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March 17, 2006
A Strange Tale of Octopi, Mice, and Missing Skeletons
(Disclaimer: according to the dictionary, "octopuses" is the preferred plural for the topic we are about to discuss. I'm sad and rebellious, and I shall persist in using "octopi" as it sounds far cooler for our purposes here.)
A few nights ago, over dinner with some friends, we discussed the wonders of octopi. Perhaps "discussed" is too generous a term. It really was more like a factoid round, with each of us offering what trivia knowledge we possessed on the creature, thus creating a veritable wiki of a conversation. Octopi have "arms," not "tentacles." Octopi can change color. They are edible, even when fresh. They can even kill a shark. But for Tricia, our resident octopus devotee, the octopus's most fantastic quality is its ability to squeeze through spaces no bigger than its eye. That's what you get when you have practically no internal skeleton.
All of this reminded me of another strange but far less enlightening conversation I had a few years ago while I was working as a graphic design intern for the Department of Defense. Our office, although sealed off hermetically from the sun, was apparently still pentrable by rodents. One of my bosses was a "chief" in the Navy, and her office, in particular, was being hit hard by the invasion. "I don't think it's mice," one of other ladies in the office remarked one morning. I thought I saw one run by the other night and it was too big to be a mouse."
"Oh no," Chief replied firmly. "It's mice. I had my office door locked last night and there was still stuff that had been chewed through this morning."
Seeing that no one had quite made the same logical leap, Chief continued, "Mice don't have bones. That's the difference between mice and rats. Rats have bones, mice don't. That's why they can squeeze under doors and through cracks."
Mmm.
That's one of those firmly-held factoids you should just keep to yourself.
Carefully Dramatized Life Accounts | By elissa | 01:46 PM
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Comments
that conversation was OUT OF CONTROL... i loved every minute of it. i will hold the title of "resident octopus devotee" with pride.
Posted by: tricia at March 17, 2006 03:12 PM
