Yesterday I learned from Majikthise that Jerry Andrus had died. Jerry was a magician, an artist, an inventor, and a skeptic, and I had the honor of meeting him last year in the course of my work on an upcoming book. He was, as a friend said of him this morning, "one of the good guys."

You could sit in front of a television set all evening and come out and say you've had fun, but ... if you sit in front of a television and say you've had fun and enjoyed it, you've produced nothing in return. If you had fun making a project or something, or working on things, you've had fun and when you get done you have something to show for it.

His website is here, and it features a passel of lovely videos of him giving talks, performing magic, and demonstrating some of his tremendous home-built optical illusions.

The obit from Jerry's hometown paper is here.

Tags: art, random coolness, work