humongtopus!

Last November I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my friend, Richey. The volunteers informed us (rather blithely, I thought) that the cuttlefish had been REMOVED because they were not ENDEMIC to the Western United States. I shoved my fist in my mouth to stifle the screams and then rended my garments a little bit. After that the volunteer told us where the giant red octopus (Octopus rubescens) was located.

He (or she) appeared to be sleeping in the corner of his tank, but then we were very lucky because he woke up and started moving around his tank.

There was this Indian family that came up to the tank and the dad said to the kids: "Look kids, a real octopus!" and one of the kids ran up to the tank and kept saying over and over: "It's a humongtopus! It's a humongtopus!"

Here is a movie of the event. Not the greatest, might make you sea sick, but it has some hot tentacle action. (The beginning is AWFUL, but then it gets slightly better.)



As an aside, after going to Monterey, I read "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck and it was really good. I now have a crush on cephalopods and the Doc.