While everyone's commenting about how foolish the author was with his choices, I think the main point point is that this is a very well written chronicle of facing certain but not immediate death and what that feels like, down to the minutiae at the hospital.
I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
181–190 of 192 posts
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only pick the "best" ones around here (Chanterelles, boletus), and those happen to be risk-free because of how they look. I don't pick mushrooms where I'd need to use my judgement to decide whether it is deadly or delicious. It's also very few that are this toxic, and I don't know of anything I'd like to pick that even resembles it (I'd never pick a white mushroom, for example - and that alone lets me dodge the dea…
Careful. Chanterelles has 2 lookalikes, one is poisonous (Jack o lantern)
Luckily they are even harder to mix up in Europe where the jack-o is both rare and differently colored from the american one which is quite similar to chanterelle in color. Also since the jack-o has real gills (unlike a chanterelle) you’d need to be really sloppy to miss it. It’s not extremely toxic - you risk becoming sick, not dead.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
They taste wildly different. Just like not all fruits taste the same. Or all veggies. Or all meat. My personal favourite is Chanterelle. Yellowfoot is pretty great too.
It's the only kosher mushroom.
Any way you can expand on this? What would make a mushroom non-kosher?
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, it looks like a common sort of decision tree that a normal person goes through when they have a medical problem. And it is the same sort of decision tree people go through when nothing is wrong. How many times have you heard a friend say "my heart behaves strangely sometimes". Sometimes I have heartburn, or sweat more that expected and I wonder...
So when you have unexpected heartburn or excessive sweating, is that also after you picked a mushroom that you knew (or thought) looked similar to a very, very deadly one, with more than one indication that the one you ate was likely not the harmless one you mistook it for?
no, I meant in relation to a heart attack.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're really tasty and good for you. There's also a deep primal satisfaction from eating something directly from the wild earth. It's also a long-standing tradition in many cultures. If you know what you're doing and are very careful and cautious, it is a pretty low-risk activity.
The ratio of benefit to potential drawback seems unappealing though. There are plenty of other types of food that would fulfil that "deep primal satisfaction from eating something directly from the wild earth", and orders of magnitude more if you also include the sea.
The benefit / drawback ratio for mushrooms is close enough to plants that it should be a non-factor. The real issue is familiarity. When you’re out in the woods, you’re surrounded by plants that are mostly inedible and often toxic. But you already learned that “most plants are inedible,” and you are familiar enough with the plants/parts that are edible to make it seem much less risky, since you ignore 90% of what you see before asking “can I eat that?” You don’t eat random berries; you stick to easily-recognized ones like raspberries or strawberries. You’ve been warned about poison ivy since you were a kid. Very few people eat the common herbs that are around because they don’t recognize them as edible.
Mushrooms are harder to find and less familiar. If you take a few hours to study up on one or two edible mushroom species (and their lookalikes, if they have them) you’ll find that it’s just as easy to positively identify them as it is an edible plant—which is to say, it’s not trivial but not too hard either. The defining characteristics are just different from what you’re used to looking for.
Chanterelles for example have a couple of lookalikes, but the real ones have ridges that run down the stem and not gills. Morels have a few lookalikes, but the real ones are hollow inside.
The differences between edible cow parsley and deadly water hemlock are IMO harder to spot than either of the above.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found it on the whole endearing. Through the author's religion we saw his valuation of his friends and family as well as his whole life. I think it's certainly within reason that people can believe contradictory 'truths' and I'm sure you do as well.
I'd make that point even stronger, humans don't tend to analyze their every thought with extreme care and I'd say _most_ hold some kind of contradictory believes. Or, believe something but don't actually act accordingly. (Cognitive dissonance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
Some contradictory beliefs, but the author is a walking stewpot full of contradictory beliefs.
Not the end of the world, but certainly remarkable.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#187I grew up in Russia, and like in many other Slavic cultures, mushroom foraging was a time-honored family affair. Some of my fondest memories are of picking mushrooms with my grandmother, who taught me all I know about identifying them. I still forage them all the time here in the States. I'm sorry, but it continues to baffle me how someone can mistake an Amanita for a Coprinus (or Agaricus). To my eyes they're as dif…
I found myself foraging for these bright orange lobster mushrooms off a scenic trailhead in Oregon.
They were quite delicious!
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Odds are pretty low of getting a tick borne disease. I would assume they're even lower if you take precautions. About 60000 incidents a year. Powassan virus 33 incidents ( https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/data-summary/index.html ) I would speculate that more than 33 people manage to kill them selves road biking each year, but I confess I'm just guessing.
60,000 reported cases, which means more like 600,000 estimated cases. You can definitely vastly lower the risk if you take all the right precautions, but most people I see don’t even have their pants tucked into their socks.
Maybe they understand how miniscule the risk is and can't be bothered?
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's a shame because these kinds of stories create unnecessary fear in Americans about picking things from the wild, when there are so many great tastes and experiences right there at your fingertips. To be fair, until we have better tools to diagnose and treat the tick-borne illnesses that are prevalent in the US, it still isn't the safest hobby. This year I finally got sick of worrying about Powassan virus et al.…
That's... one of the worst excuses I ever heard to not go out into the wilderness. How can you ever sit in the car for example?
Pretty much!