<story><title>James Randi Has Died</title><url>https://web.randi.org/home/james-randi-has-died</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tombert</author><text>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 &amp;quot;fan email&amp;quot; to him, saying that I respect what he did, and think that he should keep up the good work.&lt;p&gt;Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick &amp;quot;thank you!&amp;quot; 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!&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;RIP Randi.  You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>samstave</author><text>This reminds me; i used to email back and forth with Alex Grey, my favorite artist... he was so personable over email.&lt;p&gt;When i was building a datacenter in manhattan i went to his studio - Hall of Mirrors... or whatever its called...&lt;p&gt;I need to reach out to him again before such happens and make sure i talk to him before the world loses him.&lt;p&gt;Thank you for your story.</text></comment>
<story><title>James Randi Has Died</title><url>https://web.randi.org/home/james-randi-has-died</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tombert</author><text>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 &amp;quot;fan email&amp;quot; to him, saying that I respect what he did, and think that he should keep up the good work.&lt;p&gt;Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick &amp;quot;thank you!&amp;quot; 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!&lt;p&gt;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.&lt;p&gt;RIP Randi.  You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>badwolf</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s such a fantastic story! He truly inspired so many people worldwide.</text></comment>