According to an article on Huffington Post, Paul the Octopus could be worth millions – at least $4.5 million, says a PR specialist who spoke with CNN.
Pretend for a moment that he isn’t an octopus. Given his predictive record, he would make a perfect guest on Oprah, the late night talk shows, even the morning TV and radio shows. Give us your predictions, Paul, on whether BP will successfully cap the oil gusher.Or: Who will win the U.S. presidency in 2012? Or: What’s your prediction, Paul, about the midterm elections in the U.S.? Will the Dems hold on to Congress?
Paul apparently made his predictions based on his stomach.”Before each game, the 2 1/2-year-old octopus’ handlers placed two clear boxes in his tank, each containing a mussel snack and the flag for teams slated to faceoff. And he didn’t always favor the home team. Paul sparked a furor in Germany after he predicted the team’s 1-0 loss to Spain, and even received death threats from irate fans in the form of octopus recipes.”
We’ve talked about animals as messengers, so what does Paul tell us about ourselves and the state of the world and sports? Well, the octopus has a well-developed brain, incredible eyesight, no bones, and its bite is poisonous to prey. Its best protection is the ability to camouflage itself, to instantly change the color and texture of its skin to match its surroundings.
The octopus has three hearts. The color of its blood is light blue. It moves through jet propulsion, temporarily blinds a predator by squirting ink at it. Most of these creatures live only a year or two (don’t like the sound of that!). Once an octopus reaches sexual maturity, it can mate several times a day. Once impregnated, the female lays tens of thousands of eggs, which she weaves into strings and attaches to the roof of her dwelling. Until the eggs hatch a month later, she doesn’t leave her den, and dies shortly after the eggs hatch. The male also dies shortly afterward, so all these youngsters are left to fend for themselves.
If we take our cues from animal messengers based on their behaviors and lifestyles, then it’s all beginning to remind me of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, not an uplifting omen for the future.
So I think I’ll focus on those three hearts: the first pumps life, the second embraces life, the third loves life.
– Trish
Loved that movie. We took Megan to that aquarium years ago. It's all magnificent.
ooooh, i heard the fake-paul story too! what's this world coming to when one can't even fix one's belief in a little octopus without having it smashed! but, now, if fake-paul really can answer jeff's question, then…….
but speaking of marine life – the reason i wasn't online earlier today is because i made the mistake – [it turned out not to be a mistake but a fabulous choice] – of flipping over to a movie channel after a few minutes of morning news – a will smith movie "seven pounds" had just begun – and i cannot tell you what a beautiful movie it was – it is a must see – and paul and his three hearts reminds me so of this movie in which the critter character is a box jellyfish – and one of my two favorite quotes from the film is when Smith's character, Ben, says: The first time I ever saw a box jellyfish, I was twelve. Our father took us to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I never forgot what he said… That it was the most deadly creature on earth. To me it was just the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." A lesson in many ways to each of us – anyway, if you've not seen this movie, check it out – you won't be sorry!
wv=hotessl [hottest] and this film is!
Uh- a fake Paul??! Can the fake Paul answer Jeff's Red Sox question?
I like the part about mating several times a day…but not so much the part about dying soon afterwards. Heh.
Oh, can you ask Paul when the Red Sox are going to make it back to the World Series? Us Sox fans are getting tired of seeing the Yankees every year.
There is a rumour that this isn't actually Paul but a replacement – Paul having moved on to the freedom of wherever good octopodes go.
3 hearts? 3? How endearing and significant is THAT? So very meaningful. And he has BLUE-blood. How do we, as humans, interpret someone …a human…being a blue-blood? What can we learn from this amazing sea-Being? Oh, dear, such a brief, brief life? Wew must enjoy them while they are with us, yes?
cj in MU WV: "pastre"
Really, you have to love those 3 hearts.
Bless Paul's three little hearts.