Indeterminacy 96

Last October when it was terribly dry I went to visit the Browns
in Rochester. I didn’t take along any mushroom books, even
though I knew that Nobby and I would spend most of our time
walking through the woods. No matter where he lives he gets ahold
of those United States Coast and Geographic Survey quadrangle
maps. He studies them carefully and with their aid explores the
countryside conscientiously. He is not a botanist. He is more
of a hiker. He likes a good view and solving the puzzle of how
to get out of the woods once he is in them. He took me to a
swampy area ordinarily no doubt impassable but because of the
drought quite easy to explore. There to my surprise we
discovered a white Tricholoma growing in rings larger than any
I had ever seen before. This particular species was new to me.
It appeared in every respect desirable and it was not acrid to
the taste. We gathered quite a lot and I decided to telephone
W. Stephen Thomas, tell him about the mushroom, and learn from
him what species it was. ¶ He answered the telephone but didn’t
recognize the fungus from the information I gave him. He said
that there was a scheduled walk the very next day and that
someone in the Rochester Club might know my plant. No one did,
but one person had Groves along, which I consulted and was
pleased to learn described my Tricholoma. It was irinum, edible
and delicious. I served it to a number of students from the
University who came to the Browns’ the following day for dinner.
¶ A week later I was home again and got to cataloging my mushroom
books. I came across a reprint of an article by Alexander Smith
entitled Tricholoma irinum. Smith tells in detail how for years
he has found and eaten the mushroom without any ill effects, how
he never had any compunction about giving it to others to eat
until two people were seriously poisoned by it. He studied their
case quite carefully since he is himself so often sickened by
fungi but not by this one. He came to the conclusion that the
mushroom, nothing else that had been eaten or drunk, was indeed
responsible.

- John Cage