Who you gonna call?

Ask and ye shall receive. Also, 7 other things worth knowing today.

Last month, I shared a few stories from my “idea file.”

One of them sparked quite a few reader responses, saying: Yeah, I’d read that.

It’s from the history books—the strange story of Rose Mackenberg, who worked undercover as an investigator for 20th-century magician Harry Houdini, exposing phony psychics.

One day, I thought—someday—I might find time to write it…

Oh wait. Kate to the rescue. Thanks, Kate!

Exposed: the Spook Spy

by Kate Sullivan

If people remember Harry Houdini now, nearly 100 years after his death, they know him as an escape artist and magician—possibly the greatest of all time.

Houdini had another calling, though: debunking all things occult—a passion he came to after spending a small fortune trying to contact his late parents’ spirits, in the early (less-skeptical) part of his career.

Houdini became so anti-occult, in fact, that he devoted much of his offstage time to managing a huge effort to eradicate seances and Spiritualism.

In addition to publishing books and holding de…