Saturday, June 3

Mushroom Treatment


The Guardian, the very British left of centre national newspaper, being keen to remind readers of its green credentials gave away wallcharts to its readers two weeks ago. The charts illustrated the wonders of the birds and the bees.

The giveaways, not incidentally printed on recycled paper, identified all the sharks, garden birds, butterflies, fungi and sea fish that readers might run into on the way back from their independent (non corporate) newsagent.

The result was less than accurate. The paper got the name of one shark and the size of an other completely wrong; it identified several moths as butterflies; suggested readers look out for a number of extinct birds in British gardens and recommend eating the giant funnel-cap mushroom which is toxic to many people.

In what will go down in annals of journalistic history The Guardian, hit upon an intriguing way to apologise. Readers were offered the opportunity to try their luck by entering a draw for ''a packet of free wild mushrooms''.
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One could be excused for thinking that The Guardian readers would have been better off left in the dark !

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