One of the best parts of my "job" as a nature documentarian is that I have access to the newest and most improved field guides to all aspects of the natural world... and I get to interview the authors of the books and learn all sorts of exciting things about the genesis of the guide and its author. Then, I can take that knowledge... and the book... into the outdoors and put those insights into practice. Here's one plus: I have been spotting these particular mushrooms, which delight in popping out of dead oak logs and other kinds of hardwood, for years, but, either because I'm lazy or not favored with the right mycological smarts, I haven't been able to identify them. Enter Tim Baroni, whose field guide to the mushrooms I mentioned a couple of days ago. The good professor was a great help. When I sent him this spooky picture, of a fungus "bouquet" I saw tonight, he quickly sent me in the direction of the genus Psathyrella, which, in the guide, he noted was hard to ID past genus. That, however, was OK by me: genus is more than enough... until I get a good compound microscope and start measuring spores.