Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Octopuses? Octopii? Whatever.

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Ready or not, it's time for more What I Learned This Week over at Musings of a Housewife!

This week I'm changing it up a bit. I'll be doing What I Learned This Week Twenty-two Years Ago. Why? Because once again, I've got nothing. But I did find a really cute video clip that will fit in with my revised theme. See? It all works out in the end.

So, twenty-two years ago this week, I was taking summer term classes at my college. Yes, I was in college that long ago. I was a, uh, a child genius. Yes, that's it. Anyway, I was taking the Best Class Ever - Marine Biology. Who knew that science could be so fun? Anyway, the professor loved to tell stories of things that had happened at places she'd worked in the past. My favorite were the octopus stories. Did you know that they are wicked smart? It's true.

Once she was working at an aquarium and the aquarium had been having a lot of thefts of expensive exotic fish. Every morning, they'd come in and check the tanks and more of the fish would be missing. That was getting really expensive, so they put up security cameras to try to catch whoever was breaking into the aquarium at night and stealing fish. They caught the thieves, too. It was the octopuses. The octopuses that were in tanks on the next floor up. They were climbing out of their tanks, down the stairs and up to the fish tanks to have themselves an expensive little feast every night. They'd then go back up the stairs and climb back into their tanks. Ooo! They were so sneaky! And yes, they put lids over the octopus tank after that.

She also worked at a lab that was studying octopuses. The octopuses got pretty hungry there, too. The Marine Biologists would come in to the lab in the morning and find octopuses on top of the refridgerator, in the refridgerator and around the refridgerator, all of them very well fed. Yup, they'd manage to open it up and help themselves. So yeah, lids went on those tanks, too.


So I hope you've enjoyed this little walk down memory lane with me. It was fun! And it was one of the few things I've retained from what I learned in college. Go figure.

Now how about a little Life is Funny blog carnival? No octopuses were harmed in the writing of that post.

14 comments:

katdish said...

@katdish the twitter ho:

Inspiring peole everywhere!

Helen said...

What do you know! Apparently we were both child genii, since I started college almost 22 years ago. How come I never saw you at the Mensa meetings? ;-) Or did I?
Cute video! I never knew octopi had such a sense of humor.

Wendy said...

Katdish - What's peole? I'm just dying to know...

jasonS said...

I can't see the video, but that is one of the craziest things I've heard about the octopus/fridge. Very cool/unnecessary knowledge to add to my collection. Thanks!

Beth said...

Very weird. I had no idea they did stuff like that. I'm kind of afraid of octopii now.

sherri said...

I'm creeped out by the story- I never knew they could get around like that!

Stephanie Wetzel said...

Thank you for that lesson about octopi.

What I learned this week:

If Charlie ever succeeds in getting me to agree to a saltwater fishtank, I will never add and octopus to it.

That, or I'll put a sturdy lock on the fridge.

Candy said...

ok, new nightmare tonight...

Wendy said...

What's with everyone being afraid of octopus? They're so cool...

Casey said...

Ewww ewww ewwww... They freak me OUT! All those arms and suction cups... Ew.

What a sight that would have been to see them climbing out of that tank though.

Note to self: make sure the octopus exhibit has a cover on the tank before getting too close.

Kelli said...

I have to admit that I was a biology major in college and still never knew that. I will forever be enlightened!

It does kind of remind me of when I was taking Animal Behavior in college. We were given eggs to hatch and we had to imprint them on something. My chicks imprinted on my dog. After the project was over, rather than give the chicks back to my professor (because I was convinced he was going to eat them) I gave them to my friend Molly who had a farm. Only to find out that that the chicks had gotten eaten my wolves. Clearly my chicks thought that the wolves were "kin". So sad...so sad...

Rebecca said...

Somehow, I am now extremely nervous of visiting the aquarium at the Marine Science Museum. On the other hand, the kids will love this...they won't leave the octopi/puses alone.

Now I've learned not to underestimate an octopus!

Unknown said...

Who know octopus could be so clever!

Love that clip too - just hilarious :)

The Fat Dietitian said...

It is astonishing how intelligent something as prehistoric looking as an octopus can be so intelligent! They are one of the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror... :)