h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is he a bit of a washing up magnet?

Tends to be. He also has a habit of dirtying 27 cups and plates simultaneously.

That is one serious caffiene habit.

Have I ever mentioned our pet fungus we had growing in our kitchen last year?

Not yet, what was he like?

Sort of flat and furry - he was growing under a worktop in the corner by the sink. I think he was a dry rot fungus. Mind you, he only made for a good conversationalist after several drinks

(that's me taking the drinks, mind, not the fungus)

Ours was sort of cream and fuzzy, but he had a black centre. we never officially named him, he just got refered to as the blob. I killed him with the bleach, but he did live to be about 3 months old (thats about 2 and a half inches across).

I once had ahalf drunk can of Coke which lived on my shelf for nearly a year, by which point it was escaping from the can. I was most upset when my ex threw it away in disgust. I was hoping to do what Lister did on "Red Dwarf" and grow it 3 feet high, alas he never made it over a foot. I've tried to grow another but it's just not the same you know ...

Our's lasted about 2 months, I think, before the landlady removed it. She's fitted a new kitchen there now (she told us she'd do that just as we left...), and hopefully will have to rip the whole thing out again as dry rot permeates brick... We did not like our landlady. I considered naming the fungus after her (in which case it'd be Sylvia), but it ended up being called Alec after the guy I had to share a room with in halls.

We once had a fungus grow in the waste ethidium bromide container at uni, the stuff must have been almost indestructable to live in there. Ethidium bromide is a highly active mutagen.

You may have created a new species...what did you call it???

*this* is getting desparate! I wouldn't have mentioned Alec / Sylvia if I'd known I'd get such an outpouring of fungus-related affection and emotion!

That perticular one I didn't get to know very well. It went to the incinerator only a week after I joined the lab, But I can still dream about the times we could have had.

I am moved by such heart-felt tales!
You have convinced me - I will never wash up again.

Wuth any luck the one I left in halls is still growing. But I doubt there is a 11 year old mould in house 12 at Cavehill at Kingston, the best thing was it wasn't even my room, but a friends who had a loose floorboard.

It is kind of funny to see a topic that says "What is Love?" and a conversation about fungus. Not that I have anything against fungus mind....I know alot of fun guys. (I know, I'm sorry, I can't help it. I was dubbed queen of bad jokes, and one must live up to one's rep, you know).

Yes, very poor...LOL

May I just add to this fungal conversation that the best fungus I ever saw was to be found at the bottom of a bottle of Egyptian Beer... called Stella (no... not the weak lager stuff) Each bottle had it's own personal garden of interesting growth, including stems and buds The beer was good though
shazzPRME

Fungi can be partially resistant to alcohol, lets face it one fungus makes booze.

Very true... but I doubt that the Egyptian Stella would get past the ridiculous health and safety laws of this country LOL. It is probably only a matter of time before they try to ban beer altogether on the grounds that it is *fungal* LOL
shazzPRME