Posted byThis week I’ve seen octopodes making a surge in popularity online, which is totally fine with me, cause I’ve been a long-time fan of cephalopods. I think every house could benefit from the grace and creepiness of an octopus.
The Octopus Biology print has these tentacled invertebrates drifting across the page.
This octopus dish towel is squeezing my heart in its be-tentacled grasp.
You can trust this octopus to keep hold of ALL your rings.
Add this accent pillow to your living room or your bedroom. Either way, it’ll make a striking statement in black and white and tentacles.
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No better place for octopodes than in your shower, right? Of course, you could always make your own squid shower curtain too!
This octopus tray is super stylish, and super good at holding things.
Surprise your guests with a friendly octopus swimming at the bottom of the tea. (Get it?)
What are YOUR favorite ways of decorating with octopodes?
Oh man, I hate to be this girl, but…
no, I don’t. I’m gonna do it.
The correct plural of octopus is not octopi, it’s octopuses, because the root of octopus is Greek, and not Latin. Anglicized Greek uses the “es” plural in cases like this. This plural is mostly correct, and people will still know what you’re talking about.
And then I see you’ve used the REALLY correct plural in the text, which is octopodes, which I congratulate you for. Most Americans pronounce ok-toe-poe-ds, but I once heard an actual greek person pronounce it “ok-top-oh-dees”, which is just so much fun to say.
How do I know? Why do I care? I work at an aquarium and I get to feed one of these FREAKING AMAZING ANIMALS on a regular basis! So please pardon my pedantic nature on this one, it’s a knee jerk response thing.
Octo-love,
Kate
And because you sat through that, here are some octopus fun facts:
Octopuses have three hearts.
Octopuses have copper based blood.
Octopuses can taste everything in their environment through sensory organs on their suction cups.
Octopuses can change the color of their skin instantaneously using two types of pigmented cells called chromatophores and iridiphores.
An octopus can fit through anything it’s beak can fit through, because it is the only hard part of it’s body. Youtube this, it is freaking amazing.
Nerdly love to all!
The Kraken is totally my spirit animal!
The octopus is like a miracle of evolution. They’re incredibly intelligent, masters of disguise, great problem-solvers, and they have personalities.
Perhaps their only downfall is their low-oxygen blood, which causes them to get letharic easily.
Octopodes can make their home just about anywhere (caves, sunken boats, broken bottles) but never stay in one place too long.
The Mimic Octopus changes its shape and movement to imitate other plants and animals and protect itself from predators.
The octopus has two “legs” and six “arms”.
When they reproduce,the male breaks off part of one of his tentacles which has no suckers and contains sperm. He hands it over to the female, and she stores it in her mantel for later use.
Sad fact: The Giant Pacifuc Octopus is biologically programmed to die after it reproduces. The male dies a few weeks after mating, and the female lives just long enough to see her eggs hatch.
I could do this all day… 🙂
Merriam-Webster Dictionary has an excellent video on this (http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/octopus)! I am always “that girl” but you beat me to it this time! Yay octopodes!
Fixed title to be Octopodes!
This is why I love you guys, you embrace nerd-dom instead of turning your noses up at it. Thanks for making my spontaneous octopi-induced facial twitch go away!
I clicked through from google reader just to comment that I was so excited at seeing “octopodes”!! 🙂
I also clicked through to say THANK YOU FOR USING OCTOPODES INSTEAD IF OCTOPI. Someone corrected me years ago and now it fucking KILLS me. I feel like I’m on a mission……from god. *Blues Brothers*
While I prefer Octopi (it’s just fun to say!) I was told by a marine biologist that the correct form was octopuses. Then I got to college and another biologist told me it was octopodes! Good to know both ways are correct. I was confused!
A friend of mine has one of these adorable octopus shower caddies: http://sleekidentity.com/products/detail/octopus-Jens-Widerberg-Formverket/
They’re so cute and I want one, too! =D
Imagine combining that with the shower curtain shown above? XD
I totally had to make a treasury about this.
I’m a total sucker (har har) for tentacley-octopusy things. I just want to give them, like, eight hugs.
Oddly, I love the look of them and want a few of these items but they creep me out at the same time… weird, huh?
Fellow linguist (and cephalapodophile) – you have my heart. I will always say octopodes, because being right (and saying things in a hilarious voice [ok-TOP-oh-dees all the way]) is so much fun.
Aww, shucks, thankee kindly!
I love love love octopuses soooooo much!
I held one while scuba diving in spain many years ago and my love has grown from there.
I had an octopus fascinator for my wedding and I’m planning a tentacle friend tattoo
Nice! Do you have a picture of you fascinator or a link to a shop?
Had to leave a note here giving props to the lady who helped out with my wedding accessories, Andromeda from Octopus Stew on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OctopusStew
She made my veil clip and jellyfish earrings for one of my bridesmaids, which I can’t seem to find a picture of at the moment. She also sculpted the cake toppers (on super short notice) for us with a miniature version of the clip and gave me a free pin with two baby octopodes since I don’t have pierced ears.
Oh, guys… “Gauged” ears? 🙁 Stretched ears. Gauges are a unit of measurement, not a method of putting bigger stuff in your body.
Some of us who stretch our ears refer to them as “gauged.”
It’s colloquial, but not uncommon.
Just a reminder since it seems to be coming up a lot in this particular comment thread: if you have a quibble over the wording in any Offbeat Empire blog post, rather than derail comments, you can just click the “Fix Typo” button at the end of the post to submit a correction. More info.
I need MOAR octopodes! Love them all….!!
This is a very timely post as I have been looking at octopus tattoos over the past week, and everything else with octopodes (Thank you, Offbeat, for helping me be more grammatically correct.) for that matter!
Kraken Rum sells some great Octopode merchandise on their website. I love the shower curtain.
https://www.krakenrumstore.com/Shopping/Shopping.aspx?Nav=PRXNV118
http://www.creaturecups.com/store
Love this – I’ve pinned most of these awesome products already.. I think I’m gonna have to go back and look at a few of them again!
Can someone tell me where to get the shower curtain?! I found this on Pinterest but the link brings me here and the photo above takes me to a different blog but there are no store links or info on purchasing. I want THAT shower curtain, I have not found one even remotely comparable! *Insert sad face*
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005PFT1X2/offbeatbrid0a-20
I Googled octopus decor and found this blog. Have you guys seen the new octopus items at Pottery Barn? Very cute. My favorite is this one: http://www.potterybarn.com/m/products/octopus-metal-glass-serving-platter/?pkey=e%7Coctopus%2Bserving%2Bpedestal%7C1%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C15%7C%7C1&cm_src=