This post is being uploaded on October 31, 2007, the 81st anniversary of Houdini’s death and, as usual, big names in magic and people who are in some other way linked to him will gather for a seance, their forgiveable amusement hidden behind a sheen of sombre respect for his memory and his hard-earned fame.

Meanwhile, this past Saturday, professional and amateur illusionists right around the planet paid tribute to Houdini in the second Worldwide Escape Artist Relay. About 90 rope and lock specialists in at least 13 countries took part, nearly doubling the scale of the inaugural WEAR two years ago.

The event’s registration was organised by Ring 362 of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, whose website had predicted that “men and women, young and old, novices and seasoned pros emerging from retirement, will unite to restore the Art of Escape to its rightful place in the public imagination!” The registration page itself is an eye-opener about the state of escapology today.

And all this past week, in Harry’s memory, it was Magic Week in Maine — at least unofficially, because for the first time in four years the state’s Democrat governor, John Baldacci, refused to formally proclaim the celebration. His rationale: “Due to the high volume of requests we are receiving for proclamations, our policy has been reviewed and we are no longer able to issue proclamations for hobbies.”

The word “hobbies” set off a firestorm in the area’s magic community, whose professional prestidigitators protested that, not only do they make a living doing tricks, such collective events raise a lot of money for charity. They responded to the political snub with — what else — magic: They held a seance in Bar Harbor, Maine, a town that had gone ahead and designated its own Magic Week, and raised the spirit of Percival Proctor Baxter, who was state governor back in Houdini’s day, and he happily proclaimed the week “for eternity”.