Advertisement On the drive to one of my secret spots, I saw quite a few people out beating the brush.
In about an hour of searching I found 11 mushrooms. They weren’t easy pickings. I had to look hard and ruffle through the undergrowth to find them. Some were tan and some were grey.
One difficulty I find as morel season moves toward its end is that the undergrowth is rising by leaps and bounds. It takes a lot of effort to carefully push it aside. In a few circumstances you can see where the mushrooms actually bent themselves in half while trying to grow up against the other plants.
Saturday’s small mess of mushrooms went perfectly with that evening’s dinner of venison steak and sauteed red onions.
I may hit the morel slopes a time or two more this year. It all depends on the weather and when I have free time, which seems to be at a premium with school coming to a end soon.
It seems like May is a month when I’m always in a ridiculous rush. I have a nephew graduating from high school. Sunday school ends. A lot of people want to do their planning for summer. There’s Syttende Mai, field trips, end-of-the-year school picnics.
No wonder spring seems to go from freezing to baking hot in a matter of days, there’s little time to enjoy the really nice days.
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Brett Favre fans got in a twist last week when rumors swirled that he was about to become the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings.
Truth be told, it wouldn’t bother me if he played for Minnesota. It actually would just add to the drama of what’s already an exciting rivalry.
Players are always “free agents.” Someday down the road, Favre will be remembered as a great player and a great Packer. But Favre is just a human and he’s looking out for No. 1. It doesn’t really matter how much fans here loved him, or how much fans supported the Favre family or whatever. If the guy wants to play football and he can’t play here, he’ll try to play elsewhere.
The days of Ray Nitschke and Bart Starr, guys who were the face of the Packer franchise for decades, is all but over.
The list of players from the 1996 Super Bowl team who still are public relations giants for the Packers is short. In fact, LeRoy Butler leads that class. Butler has been admirable and true to the Pack.
What’s his take on Favre’s situation? Butler said Packer fans should not be surprised to see Favre sign with the Vikings later this summer.
“The reason why it’s taking so long with the reports coming out that he may not play and stay retired is because you got OTAs and you got minicamps and training camps. He don’t want to do that,” Butler said.
Butler called Favre the “ultimate diva” when it comes to the media attention surrounding his status as a player.
The Packers moved on last year. Packer fans need to move on, too.
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The saga involving Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi seemingly ended well when she was released from a Tehran prison, Monday.
Saberi was arrested one evening when she went out to buy a bottle of wine. By the time the authorities were done with her, she had been charged with espionage. She was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison after a 15-minute closed-door trial.
Of course, when the news got out concerning what happened to her, the Iranians looked like the thugs they are and the government and judicial system had to save face. Her conviction “stood” but her sentence was suspended. What a great legal system, eh?
How many other people, who don’t have the support Saberi has, have wasted away in Iranian prisons? Yes, we have our own problems, but we also have to be thankful for our rights and freedoms.
E-mail Matt Johnson at matt.johnson @lee.net.
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