X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

07/06/2007: Summer Megaparty: OCTOSQUID!

If the world can be divided into any two distinct camps, it’s people who think squids are cooler than octopi, and people who think octopi are cooler than squids. It’s a difficult question for me and it almost hurts to make an answer, but I’d give squids the overall advantage. There’s just too many stories of them killing people and growing to the size of football stadiums for any octopus to keep up.

Course, it’s easier not to choose, and Mother Nature appears to be giving us a third option: THE OCTOSQUID.

As reported here, a creature that appears to blend the traits of an octopus and a squid has been caught near Hawaii. Well, actually, it wasn’t exactly “caught” — the thing got itself caught up in a deep sea pipeline. It lived on for three days after being collected, and the now-dead specimen continues to puzzle scientists.

Its northern parts looking squid-like and its southern parts looking octopus-like, it’s a seeming combo of two of the sea’s coolest creatures. While I gave squids the advantage a few paragraphs ago, the animals share several traits that make me love both of them to death.

For one, both squids and octopi have notably high intelligence. They’re crazy smart. The story of that one octopus figuring out how to escape its lab tank at night to eat fish out of other tanks is well known, but squids can be just as clever.

For two, both eat in really awesome ways. A squid is one of the scariest creatures in the ocean. Its suction cups don’t just stick — they pierce. By the time the bloodied prey is drawn to its mouth, the victim is chewed up by what’s essentially an eagle beak. Octopi, for their part, smother the fuck out of their prey and are known to be some of the messiest eaters in the sea, leaving the shells and carapaces of dinner all over the floor of their lairs. They’re party animals.

For three, both squid and octopi are boosted by the many myths, rumors and half-truths of cryptozoology. While “giant squid” are no longer a thing of mystery, most of us are still waiting for something like the Kraken to show up. There are also stories of octopi far larger than any known octopus, destroying ships and taking names. Both animals are charmed by having no real limit to their size. Imagine if something like a bee or a wolf could grow as large as a bus — that’s the kind of legendary-maybes our tentacles friends swim within.

As for the Octosquid, it’s a new species for sure, but visual similarities don’t necessarily dictate that an octopus got it on with a squid at some point in the not too distant past. But it’d be pretty cool if that turns out to be true.

When news reports give you an excuse to draw an octopus and a squid making out, it’s a good day.

I gotta give the advantage to the octies, but only just barely. Jellyfish are neat too, but in more of a terrifying way versus a doodling hearts around their picture in your spiral notebook kind of way.

Also…the rest of the jukebox? What we have now is great, but when will more be added?

You should throw the Pete and Pete theme song by Polaris (I think) onto the jukebox. If any song makes me think of summer its that one.

I’m partial to octopie (I got tired of guessing how to spell it)… I love calamari. The thought of eating a squid always freaked me out.

But both? Now THAT’S something I’d eat without hesitation… wait, maybe that’s not such a good impulse…

You want a good look at a squid? Go to the Milwaukee Public Museum. There’s a permanent prehistoric exhibit, one of which depicts a Great Lakes underwater scene with some AMAZING looking cone-shaped squid. It’s rather frightening, actually, but I make sure to take my third grade students by it during the yearly field trip.
Anybody else have a museum exhibit that freaked them out (when they were little, or otherwise)?

A few years ago I went to this place in Chattanooga, TN and saw something that creeped me out. I think it was Rock City or Ruby Falls, but I could be wrong, I’ve been to 100 of those places there.

Anyway, wherever it was had all these little gnome/elves/??? everywhere. There was this one that was inside this rock, like a small cave, and they were in this little rowboat and I stuck my head in there and it looked creepy enough, but the thing that really made me uncomfortable was the smell.

Its an indescribable odor, I can still smell it today exactly as I did several years back.

Funny that I pull up the new blog post of the day and it just so happens to be about squid as I am watching the “Shallow Seas” episode of Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel.

BTW, remember the discussion a few weeks ago about having a “mass-viewing” of a movie and we could all comment on it on the SNT? We should do that tomorrow night. I thought it was a great idea. Maybe start it around midnight or a little later.

Ok, sorry for the triple post here, but I google image searched “gnomes at rock city” and found some.

I linked the picture in my name, and this picture isn’t the exact one I’m talking about, but it was almost exactly like it, except the gnomes were in a rowboat that was rocking from the waves of the water it was floating in.

Matt I saw this thing once, that apparently octopi, in their lengthy travels throughout the ocean, often find themselves away from others. They wind up mad-desperate for sex, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if your scene up there was that far from the truth.

Why Octosquid and not Squidpus? I think you should name it from the top down in this case. I am digging on the red color though, it is really nice.

This is leading me to wonder how exactly one would go about sexing a squid or octopus. Is it an obvious thing or does it involve probing like you have to with a croc? Which leads to the larger question of WHO dreams of one day being the Octoquid sexer specialist? Hmmm…I guess there are worse jobs out there!

Until I got here I thought it was Saturday. Good thing I don’t have a job to get fired from.

All of my squid/octopi thoughts come from Disney stuff. CLICK MY NAME and then research the once thought to be lost “Sunset Squid” scene from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that was included on the DVD.

Octosquid sounds better. Reminds me of Octorocks. “Twould Be cool if they discovered one of those.

Squids are handsdown one of my favorite animals, right up there with elephants and tapiers. I’d love to see a sea battle between an appropriatly giant squid and a really pissed elephant!

Also, Cotter? Calamari is squid, not octopuss. But don’t get freaked out. It’s just that good!

I think I put that wrong. It’s kind of like eating a steak from a cow you just saw slaughtered.

While I was in Italy, I was served a whole squid. That I can’t eat. But those little squid rings and tiny octo..pyiei, I can. Just one of those things, I guess. I also hate large mosquitoes and any spider on the planet.

Cool. It seems like we’ve been discovering alot of new species lately. Possibly to replace the ones that are endangered, perhaps?

Tentacool?
Cthulhu?
Squiddly Diddly?
Squidward?
Ursula the Sea Witch?
Suckerman?

Speaking of which, is “Rock Lobster” on the Summer juke? I’m listening to the juke box now, but winamp is a little screwy and not letting me view the playlist. I could reinstall it, but meh…

I’m totally not trying to sound pretentious, but “octopi” is not (according to strict linguists) a word. It’s a pseudo Latinization (also not a word) of a word ending in “us”. For instance, “Virus” is a Latin word, so the plural is “Virii.” Octopus, however, is Greek, so its plural form is octopuses. “Campus,” for example, is another Greek-derived word, so we say “campuses” and not “campi.” Although we all should, because I love this campi website.

“Octoid”, pronounced “Octo-wid” rather than “Oc-toyd”, that way sounds more like a kick ass 8-legged action figure.

I don’t really have a position on the octopus/squid debate BUT I do really like that Hubba Bubba commercial they’ve been airing with the crazy claymation octopus.

Put me in amongst the guys that prefer ‘Squidopus’ to ‘Octosquid’. And now that we know they exist, we can breed our unholy army of the seas to aid in our dreams of world conquest! Or are we doing that next week?

Speaking of weird jobs- I taught with a guy who collects horse semen and sells it. Yup. Big bucks, apparently. He owns quite a stud.

i cast my lot with the squids on this one. went to a museum in virginia beach that had an imax theatre in it and there was a fucking huge 3-d squid that ate you, definitley more badass

Cotter: Most collective nouns are derived from old hunting slang, so most of the weird words we have for groups of animals refer to prey. In addition, octopi…octopuses…screw it, octopusen…are relatively solitary critters, so there doesn’t appear to be a common term for a group.

Happily, jellyfish seem to have two, so I say we filch one and give it to the octopusen. What do you guys think? Should it be a fluther or a smack?

Humboldt Squid have been known to kill people, while Octopi are a peaceful race, fighting only in defense. They are truly noble creatures, and I imagine that an octopusesâ€™ head is much like Jabbaâ€™s belly in texture and squishabilty. Every octopus I see, I want to hug its bulbous head, and for that reason I prefer the octopus to any squid.

My vote goes to octopuses. I read an article a few months ago that bumped them up over squid. As I recall, it featured very pleasing cross-sections.

The octopus wins out here. My only deciding factor? Which - the squid or octopus - had a deleted scene in The Goonies?

Squid…Ocotpus…all I know is that they are equally delicious.
Hey what ever happened to the “I love whales” part of X-E? Or am I hallucinating, again.

Is anyone else getting a blank page when they hit the blog, only to find it after a refresh? Or is it just my crappy laptop?

For the life of me I cannot locate the old article where Matt taste-tested NADS. Can anyone else find this article? I mentioned it to my girl and she desperately wants to see it, but I cannot find it.

Rainbowfeet - Yeah, I found the one you did to, the one on Sea Monkeys. I didn’t understand that either coming up as the first hit on the search.

Pretty sure I figured out why it’s doing it, but I have to wait for the server dudes to confirm.

Wow, I was talking to my cube buddy this very day and she enlightened me about the deleted Goonies scene. I’d never heard of it before. Same person gave me a report on the Burbank Kwik-E-Mart; apparently even at midnight there was a line out the door to get in, and they had an employee manning the Squishee machine, so as to keep people from stealing extra cups, I guess.
Happy Friday everybody! I’m off to the carnival.

haha, I just reread the Nad’s article. Good times… I thought that stuff was pretty tasty though. They just came out with new Strawberry Nad’s…maybe it’s time for a new article?

I want a carnival

I didn’t know about the deleted scene either. I’ve only seen the movie a trillion times. It’s really quite an inspiration for both Kris Roe and Pete Wentz, as well

Serious question for Kneg, does it bother you to be the “here it is” guy? I feel guilty about that sometimes. Especially on the last thread where I just assumed, “Well, Kneg will pick up the slack and do the work for me.”

And now for the double meaning KAMINO/KNEG SEGUE/BONUS JOKE:
If it’s not in the archives, it doesn’t exist.

We uh…should be back now? Well, we’re on our way to being back. I hate bugs.

OK, here is an idea for a discussion for the next couple of hours. What is the worst movie that you have ever chosen to take a date to? Or it could also be the worst movie that a date has ever taken you to?

I don’t mind, Manimal. It doesn’t take much effort to find articles. Usually it is an issue of me remembering an article about something that someone newer to the site brings up. It comes from being around for a lot of the articles that fall before those in the text box on the main page and reading much longer than I’ve been posting.

When it comes to blog posts, well I have a sort of foggy, imperfect, text version of photographic memory. I can usually remember the exact phrasing of a comment, which helps me find what I’m looking for. If I get to it first, I get to it first. If Mystie gets there, it doesn’t hurt my ego. As long as everyone gets what they need, I’m happy.

I don’t think I’ve been to any bad movies on dates, really. But this one time I went on a movie date and before the movie this guy’s geeking out telling me that he owns every episode of Transformers on DVD and how awesome they all look on his shelf next to each other. Like 10 minutes into the movie we’re making out and he starts begging me to bite his neck. Like REALLY bite it. Then he starts going on about how he wants me to put bondage collars on him and shit. I seriously attract the strangest guys. I have so many horrible relationship stories.

I will have to vote here–I’ll have to go with Nautilus. More tentacles and a big shell, plus they’ve been around longer.

And Octosquid makes more sense fro a root-word concept; octosquid implies a squid with eight somethings as opposed to squidopus which means…nothing. Squid-foot at a really long reach.

Wouldn’t it be cool to find out that it is actually a true octopus, adapted to a squid-like pelagic lifestyle (free-swimming octopuses do exist after all)? Although more likely, a squid has had a reduction in the number of tentacles. Either way–Evolution in action!

That is so freaking awesome. I think I like the color more than anything else about it; it looks like one of those growing sponge things. Only awesomer.

I think octopi are scarier for some reason. I think it may have to do with all the cute cartoonifications of them. Then you see footage of real ones and you realize how NOT CUTE it would be if it were coming toward you. Same thing with hippos. For some reason I didn’t see cute-ified squid when I was a kid. They’re scary, but they’re supposed to be scary.

I’m also reminded of the Planet Earth footage of the giant sunflower starfish running around trying to eat the little stars. Freaky and amazing.

Sean: If you’re going to add a Nautilus to the running, I’ll raise you a cuttlefish.

I’m really curious to hear more about this. I want to know if the specimen is a youngin or an adult — more or less to support my own imagination when a situation calls for dreaming up an octosquid far larger than this one appears to be.

To BlueJay’s point, I’d consider squids by and large more menacing than octopi (octopuses, octowhatevers), just based on the nature and ferocity of their attacks. When a squid wants something, it’s kind of like a shark wanting something. That said, an octopus can be so creepy and unpredictable that, if we’re talking about one squid and one octopus of equal size and menace, I’ll gladly let the squid beak my balls off.

I said it earlier but I’ll say it again: Duplex, just last night. We both hated it.

Best one: Just 2 months ago, when we were the only 2 people in Blades of Glory, we were free to make out & yell at the screen with no one around.

Mystie - Nice! Well, not really. I’ve never been asked to REALLY bite someone before, and I don’t know if I could do it. Okay, I probably couldn’t.

Well I promised my bad date movies earlier. So guess I’ll share. Hopefully this will inspire a couple others to open up.

1. 8MM - Why I ever thought it was a good idea to take a young lady to a movie revolving around the production of snuff-films is beyond even me. I had seen it the weekend before with a group of guy friends and we all had a good time. I really enjoyed the scene where Nicholas Cage talks to the mom of the girl (SPOILERS) who was murdered to “psyche himself up” before he can do the deed and bash Tony Soprano to death with the butt of his gun. James Gandolfini had never been so despicable. The movie also had scenes of gratuitous sex and nudity… and not in an inviting, sensual sort of way. It was more of a sick, seedy, pornographic kind of way.

For whatever reason the date worked and we ended up staying together for two years. It didn’t work out in the end… but I still blame it on Nic Cage.

2. Tomcats - This is one of the worst films ever made. Obviously trying to cash in on the gross-out comedy scene that American Pie had re-invigorated a few years earlier. Basically I had regretted the 8MM decision so much that this time I decided to take the exact opposite route. I would go for the mindless comedy and not the film that could be dark and disturbing, and you know, make the girl I was with think I was a candidate for an appearance on Court TV in 2012.

Unfortunately while watching the characters chase around a severed testicle… during a scene that lasted about 37 minutes too long… I quickly realized I had made a poor decision. Jesus this was a bad movie.

Somehow it didn’t kill the just-budding relationship as the girl I took is now sleeping in the bedroom on the floor above me. This might be a creepy statement if I was currently residing in a hotel or apartment building. Thankfully I am not, which means we are still together and I am not a psycho stalking her.

OK, so 8MM and Tomcats, evidence that my dating-IQ, if there is such a thing, is nowhere near Forrest Gump level.

Since the Nautilus has been brought up, I must ask… has anyone else here played the game Seaman on the Sega Dreamcast?

In my opinion it is one of the more underappreciated software titles of the past decade.

It wasn’t a date in my mind, but I later found out that it was in the mind of the person I went with (which is a whole issue unto itself). Point being, that movie is abysmal, no matter what I said on this very blog at the time. The worst part is that it was my second time seeing it

Oh man I was just sitting here reading Cosmo and I saw the most fantastic thing that reminded me of that great conversation we had the other week on the cruise blog. Cosmo’s Aqua Kama Sutra. It’s like an ocean sex guide! And get this — the book is totally waterproof.

Yowza. I bet it’s like those plastic children’s books that you could take in the tub. That’s what I like to do while I’m bathing, read o_O

After digging in a basement closet for far too long attempting to dig out my long dormant Sega Dreamcast (to play Seaman) I just remembered that I DVR’d Gleaming the Cube. Woo-Hoo, does it get any better? Second “woo-hoo!” of the night, BTW.

Well, yes, it could be far better than that. I encountered a couple of very introverted basement closet spiders that do not appreciate company.

Screw them. Until they start chipping-in on the mortgage payment I won’t feel guilty for killing them.

I posted my comment days late in the Shell Shanty blog, so I wasn’t sure if it went unseen. But because it is equally on topic here, Matt, I will re-post the link just to be safe, and in case you were still longing for this thing:

This article makes me wish, even more, that Matt would’ve bought that octopus lamp.

Octopuses/Octopi = awesome. Squid = scary as shit. Something that is both squishy and has a beak is too weird for me. Plus that whole eating-people thing, and vision of giant Kraken-esque squid. *shudder*

Okay, so I grew up in one of those one-horse towns where the city council knackered the horse in the mid 70s and sold the glue for meth. Our movie theater had one screen, and had one movie per week, with a showing on Friday night and another on Saturday. So if you wanted to take a girl to the movies, you were probably going to end up taking her to some wildly unsuitable film.

The low point of my date-movie career was probably senior year, when I was dating a girl whose father viewed me with intense suspicion, lived about four blocks down from the theater, and was an unarmed combat instructor for the national guard. Which meant that if I said I was taking her to the movies, I actually had to take her to the movies, or have my neck broken.

So in all that time, the worst movie overall would probably have to be Charlie’s Angels 3 and the worst date movie was Lilo and Stitch.

Mystie, I just read your NYC blog! Sounds like you had a lot of fun…I went at the end of May and also had a great time in the wax museum! You got some great pictures!

Does anyone else find it interesting that undiscovered species can be discovered in an Indonesian grocery store?
If someone eats it for dinner hasn’t it kinda been discovered?
Is it only truly discovered when a European scientist has one?
Does this mean Bigfoot and UFOs are real or do we have to wait for a European scientist to have one?

I know there was a movie about a killer octopus during that killer sea creature movie craze that started with Jaws, but what about a killer squid? I don’t remember any. The Kracken in Pirates 2 doesn’t count.

I saw “American Beauty” on a first date…wish we had seen something that wasn’t quite so HEAVY. It led to deep conversations and stuff…we dated 2 years…

JLAJRC - the movie you are thinking about is (probably) Tentacles, and Italian cash-in on the JAWS style movie. Of course, there was also Peter Benchley’s “The Beast”, but it sucks differently. And that guy should rot in hell, for what he did to sharks.

Matt, I’ll see you Cuttlefish and raise you an Ammonite (a really funky one, like Nipponites).

Fungusmungus - As someone that has described new fossil species (and someday my co-author will finish getting the paper in) I have dealt with this theoretically. Generally, when someone says a new species was discovered, it means it has been identified as unique and published on in a scientific paper–this is true whether it is a European or Asian or African or whatever who does the discovering. Of course, the market people have discovered it first, but they often don’t care whether a certain rat or goat is different than ones that everyone else knows about Unless they taste markedly different). And as a longer aside, I too get peeved at the idea that animals could evolve, exist, and go extinct without us ever knowing and that is somehow the misfortune of the animal–like our (humankind’s) knowledge of them gives some sort of validation for their existence.

Also, an actual Nautilus…I’ll admit, THAT’S the Cephalapod that creeps the hell out of me.

I’m not even sure I remember what a “date” is anymore. I can say from long ago experience that if seeing Moulin Rouge together doesn’t bump you out of the Friend Zone, well, maybe nothing will.
The carnival turned out to be a successful venture. I had some yummy carnitas, sang along to a cover band playing “Margaritaville” and came up like crazy at the used book sale, my real reason for going. Picked up tons of great books: The Sun Also Rises, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Diary of Anais Nin, a couple of Mario Puzo novels, a book about the petroglyphs of Hawai’i (for an friend who’s an archaeology major), The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The Playboy’s Bar Guide (copyright 1971!), the autobiography of Chuck Jones, and the book that Children of Men was based on (my most serendipitous find considering I just saw the movie a few days ago and decided to look for the book). All for the princely sum of two dollars and fifty cents.
For a second I thought maybe Tentacles was another title for the awesomely bad Devil Fish, since terrible movies tend to have a half dozen names. No such luck though. Hey, if we really wanted to do a syncronized MST3K viewing that would be a good one. It’s on YouTube.

Sean (of the fish)-Thanks for making my point clearer. We are a pompous species aren’t we? Well we are pretty good at a lot of stuff… like:
-roads
-buildings
-words
-books
-music
-airplanes
-bombs
-global warming

…. oh, yeah. We are a kind of unfortunate development for the old planet here aren’t we?

We did come up with Pac-Man and Mario though so… I guess that makes up for it.

I guess I pick a squid. I think I would choose jellyfish if they were an option.

Matt brought up Cuttlefishes a while backâ€¦ Cuttlefishes are gods among Mollusca. They are the greatest race that has ever swum through the depths of the oceans. So yea, theyâ€™re better than Octopuses and Squids combined!

The world looks mighty good to me,
‘Cause Octosquid are all I see.
Whatever it is I think I see,
Becomes an Octosquid to me!
Boiled, baked, stir-fry, calamari too,
Octosquid I think I’m in love with you!
Whatever it is I think I see,
Becomes an Octosquid to me!

Now just make this creature the size of an ocean liner, and this year will be the coolest ever. (And I will never go in the ocean again.)

1) Cooler name
2) Better mystique
3) Navy guys aren’t referred to as “Octopi”
4) Whenever there’s a giant sea monster behemoth in pop culture, what does it almost ALWAYS resemble? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not an octopus.

Don’t get me wrong. Octopi are hella cool, but Game, Set and Match goes to the squid hands down.

Or is it a Cuttlefish: “These are seriously one of the most amazing animals of all, folks. They look like mutant children of a ill-fated but nonetheless mated octopus and squid…”

Wow. I’m totally behind on your blog for the first time in a while. (Not to put any further pressure on you). Always appreciate when you gift us an article

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