monty;86984 said:
I wonder if we ever were staring for hours at Stretch at the same time; that was one of my favorite activities as a child. Steinhardt's GPOs and Cousteau films were my only ceph experiences for quite a while, then the Monterey aquarium and one glimpsed in some tidepools near Carmel, then finally I found that twilight SCUBA dives off SoCal let me encounter 2 small octos, probably bimacs, which was great... I got in a tug-of-war with a stick with one of the two I saw, but otherwise there's not much of a colorful story... I'd love to dive with cuttles (esp Apama) or sepioteuthis sometime...
Do you remember a slightly younger (I think) kid with an annoying high-pitched voice babbling on and on about the manner in which Stetch was collected, where he was found, his arm-span, and how great octopus really are to the World? That would have been me. If you don't remember almost-involuntary violent impulses toward a wild-eyed, ceph-obsessed psycho-child, then we probably didn't meet. Main source of the bullying at school back then (before I started earning it): octopus-worship.
By the way, Stretch was found in a toilet in a bank in San Francisco when the tip of his suckered-arm was protruding from the hole at the bottom of the bowl. Terrified a female patron (it was the ladies' room - made the local news), and then, when they arrived, Steinhardt scientists proceeded to pull Stretch out of said Ladies' Room toilet inch after inch after inch, until finally they had a complete giant octopus. He lived at the Steinhardt on display for a couple years more. All I can say is basically, that initial contactee ought to have felt
honoured .But by then Stretch cemented my belief in the ultimate coolness of cephalopods, so I might be a wee bit prejudiced this way. The funny, or horrifying thing is that while the unnamed "victim" was urinating, something reached-up and suckered onto her nether parts. That's how Stretch was discovered, at least according to my remembered news stories from KRON ("KRON is Coming Home" - NBC affiliate) in SF, and the staff at the Steinhardt that used to humor this ceph-obsessed little fanatic. Maybe there was something wrong with me as a child, but a combination giant octopus (he ultimately developed quite a considerable arm-span - ask Monty) and toilet humor for a naughty little kid like me - bullseye. If I hadn't already been a ceph-fanatic by then (I was) then this certainly cemented it nonetheless.
Incidentally, Stretch appeared in the bank toilet after one of our major winter storms. I'm wondering if with things mixed-up from the influx of fresh water due to the storms, wildlife beneath the waves got stirred-up, and perhaps one of our N. Californian green morays might have chased young Stretch up the sewers and plumbing to get him there. The news footage of the tip of a coiled tentacle - very much alive - reaching up out of the bottom of a toilet bowl will most assuredly stay with me for my lifetime. Does anybody else have any info that'll clarify all this?
Oh well, God Bless!