To be glad I'm not an octopus?

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

Terribly poignant story of maternal love, octopus-style, here. The gist is that some scientists observed an octopus clinging onto a rock deep down in the ocean to protect her 150 developing babies for 53 months solidly and almost certainly didn't eat in that time. (The very thought is giving me the horrors.) They think she would have died shortly after they finally dispersed. Standard behaviour for octopuses, apparently. Puts my three solid years of broken nights in perspective!

[Dontgotosleep]

Wow. Just read that Very interesting. What dedicated mummys octopus's must be.

[TheBloodManCometh]

I heard somewhere that Octopuses eat themselves when they are stressed which seems a bit of an over reaction

[TheBloodManCometh]

Octopuses? Octopi?

[PoppyAmex]

That made me teary.

[BeetlebumShesAGun]

TheBlood that made me chuckle!

[Revenant]

Glad i wasn't the only one to read that and think "sod that for a game of soldiers"

[OnIlkelyMoorBahtat]

The story of the octopus is a bit tragic all round, really; they're so intelligent that for purposes of guarding against animal cruelty UK legislation classes them as vertebrates, and yet the longest they can expect to live is about 5 years - some species only live about 6 months. Poor the octopuses!

[Canidae]

She would go down well at a competitive baby group.

'I just bought Priscilla another pony.'

'I clung to a rock for 4 year to keep my 150 babies safe.'

'.......'

[Hobnobissupersweet]

Comment of the year " "They're exceptionally good mothers,"
Bloody he'll no way would I go without grub for 4 years for my brood ( disclaimer I do love them and they are well fed )

[Happy36]

Wow. I guess octopuses don't have mothers in law or nannies or nursery. Eek!

[starkadder]

Octopodes, BloodMan. Greek, not Latin.

[ThisIsBULLSHIT]

Octopodes is cool. And I felt a pang of motherhoodery when I read that article earlier too.

[SqueakySqueak]

Aww... That's awesome. :)

Almost makes me feel bad for eating octopus sushi.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Lucky they're not humans. Headline shocker 'unmarried woman gives birth to 150 babies and hasn't got job'

[CuttedUpPear]

I bet when they turn teenage she'll wonder why she bothered.

[EugenesAxe]

Canidae and TheBlood as well; made me laugh a lot. I love the idea of placating someone with 'Oh come on, it's not that bad - stop chewing your arm.

[IScreamForIceCream]

How many tickles does it take to de-stress an octopus?

Ten tickles.

[SqueakySqueak]

IScreamForIceCream

I don't get it.

[SqueakySqueak]

OMG! TENTACLES!!

Ok, that took a moment. Ignore me.

[SqueakySqueak]

I'm bad at pun jokes.

[IScreamForIceCream]

Yeah it is really 'how many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?'

But I cunningly - and if I may say so, hilariously - adapted it for this thread. It was my DD's best/only joke from the age of about 5-8.

[PhaedraIsMyName]

It's really quite touching. It's like something out of Greek mythology where someone is forced to do something forever like Sisyphus or Prometheus chained to his rock.

[Titsalinabumsquash]

Octopi are fricking terrifying. I have nightmares about them.

That Is all.

[temporaryusername]

Once going on holiday we were due to land late, missing the dinner, and the hotel said they would leave some food out for us.

Yep, it was.

I imagine they must have looked at the buffet and thought, 'right...what's something neutral that everyone likes'?