JOE NICKELL!!!

[kittynh]

Oh My Ed!

I have put down, "Why don't we have JOE NICKELL?" in the TAM wish list....twice! I adore this man. I have his books. His writing got me to sleep in a haunted (by rats!) cemetary. I have "solved" a haunted house mystery using what I learned from his books. I have reccomended his books over and over on the forum. His books are wonderful! Kids love his books, and he has also written wonderful books for young children. On top of it he's on tv a lot, and I always enjoy his voice of reason on a woo woo show. He even did champy recently! He'll take on even the little haunts, just because frequently people once they know what's making the mystery footsteps (as in Canada) they will change their thinking. (It was a town house and the staircase next door was being used at night).

Anyway, I reccomend you all get his books (the library should have them, but buying them is nice), if not for yourself, think of a young person that you would like to introduce to critical thinking (include a few of Randi's books too!).

Also, Joe Nickell wrote a chapter for a book about why people became involved in the skeptic movement. Guess who he credited? The AMAZING Randi! and I think that is the most AMAZING thing about Mr.Randi! His magical ability to get people involved and excited about the skeptic movement.

 

[shanek]

I agree. Joe Nickell is AWESOME. I'd LOVE to see him at TAM3.

 

[Larry Barrieau]

Good one Kitty!

I've met Joe on a couple of occasions. On one occasion there were a half a dozen of us having lunch and the question was asked how we became skeptical. I said that I was never a follower of all paranormal claims but that I didn't question some of them very closely. While waiting in a Dr.'s office there was a 1987 issue of The Skeptical Inquirer (That and Skeptic should be in all waiting rooms.). Anyway, I told him that on the cover of that issue was Spontaneous Human Combustion. I thought, "That's weird stuff." and I was prepared to read about unexplainable things and instead found logical explanations. I read the rest of the issue after my appointment and subscribed that day. Joe looked at me and laughed and said, "I wrote that article." I hadn't remembered and was surprised and Joe seemed pleased that it was his article that got me involved in the skeptical movement.

Edit: By the way, Joe has a great little book for elementary teachers and parents with pre-teen kids called The Magic Detectives. In very very short chapters they look at cases of UFO's, Ghosts, Haunted Houses, Loch Ness, Yeti, Nostradamus, Bermuda Triangle, etc.

 

[Patricio Elicer]

I wrote his name as a suggested/wanted speaker for TAM3, in the TAM2 evaluation sheet.

The issue now is, what would we like him speak about? I know from his articles on Skeptical Inquirer about his many on-site paranormal investigations. That would be fun, wouldn't it?

 

[CFLarsen]

The issue now is, what would we like him speak about? I know from his articles on Skeptical Inquirer about his many on-site paranormal investigations. That would be fun, wouldn't it?

Yup, absolutely. We often tend to cover the more theoretical aspects of examining the paranormal, but we need to learn more about hands-on experience.

It's one thing to understand e.g. Occam's razor and use it in a discussion, it's quite another to use it in a real-life situation.

 

[kittynh]

Confession time...

Sometimes when "girls" get together for a girls night out, we have some odd conversations. Once we all speculated on who we would leave our husbands for. Names like Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt came up. I said, "Joe NIckell". Why? Well, after two Amstels I might just say anything (I have low tolerance, so I rarely drink), but I tried to explain my choice to my bewildered friends this way,

"when we were all little girls we wanted to be Nancy Drew...well, Joe Nickell seems to me like a grown up Nancy Drew, he's always off solving a mystery. I guess I still want to be Nancy Drew, and if I married him I could be!"

No more than one Amstel for me from now on...

but let's not tell Pool Boy or Joe Nickell about this, ok?