The Free-Ride offspring have developed a serious penchant for nature programs. The latest one they viewed was Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters, and as you might expect, they have some thoughts (and artwork) to share. So, we follow in Tim Lambert's footsteps by combining Friday cephalopods with sprog-blogging.
Younger offspring: I like the diver.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you like how the squid and octopus came close to the diver and gave him a chance to see them better?
Younger offspring: Yeah. I also like when the octopus fights the diver with its tentacles.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you mean the one near the beginning, where they didn't want to scare the octopus with white lights, so they were filming with red lights instead and that got the octopus in the mood to attack the diver?
Younger offspring: Yeah, that was cool.
Elder offspring: It wasn't an octopus, it was a Humbolt squid.
Younger offspring: It was still cool.
Dr. Free-Ride: Remember the Pajama squid?
Elder offspring: They were cute and stripey!
Younger offspring: And also poisonous.
Elder offspring: I liked how they played. Hey wake up, we're having a pajama party! Pillow-fight!
Younger offspring: Whee!
Elder offspring: I liked the Giant Pacific octopus babies.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh yeah, the ones that were transparent and the size of a grain of rice? They were cute.
Elder offspring: At least some of them will survive.
Dr. Free-Ride: Spoken like a regular viewer of nature programs. Hey, do you remember when the scientists were finding cephalopod fossils?
Elder offspring: Yep, because cephalopods used to have shells! Now, I think the chambered nautilus is the only one that still has a shell.
Dr. Free-Ride: Now they mostly do without shells.
Younger offspring: They have just skin.
Dr. Free-Ride: They can do some pretty amazing things with their skin, though. They can change what color it is or what texture it looks like, just by flexing their muscles the right way.
Elder offspring: When you're tasty, it's helpful to be able to blend in with your surroundings.
Younger offspring: Otherwise, something might eat you.
Dr. Free-Ride: Can you tell me what's going on in your picture?
Elder offspring: The squid fooled the moray eel by squirting out a cloud of ink in the shape of a squid. The eel is going, "What?"
Dr. Free-Ride: And the octopus is saying, "Ha, ha!"
Elder offspring: No, the octopus is thinking, "Ha, ha!" That's a thought balloon.
Dr. Free-Ride: So it is.
Younger offspring: Also, an octopus doesn't have a voice so it has to communicate by changing its colors.
Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, can you tell me what's going on in your picture?
Younger offspring: Now the squid has two clouds of ink, but the eel went somewhere else [in the lower right of the picture].
Dr. Free-Ride: And that octopus is still thinking "Ha, ha!"
Younger offspring: Yeah. Also, there's a baby octopus, and another octopus is grabbing that fish.
Dr. Free-Ride: Too bad for the fish.
Elder offspring: But yum yum for the octopus!
Photograph from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/seamonsters/index.html
Silly, SILLY Dr Free-Ride. How could you not know that was a thought balloon? Tsk tsk...and there was me thinking you were an intelligent, astute chemist-turned-philosopher.
Nah, Friday sprog blogs are the best.
I've got a nice photo of a nautilus eating a fish -- maybe that will have to be next week's Friday Cephalopod!
First time commenter here, but thank you...that was priceless! :)