I suppose a fitting tribute to James "The Amazing" Randi would be to be very, very skeptical about reports that he has died at the age of 92. But Penn Jillette has tweeted it's true and if you can't believe one liar and con-artist about another, who can you believe?
If you weren't familiar with the work of Mr. Randi, he was a magician for many years — that's where the "Amazing" in his name came from — but he turned into a guy whose specialty was educating the world to scams and hoaxes and rackets like charging people to communicate with their dead loved ones or claiming to be able to read minds. He didn't much like the word "debunker" but that's what he was, exposing psychic faith healers and other frauds.
I was honored to be part of a group that dined with him one night at the Magic Castle. No one at the table except Randi said much because he was such a fascinating conversationalist with insights and opinions and anecdotes that we all found riveting. I know his work will live on because I know how many others in and around the world of magic were inspired by him…and like me, are very, very sorry he's not around any longer. Unless this is a scam and he is.