March 28, 2005

• I saw a news article on that yesterday, but hadn't seen the video, which was the best thing ever. Octopi are fascinating. Thanks! And, nice to have you active again.
• I love that video! He looks like a little Balinese dancer. This page has another video of an octopus doing the bipedal thing, this time with 6 of his arms wrapped around his body so that he looks like a coconut out for a stroll. This page has a couple movies of octopi mimicing sea snakes and flat fish.
• I understand that octopuses are really high up there on the animal intelligence ladder. And you have to want to root for the smart animals.
• Got to give my props to my fellow cephalopods. You got to wonder, is this learned behavior? How did it develop?
• Squidranch, this is a pretty interesting article on octopus intelligence, once you get past all the explanation points.
• I'd like to be under the sea In an octopus's garden in the shade He'd let us in, knows where we've been In his octopus's garden in the shade
• I glide with my shadow under the sea -- who needs eight feet? Or four? Or three? Very damn few are as clever as me!
• Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen, Doing the Werewolves of London. I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the Queen, Doing the Werewolves of London. I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's, And his hair was perfect. Ahhwooooo... Werewolves of London
• Hey, my octipussycats are very upset that you've brought in a werewolf, even if he can't swinm. Get your own thread, with lots of links and I'll join you. :)
• You might guess dancing in the sea is slow, but by this time next week I'll be ready to tango. If I'm crossing the floor and my feet get sore I just pick up those feet and put down two more.
• I live under the foam and take many guises I might be a mollusk But I'm full of suprises!
• TPCQ: "Homer, that's your answer for everything -- to move 'Under the Sea'. It's not going to happen!"
• Once I rose above the noise and confusion Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man Though my mind could think I still was a madman I hear the voices when I'm dreamin' I can hear them say Carry on my wayward son For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Now don't you cry no more
• Octopus! Octopus! Leaps o'er the sand. Octopus! Octopus! Made out of flan. Octopus! Octopus! Let's give him a hand. Octopus! Octopus! Delicious with naan! Octopus! Bitch! Stay away from my man.
• Delicious with naan! I'm hungry now.
• o I think I'd never think it odd to be embraced by an octopod I'm sure I'd find it most disarming to get four hugs at once and not alarming
• The octopussies at our Vancouver aquarium used to sneak out at night and gobble up fishies in near-by tanks and then slip back home, innocent as lambses. Video caught the octo-star. Sneaky little inksters. True.
• AWWWW! Squidranch was the cutest baby ever! where did you get these home movies?
• I slide up the tank and it's out and over to snatch a tasty fish for my dinner. I can pour myself out like a glassful of sea -- and remarkably few are as cunning as me!
• The Squirl and his Squirrel, the Rabs and their Rabbits Have certain obscure and peculiar habits. Male hummingbirds make the most exquisite rockets. The octopus when we walks holds his hands in his pockets... /after Nabokov
• Octopus shrubbery galloping past, shoplifting fishies, gobbling them fast no use for gloves - got no digits at all, but with all those suckers his socks never fall
• And I need you now tonight And I need you more than ever And if you’ll only hold me tight We’ll be holding on forever And we’ll only be making it right Cause we’ll never be wrong together We can take it to the end of the line Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks I really need you tonight Forever’s gonna start tonight Forever’s gonna start tonight
• No octopus will make a fuss -- we knows tanks aren't made to hold the likes of us! Just think what geniuses we might grow to be if we lived more than two years at the bottom of the sea!
• ))) Bees!
• Forgive me if I've missed something here, but we are doing octopus-related versifying, right? Ah, yes, I thought as much - there *is* a pattern.
• I can't believe this hasn't been posted: The Octopus Tell me, O Octopus, I begs Is those things arms, or is they legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus; If I were thou, I'd call me Us. Ogden Nash
• And this one's too much: Octopus By Algernon Charles Sin-Burn Strange beauty, eight-limbed and eight-handed, Whence camest to dazzle our eyes? With thy bosom bespangled and banded With the hues of the seas and the skies; Is thy home European or Asian, O mystical monster marine? Part molluscous and partly crustacean, Betwixt and between. Wast thou born to the sound of sea trumpets? Hast thou eaten and drunk to excess Of the sponges -- thy muffins and crumpets, Of the seaweed -- thy mustard and cress? Wast thou nurtured in caverns of coral, Remote from reproof or restraint? Art thou innocent, art thou immoral, Sinburnian or Saint? Lithe limbs, curling free, as a creeper That creeps in a desolate place, To enroll and envelop the sleeper In a silent and stealthy embrace, Cruel beak craning forward to bite us, Our juices to drain and to drink, Or to whelm us in waves of Cocytus, Indelible ink! O breast, that 'twere rapture to writhe on! O arms 'twere delicious to feel Clinging close with the crush of the Python, When she maketh her murderous meal! In thy eight-fold embraces enfolden, Let our empty existence escape, Give us death that is glorious and golden, Crushed all out of shape! Ah! thy red lips, lascivious and luscious, With death in their amorous kiss, Cling round us, and clasp us, and crush us, With bitings of agonised bliss; We are sick with the poison of pleasure, Dispense us the potion of pain; Ope thy mouth to its uttermost measure And bite us again! Arthur Clement Hilton
• "Gimmie 8" Octopus! Yo, get 'em up in the air Shake them tenties like you just don't care Now you a homie, not on my plate You slidin', you hidin' jump in we ridin' Tha fishes is runnin', they know we comin' Makin' they move, but it too late You know they hate yo tentacle eight
• I was guilty of unmonkeylike rudeness upthread, for which I apologise. I shall atone by undergoing a reverse alcohol enema.
• a reverse alcohol enema Hmmm...that sounds suspiciously squid-like, propulsion-wise...
• Heh- just applying it from the wrong end, my dear. No ink involved.
• Moneyjane, do not mention anymore of my secrets.
• she waves them on in her power palace when her beak opens she conjures currents in the airs and oceans when she whispers to the urchins and the kelp she conjures geese and broken floes when she waves her eight great arms she conjures seals and bears who walk like gods and with an octopuses' grin she welcomes careless men who tumble in
• The Seven-legged Octopus John Lindsey Always made fun of by your octopus peers They laugh and they stare and put rocks in your ears For there was a problem with your mother’s eggs And so you were born with one too few legs Oh Spinner, the seven-legged spectacle! It’s hard to swim straight, missing a tentacle... A prosthetic made from seaweed your problem may help But when fishes bite at it, you know you will yelp! So you are left with only one course Join the Sea Circus with the three-headed sea horse!
• I think that I shall never spy Them crafty, gangly octopi. Eight arms, they got 'em With the six up it's hard to spot 'em 'til they sidle up and squirt in yer eye.
• eight legs? eight arms? We'll never know. What goes on in the depths below. they hug, they dance. Semaphore perhap? Appendage lost-- A sad mishap.
• twinkle twinkle octopus now I wonder, what's the fuss? running 'cross the ocean floor like you never did before twinkle twinkle octopus now I know you're just like us!
• o octopus you strange assemblage I love your every least appendage! I adore your high-domed forehead your dark and luminous eye the way you hug yourself with six arms and on two go prancing by!
• You don't have a beady eye you don't have any fingers or toes but you can walk and glide around because you're slyer than folk suppose you like to see what's going on and understand the outs and ins of leaving tanks, and making legs that function like a pair of shins or octopus you are so clever that we'll admire ye for ever
• Octopus walk inspires scientists.
• Under the sea, octopus attacks sub.
• "Old octopuses become what we call senescent, or senile, reaching the end of their life. And sometimes their actions are very inappropriate." As the oldest member here, so far as I know, I can assure you that the octopus isn't the only animal who decides that "inappropriate" is a good thing at a certain stage in life. Don't be fooled, though, in many cases it's a feature rather than a bug. I'm saving up definitions of "inappropriate" so that I can share my research with you some years from now. And, you'll all be, "Well, path is really old, and we've known her for years, so we shouldn't blast her for that. She's basically a sweet person, but must be senile, so we should give her some room." Heh!
• Hey, everybody! Let's all do the Octopus Walk!* *The new dance craze that's sweeping the nation Hmmm, from Octopus attacks sub: "Old octopuses become what we call senescent, or senile, reaching the end of their life. And sometimes their actions are very inappropriate." Octopus....Sex? Matsuo Basho An octopus lies In a pot idly musing, Summer moon above. Or, there's always Nash:
• where'd that Nash get to??? Ah, here: THE OCTOPUS Tell me, O Octopus, I begs Is those things arms, or is they legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus; If I were thou, I'd call me Us.
• Octopuses have trick elbows
• No wonder that fella Nash didn't want to show up--he's been here already. Re-reading this, there's some pretty good Monkey Verse! Octy's must inspire ya'll. Web comment: Octopus in modern Greek is "Ochtapothi"... Verification, anyone? On SESAME STREET Oscar the Grouch recited his poem "The Octopus": "So you think the octopus is ugly! Well, here's something for you. It just so happens that the octopus May think you're ugly too!" HA!