Frog Blog: March 2021

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Ravens stealing food at Costco

Ravens have been plundering shopping carts at a Costco parking lot in Anchorage, Alaska. One poor sap turned around and two of these winged-raiders made off with a short rib, tearing it right out of its packaging and flying away, presumably to feast at their evil lair.

Story here.

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96-year-old woman's surprising interior

The owner, a former seamstress and knitter who fancied herself an interior decorator, has lived in the home since she was 24 years old.

The modest two-story, three-bedroom home is built of brick and stone.

The home was decorated from the best of the 1950s and 1960s from floor to ceiling: metallic wallpaper with baroque prints, colorful carpeting, neo-ornate spendor and more. Despite her age, she and her family maintained the home’s classic beauty and eccentricities for 72 years.

In 2014, the 96-year-old Toronto resident put her two-story home located in the West Toronto neighborhood of Bloor West Village up for sale. She is now living in a retirement community.

Asking price for the home: $699,000.

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Dewey

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Rebonjour

Language/cultural note: Rather than saying bonjour to the same person twice in one day, the French will say, “rebonjour.”

https://www.french-word-a-day.com

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John F. Glynn: certified mayonnaise professional

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Morel hunting

Morchella, the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales (division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges with pits composing their caps. Morels are prized by gourmet cooks, particularly in French cuisine. Due to difficulties in cultivation, commercial harvesting of wild morels has become a multimillion-dollar industry in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in particular North America, Turkey, China, the Himalayas, India, and Pakistan and Kashmir where these highly prized fungi are found in abundance.

Morel hunting is a common springtime activity. Mushroom collectors may carry a mesh collecting bag, so the spores can scatter as one carries the harvest.

Every spring, hundreds of morel enthusiasts gather in Boyne City, Michigan for the National Morel Mushroom Festival, a century-old event. As one observer stated, "if there is a modern, North American reenactment of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales this is it." Other festivals and hunting competitions in North America include the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship, the Ottawa Midwest Morel Fest and the Mesick Michigan Mushroom Festival.

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