What's in a name? / Fungus in America

When I was putting this site together in blogger, one of the first entries to complete is the name of the blog. I've always felt I was never very good at coming up with new names, like picking a screen name or naming a pet. God forbid if I have a child... she'll be (half?) caucasian and have a wacky Indian name, like Tejas. So when I was thinking of a name for this site, I had an idea in mind from a movie I saw a few weeks prior. In Curse of the Golden Flower (Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia), the Empress is slowly going insane due to poison secretly placed in her daily medicine. This poison is a special type of black fungus and is mixed in her medicine under orders from the Emperor. She soon figures out what is going on, but continues to play along, not wanting the Emperor to realize she knows. After all, what can you do if the top guy wants you dead?

Another thing I was thinking about was health vs sickness and how we typically take health for granted until something goes wrong. I was flipping through my official company issued 2007 calendar, which is crammed, err bloated, with health tips and bright pictures with a new fruit or vegetable each month, and came across a section on mental health. [must keep it together for remainder of post] These tips combined with the situation from the movie is where the site's name originates from. You can draw your own conclusions about meaning.

I'm also confused why the term fungus in American culture is rarely associated with food. The word seems to have a slightly negative connotation. For example, an average American might say, "Take my big toe out of your mouth! Don't you know I have foot fungus." Where a Chinese person is more likely to say, "Father, can you please pass the fungus? It was delicious!" We seem to tolerate mushrooms without a problem. These are just types of fungus. Here's a valid comparison: salmon is to fish as mushroom is to fungus. You can interchangeably say I'm having salmon for dinner or I'm having fish for dinner. The former is just more specific. So the next time you're asked about eating mushrooms, I urge you to start off vague! Let them drill down on specifics as necessary.