The Oxford comma or serial comma – how did I miss this song?
Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I climbed to Dharamsala too, I did
I met the highest Lama, his accent sounded fine
To me, to meCheck your handbook, it’s no trick
Take the chapstick, put it on your lips
Crack a smile, adjust my tie
Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys
YouTube – Vampire Weekend: Oxford Comma
Well, do you or don’t you? Still use the word ‘toadstool’? Let’s find out. I like it, because it has fairytale quality. (And if Toad hadn’t left his stool for a driver’s seat… the would be no wind in the willows. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/content/articles/2007/06/13/toad_feature.shtml
OED says 1) A fungus having a round disk-like top and a slender stalk, a mushroom.
2) Popularly restricted to poisonous or inedible fungi, as distinct from edible ‘mushrooms’.
I have tended to use the second definition. But I was thinking of things like fly agaric (Fliegenpilz), which happen to have the right shape for the first definition (for a toad to sit on?). What about the other poisonous fungi?
Mushroom too appears to be mainly used for large umbrella-shaped species, or to Agaricus campestris (Champignon) and similar.
So the word ‘fungus’ is the one to use.
There is also a verb ‘to toadstool’, which means
‘to mushroom’!
Verflixt! “THERE would be no…”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone invented a testing kit for poisonous mushrooms so we could forage without fear!
Get a dog.