Am I to understand that in this context “luscious” does not mean “tasty”?
ChasCPetersonsays
It was Tuesday afternoon so I was sleeping off another triple-distilled lunch when I suddenly smelled her perfume, that unmistakable smack of of jasmine with a hint of eucalyptus and top notes of crabmeat and tetrodotoxin slamming into my olfactory epithelium like a screwdriver straight to the amygdala. She always just showed up lke that, no warning, no sound, as if she squeezed in through the mailslot. I opened my bloodshot right eye enough for a peek. One look at all those gams barely draped in a blue-ringed mantle and it all came rushing back to me like a hot jet of blinding black ink from an excurrent siphon. She was trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with V and that stands for voltage-gated sodium channels. I closed my eye. “What do you want?” I asked, trying not to think about her radula.
kantalopesays
So, I was thinking wouldn’t a t-shirt with blue rings and no explanation be geekily fun? (yes it would) so I type in google and the number two suggetion is ‘blue ringed octopus for sale’
anyway there were blue ringed octopus t-shirts but they were pictures of the octopus and not just a shirt with rings…
Renésays
If one were to punch out all the blue rings, would she be edible, I wonder? Her white parts look delicious. — We might have to consult a Japanese fugu (/Φugu/, if I recall correctly) cook, who might know, if still alive.
morgansays
Chas,
It was Tuesday afternoon so I was sleeping off another triple-distilled lunch when I suddenly smelled her perfume, that unmistakable smack of of jasmine with a hint of eucalyptus and top notes of crabmeat and tetrodotoxin slamming into my olfactory epithelium like a screwdriver straight to the amygdala. She always just showed up lke that, no warning, no sound, as if she squeezed in through the mailslot. I opened my bloodshot right eye enough for a peek. One look at all those gams barely draped in a blue-ringed mantle and it all came rushing back to me like a hot jet of blinding black ink from an excurrent siphon. She was trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with V and that stands for voltage-gated sodium channels. I closed my eye. “What do you want?” I asked, trying not to think about her radula.
She undulated up the bed and onto my chest and peered at me twice, once with each sultry eye. “You, my meaty friend, preferably on a plate.”
JohnnieCanucksays
René @10, the venom is generated by micro-organisms in the salivary glands and introduced by biting. The rings are merely chromatophore patterns that serve as warnings to predators and should be as non-toxic as the rest of the skin.
Also, what with weighing between 10 and 100 grams, there isn’t much meat to be found on one.
The patient may be completely paralysed and unable to respond, sometimes with fixed dilated pupils, but the sensorium is often intact, and care should be taken to avoid negative remarks which the alert patient may hear. Envenomations are uncommon (11 cases had been reported up to 1983, including 2 fatalities) but may require supportive treatment including mechanical ventilation until the effects of the venom wear off. There is no antivenom available in Australia for blue ringed octopus envenomation.
Chas, I feel this needs to be an entire story for me to read.
David Marjanovićsays
that unmistakable smack of of jasmine with a hint of eucalyptus and top notes of crabmeat and tetrodotoxin slamming into my olfactory epithelium like a screwdriver straight to the amygdala. […] She was trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with V and that stands for voltage-gated sodium channels.
Awesome. Now I wonder if tetrodotoxin has a smell, and if there’s a way to find out and survive to tell the tale.
…and nothing would touch her. Not even the law. –Raymond Chandler
She wore bluuuue circles wah wah ooooh.
What a pretty little blue-ring! Most I’ve seen aren’t anywhere near so well defined, marking-wise.
She was aloof–yet oddly clingy. I knew that she was poison, but I just couldn’t dislodge her arms, almost as if they were full of suction cups.
Glen Davidson
“What’s your poison, fella,” she leered. “Never mind what you want, I got what you need.”
Funny you’re using Noir references, PZ. I’m reading “Alterred Carbon” right now.
Am I to understand that in this context “luscious” does not mean “tasty”?
It was Tuesday afternoon so I was sleeping off another triple-distilled lunch when I suddenly smelled her perfume, that unmistakable smack of of jasmine with a hint of eucalyptus and top notes of crabmeat and tetrodotoxin slamming into my olfactory epithelium like a screwdriver straight to the amygdala. She always just showed up lke that, no warning, no sound, as if she squeezed in through the mailslot. I opened my bloodshot right eye enough for a peek. One look at all those gams barely draped in a blue-ringed mantle and it all came rushing back to me like a hot jet of blinding black ink from an excurrent siphon. She was trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with V and that stands for voltage-gated sodium channels. I closed my eye. “What do you want?” I asked, trying not to think about her radula.
So, I was thinking wouldn’t a t-shirt with blue rings and no explanation be geekily fun? (yes it would) so I type in google and the number two suggetion is ‘blue ringed octopus for sale’
anyway there were blue ringed octopus t-shirts but they were pictures of the octopus and not just a shirt with rings…
If one were to punch out all the blue rings, would she be edible, I wonder? Her white parts look delicious. — We might have to consult a Japanese fugu (/Φugu/, if I recall correctly) cook, who might know, if still alive.
Chas,
She undulated up the bed and onto my chest and peered at me twice, once with each sultry eye. “You, my meaty friend, preferably on a plate.”
René @10, the venom is generated by micro-organisms in the salivary glands and introduced by biting. The rings are merely chromatophore patterns that serve as warnings to predators and should be as non-toxic as the rest of the skin.
Also, what with weighing between 10 and 100 grams, there isn’t much meat to be found on one.
Come into the octopus’s garden with me.
Beautiful tiny creature but so deadly. See also :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ring_octopus
&
http://www.avru.org/compendium/biogs/A000060b.htm
which notes (scroll down) :
&
http://www.lifesaving.com.au/downloads/Education%20and%20Resources/Factsheets/SSS%20blue%20ring%20octopus.pdf
Pdf.
Recall being warned about these at some beaches as a kid. Might’ve seen one once many decades ago if vague memory serves.
Chas, I feel this needs to be an entire story for me to read.
Awesome. Now I wonder if tetrodotoxin has a smell, and if there’s a way to find out and survive to tell the tale.