Harry Houdini, a hero of my childhood died on this day in 1926. Famous for inviting people to give him their most ferocious punch to his stomach, he died after receiving several in rapid succession from a college student. One version of the story says he hadn’t “prepared” to take the punch. In any case his appendix ruptured and he died a while later, today, from peritonitis… As a child I was fascinated with magicians, and of that crowd, I... Read more