I keep thinking about what if the author who won't be named had gone back and re-done HP1 after finishing the series. Fix the story incongruities (Dumbledore had never seen Mcgonagall's animagus form?) or apply new flavor and world elements ala Lucas and the original SW trilogy.
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Last night George Burns came up in discussion with the wife and I could have sworn he played Alfred in one of the Batman movies. It's like Shaq and Shazam all over again.
James Randi has died
Very sad to hear that James Randi has died. He was always a great character, magician, and he fought hard against fake mysticism. I met him once at DragonCon. It was purely in passing and he asked me if I knew where the hotel's pool was. I didn't say anything to him other than to apologize for not knowing, and that I was a fan.
Years ago I backed "An Honest Liar" which was a kickstarted documentary of his life and career. I highly recommend you give it to watch.
Came across this wonderful anecdote on Hacker news:
I met James Randi around 2007 when he came to campus at UBC to give a talk. He told the following story about a magic trick that he worked on for years, which concerned guessing the timing of his death. I haven't heard him tell that story elsewhere, so now seems like a good time to share it.
He said that for a good number of years, every time before going to bed, he would write on a little card that he predicted he would die that night during his sleep. In the morning, he got up and happily threw away the little card. Every day. For many years. His concept was that, on the rare chance that this actually happened to be last day, people would think that he pulled the ultimate magic trick. People would not suspect that he wrote this on a little card every day because, well, nobody does that.