Coffee? Tea? Huitlacoche? It’s an Aztec name for the foul-looking black fungus that can appear on sweet corn–but according to U. of I. plant pathologist Jerald Pataky, who’s working with Mexican colleagues for improved growth of the nutritionally packed fungus, it’s high in carbohydrates and fiber, low in fat, higher in protein than the corn it feeds on, and can be used in soups, salads, crepes, puddings, and even ice cream. Says Pataky in a recent university news release, “The Mexican researchers and their sponsoring canning companies want to reliably produce the mushroom, which we consider a disease but they consider edible.”
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“A lot of companies [in ‘white corporate America’] had a hard time understanding that I could think strategically,” says Robert J. Dale, who owns one of the city’s largest African-American advertising agencies, in N’Digo (June 29-July 12). “See, they know Black folks are creative, but when it comes to thinking strategically and quantitatively, they just have a problem grasping that. They just couldn’t look at me and think I could be as smart as they could about the market place.”
Besides the obviously endangered Mel Reynolds and Mike Flanagan, Chicago U.S. representative Luis Gutierrez is “very endangered” in 1996, according to Russ Stewart in lIlinois Politics (June). “By feuding with his fellow Puerto Rican pols and not developing support in Mexican-American precincts, Gutierrez will be hard-pressed by just-elected Alderman Ray Frias, a conservative ex-cop who will have solid Mexican-American backing and support from some white Democratic stalwarts.” On the other hand, Republican Jerry Weller seems to hold a safe seat in a district that stretches from the southeast side to downstate LaSalle, and “is now so overwhelmingly Republican that he would be secure if he were a monarchist.”
