I think we can agree Ursula is not an attractive name. And octopuses, octopi or octopodes are ugly. (Yes all three versions are the correct plural form – love English spelling aka confusion)
Ursula the Sea Witch is a cecaelia, part human, part octopus. She is a fictional character in many stories, namely Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. The Little Mermaid, but was made most famous as the main antagonist in the animated Disney film version, The Little Mermaid.
Personally not a fan of octopuses, I don’t even like calamari. My aversion is more from my childhood trauma than the actual taste. Faced with raw, dead octopus at age 6, watching it get cooked, the smell and then having to it eat as a guest in my best friend’s house – who was Greek — has left some childhood scars.
My friend Dan, who seems to have a propensity for finding fun and odd shoe pictures to send me found this pair. First I thought “How hideous!” But the more I look at them —well if they were mine, I would wear them. Maybe like the name Ursula and the appearance of the octopus, I might have been to quick with my first impression.
Octopi are ugly, but here are a few facts that might make you at least ‘appreciate’ them a little more. Octopuses are among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates. Their intelligence, learning capability and problem solving abilities have shown evidence of both short and long term memory. This might shame some people I know who lack one or both. Octopuses can be difficult to keep as pets, but people have tried. They often escape even from supposedly secure tanks, due to their problem-solving skills, mobility and lack of a rigid structure. So they are smart and sneaky.
Octopuses only live about 6 months, less if they encounter a fisherman. And reproduction is a cause of death: males can live for only a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. They neglect to eat during the one-month period spent taking care of their unhatched eggs, eventually dying of starvation.
I’m pretty sure I would have trouble getting these shoes past TSA, But I would indeed wear them and then dazzle/ bore you with facts about the octopus.
Happy Sunday
Laura