Fun with Fungi
When you have a reasonably popular education blog, you start to receive communications from all sorts of new and interesting people – including representatives of public relations firms and literary agents attempting to generate buzz for something or other.
I never pay attention to this stuff because it’s obvious that the people involved have never visited or read this blog, have absolutely no clue what it’s about, and don’t particularly care. My e-mail address has simply shown up on some list of education blogs and so I’m barraged with requests to promote the latest report, book, conference or curricular materials.
But yesterday I received an e-mail from a publicist that’s so out there I just had to let you know about it:
The Deadliest Mushrooms Are Coming to a Forest Near You!
Are you afraid of mushrooms? If you think mushrooms are dark, slimy, dirty, and even poisonous, your mind is about to be changed…by a real life character who might make you think he’s straight out of a movie with Indiana Jones.
Taylor Lockwood is a biologist and photographer who has dedicated the lions’ share of his career to capturing unique and gorgeous images of mushrooms, and now he’s focusing on educating people about the wonders of these earthy delights.
Taylor Lockwood has an eponymous web site (with the sub-headline “Taylor F. Lockwood – Mushroom Photographer”), a site called FungiPhoto.com, and another called KingdomofFungi.com, where you can purchase all sorts of mushroom merchandise. But best of all, he has a YouTube video.
Now that I’ve given Mr. Lockwood all the promotion his publicist craves, I expect to hear from his competition, especially Dave Fischer at AmericanMushrooms.com. I may even be approached by the Mushroom Council and become the talk of the Shroomery Message Board. This could turn into a whole new career direction for me.
Alas, it would inevitably end up with me investigating the corrupt and self-aggrandizing political influence of the American Mushroom Institute and its Congressional lobbying, so I might as well stick with what I’m doing.
