Comments | level_head: Paul the Octopus

level_head

Paul the Octopus

Jul 17, 2010 22:16

You know that I am an aficionado of cephalopods, and octopuses in particular. Suddenly one of these fascinating creatures became the subject of dinner-table gossip, and famous enough to get his own entry in Wikipedia, for picking World Cup winners successfully. And he's received death threats from losing countries, with the additional wrinkle of ( Read more... )

age of octans, octopuses, cephalopods

Comments 11

deckardcanine July 18 2010, 17:24:35 UTC

I doubt if any other octopus ever got this much attention. I rather like it, aside from the sore losers. Paul's pretty cute.

Incidentally, I'm leaving for Spain today so I can attend the wedding of a (human) friend named Paul.

level_head July 18 2010, 18:33:22 UTC

Oho! Travel well!

On a different note, someone was apparently just busted in England for possession of cephalopod pornography: a picture of a man having sex with an octopus. (Early reports indicated that it was a squid.)

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firebyrd July 18 2010, 19:14:33 UTC

I know, rule 34 and everything, but still...gah. I can't imagine why anyone would want to put their tender dangly bits anywhere near a chitonous, venomous beak!

level_head July 18 2010, 19:21:48 UTC

It is my understanding that the animal was deceased. Perhaps the old expression "donning the mantle of manhood" has some connection here.

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Thread 7

testing4l July 19 2010, 07:01:44 UTC

For all the entertainment that clip has given me, I should really see The Downfall at some point. Incidentally, the EFF put out a funny one interpreting Hitler's monologue as a complaint about YouTube's removal of parodies (due to copyright law) and the publicity that the film has garnered as a result of those parodies.

To my way of thinking, 80% accuracy for the Euro results is pretty good. Maybe we should start using octopi as stock consultants...

level_head July 19 2010, 07:24:55 UTC

I've never seen the film either.

To my way of thinking, 80% accuracy for the Euro results is pretty good. Maybe we should start using [octopuses] as stock consultants...

For Paul, it might be 100%--if a different octacle predicted the earlier results as one of the employees suggests.

I can see where the original expression might have come from: "Forewarned is eight-armed."

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testing4l July 19 2010, 08:05:47 UTC

I suppose it is octopuses, not octopi. One of these days, I should sit down and learn Latin so that I will:
1) never make these mistakes again, and
2) be able to explain exactly why it is a mistake.

(Speaking of which, how does the definition of octacle compare to the definition of octopus? Is one correct and the other a mistake? My copy of the OED is temporally displaced and temporarily irretrievable. I'm somewhat surprised that the difference wasn't made abundantly clear from having read your initial treatment (and comments) on the first installment of the Age of the Octans series.)

(And on that note, why isn't the OED online? If the OED made use of an asylum patient, then just imagine what they could do with 4chan ( ... )

level_head July 19 2010, 09:35:03 UTC

"Octacle" was a term that I coined just then for an octopus-oracle. Nothing more than that.

The protagonists in Age of Octans call themselves octans, and they distinguish themselves from the relatively unevolved octopuses that still exist (just as lesser primates still exist for us). They like octopuses; they consider the flavor excellent, though the animals are a bit pricey. There's a trick to eating a live octopus that reduces your exposure to the ink, which tends to numb one's sensitive suckers. (Part of the function of octopus ink is to kill a predator's sense of smell--and this sense is keenly developed on the octopus as well as the octan, each of which have thousands of "noses ( ... )