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Mercury -- The Neglected Vitamin (Health)
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Don't get me wrong; I'm not declaring the mystery solved... I'm just suggesting that the specific case of 'salmon=wisdom' is just a local manifestation of the more general 'fish=wisdom'... (Which we all know to be true because our mothers told us.)

So just when was fish first labelled 'brain food'?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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Not sure if this is the right place for asking about fly agaric though, making an admittedly tenuous link with Ish's fishes, one could wonder why these mushrooms are described as gilled. The fly agaric is associated with birches (we've dissected the etymology of birch and birth somewhere). Does anyone know if this particular species grows here naturally?

The reason I'm curious is that it's supposed to be found in relative abundance on the heathlands of Surrey, England's extremely prosperous stockbroker belt (and, coincidentally or not, where the first Cistercian abbey was built).
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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My brother and his hippy mates go off "magic mushroom hunting" in mid-Wales every year.

PS "Used to," he tells me.
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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In front of the stockbrokers' houses in leafy Surrey you often see mushroom-shaped stone pillars known as staddle stones. They were supposed to have been supports for granaries and the round shape of the stone on top of the base deterred rats from climbing up. This sounds patent nonsense and anyway a rounded top is hardly conducive to stability.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Hatty wrote:
...one could wonder why these mushrooms are described as gilled....


If you look underneath, you will find that they have an underside that looks like gills.
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Until about three years ago we had a large silver birch in the front garden. For the last four or five years that it stood, we had a good crop of fly-agarics every autumn (no I never did try them) but since the tree was cut down, the mushrooms haven't returned.

One thing I do remember about them, was that something was obviously eating them, as I would always find perfectly circular holes, up to about half a centimetre diameter in the top of them. I asked my wife if she remembers ever seeing anything eating them and she is pretty sure it was crows and magpies... Now why am I not surprised?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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Well I'll be... could have knocked me down with a feather. Fly agaric is said to have been used as an insect repellant (I think), which means the crafty corvids were eating the mushroom itself not picking off insects.
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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It's just possible that it was slugs eating the mushrooms and they were in turn being eaten by the birds. But from my recollection the mushrooms looked like they had been pecked at. Would slugs leave a circular incision?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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Apparently slugs do attack the caps according to wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fly_Agaric_Slugs.JPG

though the gouged out bits can hardly be mistaken for a circular incision.

Also according to wiki
The Koryak of eastern Siberia have a story about the fly agaric (wapaq) which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. .... After experiencing the power of the wapaq, Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, can learn from it.

These myths are somewhat confusing, why do whales figure so large? In any event it seems your wife is right and the raven is a mushroom-consumer though who was learning from whom is unclear.
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steven



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http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hydro/amalgam.htm
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Years ago I was so impressed with the mercury-amalgam-causes-Alzheimer case that I went to the dentist and asked him to take out all my mercury fillings and replace them with non-mercury ones. The NHS being a more forgiving arena in those days, my dentist did exactly that. Some day the world will knight that dentist.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Looking back, the sheer idea of placing a deadly brain poison just below the brain in an environment where chewing and bacterial activity constantly break down everything is utterly bizarre. Only Applied Epistemologists understand why even now society is utterly insouciant about this situation.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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Great!

I've had a number of these in my mouth since childhood (I was born without adult teeth in several positions).
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Just get the NHS to fix it.

Seriously, worth switching. I am told that the 'white' fillings are now just as good as mercury and, though unpleasant, it is not terribly expensive having one lot drilled out and replacements tamped in. Do not though expect much sympathy from your dentist who, so typically, will take the position "Oh nothing's been proved." Careful ignoral of course.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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And it won't be proved until all those who might sue are dead.
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