Buddy's Blog

Uh-Oh. All you UFO nuts and celebrity gossip nuts, don’t miss the next three weeks. Remember, you heard it from me first. This is an early appearance of who would become Dwayne the frog guy. From 1995…

This particular orchid has been in bloom since February.

Like the cheap mermaid?

And yet another Date Night. Meanwhile…

Tom B sent How to Beat the Heat

See what I found in my yard…

In my younger days I did a lot of shrooming. I’ve eaten probably 15 or so species of wild mushrooms that I’ve found. Some are ok, but some are really delicious. People always worry that you might get a poison one, and that’s true. But if you are careful and obey some very basic rules and never take a chance, the chances are slim that you’ll die. Now this particular mushroom looks very suspicious. At first I thought it was an Amanita, most of which are deadly. When I was in high school I did a biology term paper on the Amanita Phalloides, otherwise known as the Death Angel. (I’ve always a little outré) I’ve heard that that people who eat the Death Angel say it’s delicious. But this particular mushroom isn’t an Amanita. To identify a mushroom you will need a good field guide. I’ve used the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms for 40 years or so. I have a couple other guides, but the Audubon is the best. There are also a couple apps which can often identify mushrooms by their pictures. My mushroom, here, is a Green-spored Lepiota, aka False Parasol, scientific name Chlorophyllum molybdites. There are characteristics that help you identify a particular specimen – the shape of the cap, the length and width of the stipe (stalk), the nature of the gills or tubes or pores etc. Once you narrowed down the mushroom to a few possibilities, the final determination can be made by taking a spore print.

I’ve put the cap gills down on both a white paper and a black paper. This is because if the spores are white or very light, you will be able to see the print on the black paper, and if the spores are darker, you will see them on the white paper. After leaving it over night this was the result:

I’ve circled the faint grey-green spore print. The print would be fuller if the cap had been more mature. Also notice that the gills have turned grey-green, just as described in the field guide. The mushroom is definitely a Chlorophyllum molybdites. If you decide to eat this guy, you may not die, but you definitely will be very, very sick.

I just recently connected with a cousin of mine I hadn’t seen in 35 years. On Facebook. someone is using his identity to try to scam my cousin’s friends. The guy has a Facebook Page with my cousin’s identity. He sent me an instant message.

It starts out: Good to hear from you, i’m doing great and happy for my life because it has been changed to a better one, God is faithful and I’m just wondering if you have heard about my recent good fortune?

Then: The department of health and human service,they are helping the Retired, Old, Widow and Disable in the society, i just benefited from the program also.i got a sum of $150,000 from them, have you been contacted yet?

Then: Because i saw your name on their winning list when the UPS men came to delivered my won money to me at my doorstep you have to contact their claiming agent now did you know how to do that?

The thing is he has my cousin’s name and Facebook picture on his page. The dirty bastards like that who prey on the elderly, poor or uneducated should be severely punished. As for me, my uncle in Nigeria who was the assistant to the president was recently assassinated, and I need you all to give me your bank accounts so I can send you a million dollars. Remember the story I did when it turned out that those emails were secret coded messages from the planet Grelzak to Zerblat regarding the invasion of Earth? I ought to run that story. I just finished a pretty good SciFi book along those lines. It’s Secret of the Ninth Planet by Donald Wollheim

As Robert R said, the only thing better than a good meal is a free meal. I had left-over pot roast, so last night I made a shepherd’s pie.  I had the cold pot roasted meat, and I boiled the onions (separately) and the carrots (separately) , added them, and threw in some frozen peas. BTW, never boil frozen peas. just put them in the hot water off the burner. If you boil them you lose the flavor.

I added a bunch of juice from the pot roast, salt and pepper, and I made some creamy mashed potatoes (lots of butter and some milk) to spread on the top.

Butter on that…

Here’s a little secret. I never roast anything at 350º or 375º or 400º. I feel sorry for the temperatures that get left out. I try to spread it around. I covered it and roasted it at 356º for 40 minutes, and voila!

Shepherd’s soup.

Hey, it’s summer! Time for a frolic on the beach! This is from 2007.