Monday, December 04, 2006

Omigawd just what I needed after a long day...

Check this bad boy out.

Note: you will need a good pipe to the Internetweb.

Note: This is why I have always loved and will always love octopi. Even when I'm eating their babies with endive and artichokes and pink wine in Montreal.

Edited to add: Did you know that there's such a thing as an octopus's garden?

No, really.

My friend Lou, a master diver, told me about it. In addition to being nominally famous and good at not getting himself killed under water, he tells really good stories.

Anyway, he was out diving off the coast of Oregon or Northern California once, somewhere where there are lots of octopudlians.

He noticed that one octopus had scooted into his cave (octopi like little caves to live in) and that he had put an arrangement of rocks and shells and bits of detritus in a semicircle around the entrance to his cave. That's the "octopus's garden" that Ringo wrote about. They have eyes like ours, and brains that recognize patterns, so it makes sense.

Lou moved a few things out of place in the octopus's arrangement, then moved back and tried to look as much like a lump of seaweed as he could.

After five minutes or so, a looong arm came snaking out from the cave and the octopus put everything back where it was before.

Although they'd never make it on Cute Overload, I still rank the octopus as my favorite animal. The pangolin comes in a close second.

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