing was said to be "age related" and with the schedule he maintained for so long he is likely looking down on us engaged in a much deserved spate of rest.

Rest in peace.