Damn reaper
Oh damn, bad news.
This is Kirk Hall, Harriet’s husband.
I know Harriet’s work was followed and admired by many of you. It is with great sadness that I must tell you my beloved wife passed away quietly and unexpectedly in her sleep last night.
Please take care.
— Harriet A. Hall, MD (@HHSkepDoc) January 12, 2023
Sad news, and she will be missed by many people.
My goodness. I loved her.
I had dinner in her company once at a CFI event – a big round table among other big round tables and we weren’t side by side, but we chatted on the way in. She was very civil to me even though I’d online-argued with her a good deal during the elevatorgate wars.
I enjoyed reading her; I was bothered when she took the women just regretting decisions position when Shermer was accused, but I thought many of her views were right on. (Yeah, and there was the Elevatorgate).
She was passionate about her work.
This is very sad news indeed.
I was her official First Fan. I’d somehow come across several of her early essays (including iirc the “Tooth Fairy Science” one) and thought they were wonderful. James Randi’s second The Amazing Meeting was held that year in Vegas and he’d put up the names of all the attendees on a board in the lobby. I was thrilled to see “Harriet Hall” listed and spent the convention looking at the women’s name tags. No luck. Near the end of TAM we went to see Penn & Teller and afterwards a bunch of us decided to walk back to our hotel, which turned out to be further than we expected. My walking companion was a charming, interesting woman who, of course, turned out to be Harriet. She was astonished to hear I’d been looking for her all weekend. “You’re my very first fan!”
We ending up going out to dinner later —and then either lunch or dinner for all the subsequent TAMs. I looked forward to it every year.
I regularly read her webpage. I miss her already.
So sad, I loved Harriet’s writing. The Abigail Shrier thing was a disgrace. She was so gracious to the people at SBM who treated her so poorly. RIP Harriet. The world is poorer without you in it.
Sastra can I make that a guest post? I generally do it without asking (your comments are MINE MINE MINE just kidding) but this is a bit personal but I think it’s a fine tribute.
@Ophelia;
Sure.
Thank you.
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Oh no.
A member of Guerilla Skeptics On Wikipedia is in my book club & last night in the Zoom meeting she mentioned that she hadn’t finished reading this month’s book because yesterday afternoon she was updating Harriet Hall’s Wikipedia page.
I should take a look at it today.
I read somewhere yesterday, I forget where, that people angry at her over The Trans Issue have been tampering with her Wikipedia page.
The Wikipedia page as of a few minutes ago, just states the facts of the “Irreversible Damage” book review issue. Ie: who said what about it without any comment indicating an opinion on who is correct.
How many people would *not* think the removal of the review, to reek of censorship?
Too many, is my guess.