Randy Cassingham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Randall Carl Cassingham (* 1959 in California, USA) is an American syndicated columnist, humorist, publisher, and speaker. He is a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has been the keynote speaker at several of The Skeptics Society's annual conventions.

Cassingham is the author of the weekly syndicated news column "This is True" (founded 1994), which Cassingham made available by e-mail subscription to become one of the first for-profit e-mailed newsletters on the Internet. (In January 1997, an expanded paid version became one of the first paid e-mailed newsletters on the Internet.) "True", as Cassingham calls it for short, features several actual news items each week of unbelievable-yet-true character, with each story capped by a pithy one-liner which is "humorous, ironic or opinionated."

Cassingham is also the Founder of the "True Stella Awards" (founded 2002), a web site dedicated to informing the public about frivolous legal cases. The site was expanded into a 2005 book of the same name, published by Dutton, an imprint of the Penguin Group. Cassingham also started the "HeroicStories" e-mail newsletter (founded 1999), which tells the stories of remarkable acts of kindness and courage. Management of "HeroicStories" has since been turned over to others.

"Cassingham's Law", coined by Randy Cassingham in This is True (July 2006), is "The moment you compare yourself to Christ, you've lost the high ground." Cassingham's Second Law, from the May 6 2007 This Is True, is "Anyone who screams 'Do you know who I am?' is a nobody". [1]

Cassingham is the creator of the "Get Out of Hell Free" card (his response to a "This is True" reader who complained that a story about Feng Shui was "anti-Christian" and told him he was going to hell), the Internet Spam Primer, and several other web sites.

Cassingham is a volunteer emergency medical First Responder for the area around his home in rural Western Colorado. He is married to Kathryn Anne ("Kit") Riley since 2001.

[edit] Published work

— (November 2005). The True Stella Awards : Honoring real cases of greedy opportunists, frivolous lawsuits, and the law run amok. Dutton Adult. ISBN 0-525-94913-5.