Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tombert | Hacker News Reader

In January 2010, I went on a binge of every James Randi video I could find on YouTube. Him debunking psychics, talking about religion and faith, talking about magic, the works. I got so obsessed with him, that I found his website, and sent a very generic "fan email" to him, saying that I respect what he did, and think that he should keep up the good work.

Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!" message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!

We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.

RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.

This reminds me; i used to email back and forth with Alex Grey, my favorite artist... he was so personable over email.

When i was building a datacenter in manhattan i went to his studio - Hall of Mirrors... or whatever its called...

I need to reach out to him again before such happens and make sure i talk to him before the world loses him.

Thank you for your story.

Alex Gray (note spelling!) was also very nice to me when I once hung out in his loft on New Year's Eve.

He is over twenty five years younger than Randi was, and seems to be in excellent shape, so don't write him off yet. :-)

He left Manhattan quite a long time ago and now lives here: https://www.cosm.org/

That's such a fantastic story! He truly inspired so many people worldwide.

Wow, what a lucky series of circumstances and a great story.

Yeah, I was definitely lucky, I must have caught him in a good mood or maybe he's just really affable. I was super fortunate to have met him though, a class act all the way. He will always be someone that I admire and respect.

Wow, what an amazing story.

That's awesome! When I was in my early teens I went through a similar stint and also emailed him with my thoughts, kudos and thanks. Also to my surprise he wrote back with a genuine message and note.

What a guy.

Yeah, he was one of the first "heroes" I've ever reached out to; I thought it was pretty awesome that he was willing to chat with his fans, and never got to a point of feeling "too good" to do something like that.

Since then, I pretty much email everyone on the internet that I have any respect for; I don't know how annoying I am because of that but I think we can thank Randi for giving me the courage to do so.

dude, that is so cool, wholesome story from an amazing man

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