He’s a really fungi

My friend Bill is a lot of fun to talk to. He has timing and delivery like a younger version of Letterman and his story telling skills are awe inspiring. We talk about a myriad of subjects and often travel tangents that take us in circular conversations that make us both laugh our butts off.

He told me probably the best story I ever heard one day last winter and I was still laughing four hours later picturing it.

So the really funny thing is he told me a story via email earlier this week. Since it was just text there was no timing, no delivery, no arm waving, it was just plain text and it was the shortest email he ever sent me but it concerned probably the most bizarre thing that I've ever heard.

One of the things that Bill does for the park system is catalog specimens of fungus.

It's an ethereal process and the timing is crucial because a fungus doesn't have much of a shelf life.

So the most recent sighting of a rare slime mold happened in the wee hours of the morning and Bill went to off to catalog it after emailing me saying he was excited about it and he'd tell me all about it later. To give me some background on the mold he told me to picture a big bowl of tapioca pudding, but one that could move.

Yes, this particular mold can travel.

I thought that was the best part of the story until I read the next part.

You know the movie The Blob?

Well, the movie was based on a HUGE sighting of this weird slime mold stuff. The residents in Texas where it was discovered called in the authorities because they thought that it must be something from outer space.

The scary thing?

Bill hasn't emailed me since……..