Adriana O’Toole shared the following story with us in Met Diary yesterday.

Dear Diary:

In 1959, I signed up for a mushroom identification course at the New School taught by the composer John Cage.

In those days, I often accompanied my uncles when they gathered mushrooms in the woods near Greenwood Lake in New Jersey. I thought it would be a good idea to really know something about what we were picking.

The class met on Sundays, in a park off the Palisades Parkway. About 15 of us walked around with baskets and picked mushrooms.

It was all very casual. We just walked in the park, saw different mushrooms and learned about them, including which ones were harmful. I still remember that the amanita is poisonous.

Cage was instrumental in starting the New York Mycological Society, and he also got me started on collecting mushroom-related things: prints, ceramics and so on.

Nowadays, I get my mushrooms at the local Acme or ShopRite, saute them in butter, or pickle them with vinegar, and dress them with garlic and olive oil.

. . . . . .

Here’s a mother amanita mushroom caring for her child. Stay away from them!

Except for these. These “stuffed mushrooms” we love.

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At 14A today, the clue was “Irksome, like a fly,” and the answer was PESKY. If it were up to me, I would have clued it: “Johnny _______, aka Mr. Red Sox.” Pesky had a ten-year playing career, mostly for Boston, and then coached and managed, and worked as a broadcaster. He missed three seasons to serve heroically in WWII. He played on the left side of the infield. Over 1270 games, his lifetime batting average was .307 (just three points below Jeter’s). The right field foul pole at Fenway is the “Pesky” pole named after him by pitcher/broadcaster Mel Parnell. Pesky was a contact hitter with little power. He hit only 17 home runs in his career, and the ones at Fenway likely landed close to that pole. Pesky trivia: He was the first AL player ever to score 6 runs in a nine-inning game.

When the Sox were awarded their championship rings for the 2004 “curse-breaking” WS win, one was given to Pesky too, and he was granted the honor of raising the Championship flag. He represented all the Boston players who toiled so valiantly during the long drought. A ring and the same honor was awarded to him after the 2007 WS victory too. On his 87th birthday, his number 6 was retired by the Sox and the right-field foul pole was officially dubbed the Pesky Pole. He was born in Portland, OR, but died in Danvers, MA, at the age of 93 in 2012.

If I’m not mistaken, the Yankee Phil Rizzuto had a set to with Pesky at one point that left some bad feelings. I was listening to Rizzuto announce a game one night and his partner said: “You hate Pesky, am I right?” And Phil said — Nooo! I don’t hate anyone.” Then there was the longest pause, after which he said: “I just can’t stand him.”

I suppose there’s a distinction.

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We’re closing shop early tonight. Linda and I had a great day celebrating our 40th anniversary. Yow! We crossed this bridge when we came to it. It brought us across the state line between PA and NJ. Our excellent lunch at the Black Bass Inn awaited us on the PA side.

We ran into this flag on our walk in Lambertville.

(The Jewish version says ABIDE JUST A TEENSY BIT OF HATRED.)

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See you tomorrow!