Did you hear about the cat who ate an entire ball of yarn? 

She had a litter of mittens.

Good Evening. I'm David Wallis, and I'm here representing the New Mexico
Mycological Society. NMMS has worked together with the New Mexico Museum of
Natural History to host this event.

Before I introduce our guest, I want to thank those who have worked to
bring this show to fruition. I apologize for not remebering who went out of
their way to do what, so I will just thank the Natural History
Museum. The Museum has been provided us with meeting space for years, and
they have graciously opened up the Planetarion for this meeting.

I also want to thank all of you for coming here tonight. Some of our
members have come from Santa Fe. Any folks from Los Alamos? Some have spent
even more time on the road to be here. So thank you again for being here.

One person who deserves particular praise is our Vice-President Chris
Enright. Chris has been dedicated to getting us to this point, including
convincing the Museum folks that we should use the Planetarium for this
show.

INTRO


Our special guest tonight is an artist, a musician, and a great houseguest.
How many guests have you known who bring their own placemats?

I would also call him a magician. Not the kind of magician who makes things 
disappear, but one who brings to light wonderous things previously unseen.

I suspect that for many of us, our first exposure to Taylor's art was his
"Treasures from the Kingdom of Fungi," a slide show of beautiful mushrooms
orchestrated with Classical and Baroque music. he's had that presentation
available on DVD for quite a while now, but I remember the days when he
would set up a tape player and twin projectors, manually switching between
them, intuitively timed with the music.


Veterans Day

I know we're all eager to get this show rolling, but I'm going to 
say one more thing before we begin. As we all know, today is Veterans Day, 
a brief time we sat aside to remember and honor those who have served our 
country.

I'm going to impose on the veterans here tonight, and ask you to stand. 

These are a few of the many (women and) men who have honored their country
in military service.

[Recognize Rich Coffel, Mark Kalin, and Bill Lahvic]

I'll recognize a couple of Viet Nam vets among our club leadership, Rick
Coffel, over a quarter century with the Air Force, and Mark Kalin, who will
always be a Marine. Mark reminded me that yesterday was the Marine Corps'
birthday. The Corps is coming quickly upon its 240th anniversary."
(November 10, 1775)

Is Bill Lahvic here tonight ?
  -or- 
I see Bill Lahvic is here tonight as well. 
  -or-
I was hoping we'd see Bill Lahvic here tonight.

Bill is another member on NMMS and is one of our few remaining World War II
veterans. Bill served in the Army, I believe with the 96th Infantry.


[After applause ceases] Please remain standing if you will.

Taylor, I apologize