My playa name, acquired as Rangers tend to acquire them: at someone else’s initiative.
The Black Rock Rangers had a venerable OG named Badger. The early-internet meme “Badger Badger Badger (Mushroom Mushroom)” was circulating at the time of my acceptance into the Rangers. The name was imposed partly to harass Badger — standard playa-name tradition: forced upon you, not chosen by you. As Shakespeare put it (Twelfth Night, more or less): some are born with them, some achieve them, some have them thrust upon them.
But it also stuck for a different reason. Earlier on that same shift I’d been talking about mushrooms — how they can be edible, deadly, or trippy. The taxonomy of risk and reward. The rangers seemed to think that fit.
My initial mental image was mushroom clouds. Over time the mycological register deepened. Edible, deadly, or trippy is actually a pretty good framework for the Ranger role: you encounter people in all three states and your job is to tell the difference without judgment and hold space for whatever’s happening.
By 2026, I introduce myself as Ranger Mushroom at burner events without irony. It fits well enough that I’ve stopped noticing it’s a name I was given rather than one I chose.