Shiro the hero

by roving reporter Sh0n Grub 

Hyphae perform a variety of functions in fungi. They contain the cytoplasm or cell sap, including the nuclei containing genetic material. Hyphae absorb nutrients from the environment and transport them to other parts of the thallus (fungus body).

Haustoria: In botany, this may refer to a cotyledon, or to the root of a parasitic plant (such as the broomrape family or mistletoe) that penetrates the host's tissue and draws nutrients from it. In mycology, it refers to the appendage or portion of a parasitic fungus (the hyphal tip), which performs a similar function.   In the singular it is Haustorium: a structure that grows into or around another structure to absorb water or nutrients.

In plant life it's referred to as the Cotyledon: A cotyledon (/ˌkɒtɪˈliːdən/; "seed leaf" from Latin cotyledon,[1] from Greek: κοτυληδών kotylēdōn, gen.: κοτυληδόνος kotylēdonos, from κοτύλη kotýlē "cup, bowl") is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "The primary leaf in the embryo of the higher plants (Phanerogams); the seed-leaf. 

Phanerogams (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogams (taxon Phaenogamae), comprise those plants that produce seeds.  They are more commonly known as Spermatophyte. 

They are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants--the most familiar group of green plants that form vegetation on earth.

Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus or fungus-like bacterial colony, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates.

A sclerotium is a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium containing food reserves.  The plural is sclerotia. It is the armor to help preserve the food in environmental extremes. 

Mycelium is vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for their role in the decomposition of plant material.  Bioremediation and mycofiltration are two examples of utilizing fungus to detoxify the environment. 

Rusted gates and Polished skies

by  Sh0n Grub 

 I feel as if a fever dream has woken me up inside. 

I know that things aren’t what they seem so why 

does it hurt my pride when people ask me what I 

think about how things are today I don’t know 

how to respond or even know what to say.

All the thoughts I used to have are going down 

the drain. It seems like there has been someone 

who’s hacked into my brain. I don’t know what’s

 real anymore because I’ve been online for so damn 

long the truth’s now hard to find.

What used to seem to be so right now I’m told 

is wrong by people that won’t agree with me or 

sing my own song. I have no choice, but to be left

 alone with my own private thoughts

I try to stay perpendicular to the truth that every

one else has bought.  I close my eyes and think of 

times that have long past us by. Their vivid impressions 

coalesce before me in the sky.  One consolation that I get 

when I open my bedroom window are the songbirds singing 

to themselves, I try to let their message flow through my mind 

as I unwind and think of days gone past.  I hang onto these 

memories, hoping they will last.  I don’t know how much time 

I have left in this old life. All I know is I love my boy and my 

one and only wife. For them I would do anything no matter 

what the cost. In their hearts I hope to find myself getting lost. 

Far ago and Lost now Left behind Like roadkill

by Sh0n Grub

 I’ve never felt so lonely in a world this overcrowded it seems that my one and only hope won’t be heard even if I shouted it from the rooftops for the world to hear, but the wind just carries it away. My opinions do not matter in the world of today. 

 This leads me to feel a sorrow that I cannot quite explain and wonder if I’m suffering from damage to my brain visions I once held that were so pure and true are beginning to be dispelled by everyone, including you. 

 I now feel so lost and alone I can’t begin to express it in the darkness of my mind where a light  once was shown to lead the way forward, there’s only a dimming beam nowadays, preventing me from moving toward the goals that I once wanted to achieve. 

 I no longer see the reason and I’m finding it much harder to believe there’s anything worthwhile but treason.  The price of eggs and gasoline are subjects of discussion and I could care less about their dream of becoming Russian.  

 Friends that used to love me now seem to view me with suspicion, if not mockery and hatred pouring with derision. I suppose one idle glance sent their way colored by the wrong lighting sent them scurrying away from the wrongs I thought we were all righting.  Now I’m just left gutted on the side of a dirt road to be crushed beneath the passing tires and flattened like a toad. 

  

 

re:uptake up:date

 by  your weird roving reporter Sh0n Grub

   This is a reuptake update from your friendly lost reporter shon grub here on a quick recap for the subscribers of dumzine.  It all weaves through our predecessor MINDBENDER MAGAZINE which ran its course of nearly three decades with the contributions of the grub bros. shaun and greg (RIP) grub and shaun's actual blood brother tim grub aka sleepy timmy  (back in the day when we ran Station 3 in Dark City -- the evil analog to boston).  

 

    The Grub Bros apartment in Boston down at the bottom of Beacon Hill served as a nexus for the adventures we had surviving the constant persecution of black helicopters that had been tracking us halfway across the nation, from W. Memphis, when Greg was chasing his art degree at their university.  I recall those days because when I reached his small air-conditioned apartment, I have a vivid memory of him squatting on the floor, knees akimbo, wearing his hand painted old-school black batman logo tank-top, with his wicked blonde spiked mullet hawk and deranged yet beguiling grin (that resembled the joker, somewhat) which made for the sort of extreme contrasts he became known for (Batman/Joker hybrid, in this case) over the course of our brilliant and tumultuous lives.  

    In Honduras, Greg and I put out The Commie Pinko, a Xeroxed pamphlet we typed up on my father's IBM Selectric, which was in the main office of his factory at POLCO, in El Hatillo, Honduras.  My dear ol' dad let us drive his Toyota diesel pickup truck from our house (nestled among the pines by a cliff overlooking the glittering city of Tegucigalpa) over to the factory which was maybe two miles down the winding dirt road.  We were also putting out MINDBENDER MAGAZINE of course, and I had already put out The Black Rose magazine at Joe T. Robinson high school back in Little Rock, which I don't think ever saw its second issue. Dumzine is here to rectify all that went wrong and which unraveled over those mad, bitter times of joyous rollicking along the momentous wavecrest of our developing youth. 

   The Grub Bros carved out our own reality, The Dream we wore proud as  a visor that shielded the Sun from blinding us. We were ready to step through any portal into whatever fantastical new world might await us on the other side.  We figured out we could create our own reality and so we did for many years, but I digress.   Dumzine wants to reassure you, that there are so many things going on currently  with its imprint (Plasma Press) that for now, as Executor of the Plasma Press estate, I can only describe our current situation as roughly the equivalent of grinding gears in 4-wheel drive to navigate out of a minor ditch off road.  (to be cont.) 

    

   

Tremor Double Vision

  by Sh0n Grub, roving reporter for the Oscillating Oculus 

We're in those times now.   Seismographs are picking up on a lot of activity across the board. We're in a shifting phase of turbulence while we change gears. We may have to bail out of the car. Whatever metaphor floats your boat. Like peter gabriel said, here comes the flood.  

    It's been seven years since greg grub hitched a ride to the other side. 

  In my head I can see how plasma press could all fall into place publishing X1 Triverse serials as well as the exploits of Professor Ferocity and the Phenomenal Five, and then filling in the blanks with android characters from the AI TITANS rogue gallery.  

    Dumzine's feeling the aftershocks, now.  That was a Grub life-extinction level event.  Still thinking of you my Grub brother.   Warrior in arms.  Still trying to hash up some plans amid the ruins.   Getting there slowly but surely