Pantheist ethos from "shower thoughts" website

"Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Nature has been trying to kill us off for a long time."

This will be written somewhere prominently in the tomes of my Dark Pantheist Nature Death Cult.

Outdoor tapirs

Baird's tapirs Moli and her mom Abby, enjoying some time in the outdoor exhibit.

3:00 snapshot #1993: Tuesday

Lookin' tough with my golf cart.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #45

The first really "mushroomy" mushroom of the year is this one: shaped like an umbrella, yellowish-white stalk, purplish cap, thick and robust and sprouting from wood chips.


The partial veil that protected the lilac gills when the mushroom was young persists on the stalk as a rough ring. In age, the cap goes from incurved and bell-shaped to convex, to allow spores at the center of the gills to get free.


Pulled out of the substrate, the mushroom brings along its rhizomorph (root-like) mycelium). The fungus feeds on fecal coliform bacteria, and catches nematodes, as well as breaking down wood chips for energy. This species Stropharia rugoso-annulata* is a European native that lives in North America only in human-made environments: mulch beds, gardens, and wood-chipped pathways.


*"Stropharia" refers to a sword belt--a reference to the partial veil remnant on the stalk. "rugoso-annulata" means "rough-ringed," which refers to the same field marking.

3:00 snapshot #1994: Wednesday

This summer, Franklin Park Zoo has a camel ride. This is the camel handler, and his male dromedary Nero.