HOLD THE LINE.....

James Randi --- Wizard (randi-hotline@ssr.com)
Mon, 27 Mar 1995 22:20:28 -0500

Apparently, the clown who calls himself "Riley" has unwisely opted to repeat
a posting that (formerly Dr.) Eldon Byrd foisted on the Internet some time
ago. This refers to various claims of unwholesome behavior by myself and
CSICOP. It also makes the strange claim that Byrd actually WON the case he
brought against me in Baltimore! Perhaps that delusion was arrived at as a
result of Geller's claims that he won his lawsuits, too..... I suggest that
we ask Geller and Byrd to tell us (a) whether I or the other defendants had
to pay either of them anything, and (b) how much each of them paid to the
defendants, and will be paying for years to come. Until we get answers to
these inquiries, I don't think we should spin our wheels trying to resolve
the matter.

A lawyer who claims to speak for Geller has sent out a version of the Byrd
statement, but has (alas!) failed to mention the evidence produced in court
about the ridiculous accusations made about me and CSICOP. I'm travelling at
the moment, and so I'm away from home base, but I'll report more fully on
that aspect after I get back to Florida.

I told an audience at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society
about the hilarious claims that Eldon Byrd made in court concerning important
projects he'd been working on as a parapsychologist. One was a wrist watch
that would protect the lucky wearer against the deadly effects of hair dryers
and electric razors that bombard the brain with those 60-Hertz electrical
waves. The watch would sense the phase of the offending waves and generate
an opposing field to protect the subject.... But by far the best laugh of
the trial was generated by Byrd when he proudly announced that, as a result
of reading and believing the book, The Secret Life of Plants, he had a
project going to train seaweed so that it could warn naval divers of danger.
I'm not kidding, folks. He actually said that! My question was, how does
one train seaweed? Threats? Rewards? What pleases or annoys seaweed...?
The mind boggles.

More after April 1, when I get home.

Randi

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