- Morels tend to grow near dying - but not dead - trees, particularly elm and apple trees.
- Morels generally grow in three phases, by color:
- Gray
- Yellow
- Black
- These phases combined usually last a month or two.
- Animals don't eat mushrooms.
- Turkey hunting is restricted to certain hours of the day.
- Deer poop looks like piles of pebbles.
- Morels should be picked at the stem, so a stump remains.
- Picked morels should be carried in a net bag, so spores can drop and plant new mushrooms.
- Morels should be soaked in salt water, to encourage bugs to depart.
- Morels have a subtle taste, so breading should be only lightly seasoned.
- Black shirts should not be worn while breading morels (or anything).
- Plastic forks should not be used near frying morels (or anything).
- I should not be allowed near frying morels.
- Even poorly fried wild morels taste pretty good.
Yesterday I watched on C-SPAN as a representative from Eli Lilly told a story of how their products helped a person with diabetes. The story was told to promote Eli Lilly's position on patents. I'm not clear on all that was said, but I gather the patent system will soon get worse, not better. The debate was largely over the process by which two companies should dispute a mutually claimed patent. I didn't see anyone suggest that there might be situations in which patents should not be held by anyone. I think allowing people to profit from the medical problems of others is something we will some day look back at and wonder how that could have happened.
I have no reason to believe that Eli Lilly is any better or worse than any other pharmaceutical manufacturer. I had a vague sense that pharmaceutical manufacturers are generally bad. Specifically, I suspected they often put profit ahead of the public good. It didn't take a lot of research to confirm this suspicion. Eli Lilly is a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which in 2003 petitioned the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "to make approval of generic biologics more difficult." To protect profits, Eli Lilly worked to prevent other companies from selling insulin to diabetic patients at lower costs.
When I was low on money a year ago, my health suffered because I couldn't afford medical supplies sold by companies like Eli Lilly. I was working full time, when I could find work, but that wasn't enough to afford the necessary medical supplies after rent. These supplies could be cheaper so people like me don't face such situations. Patents on medicine keep medicine artificially expensive at the expense of citizens. It's sad that the U.S. Senate held a hearing on patent reform in Washington D.C. yesterday, and not one person there stated the obvious: medical patent monopolies are bad for Americans.