I knew there’s a flying squid that likes to post memes though
If a squid swimming near the surface is spooked by a predator or a boat, it streamlines into a torpedo shape and fires itself out of the water. At the same time, it splays its eight tentacles into a flat, fan-like pattern in front of its face – some breeds even exude mucus to fill in the spaces, creating a unified, kite-like surface. It also flares a pair of fins near its rear end and – voilà – the squid becomes a living, breathing jet.
@[email protected] … your squid signal has been shone into the fediverse skyline
Yes indeed! See my response to Viking_Hippie about getting my username. It is due to this awesome fact.
Duh.
I can vouch for this guys experience.
Careful, you’ll summon him
That was my intention
How many tickles does it take to make a squid fly?
I figure it’s got to be about ten tickles
Wait wait wait…you have no idea how a squid would react if you tickled it. What if it freaked out and bit your nose off? First you need to cautiously do a test tickle
Squids have two tentacles. The rest are arms.
A set of eight arms and two distinctive tentacles surround the mouth
Two tentacles and, if you’re like me, a great big hectocotylus.
That’s right, ladies. You know you want this squid’s hectocotylus getting past your mantle.
Are you one of the species that rips theirs off and hucks it at the female to prevent being eaten?
Maybe I’m thinking of an octopus…
I don’t know what you’re thinking of, but it’s none of us higher molluscs.
NSFO porn:
spoiler
Apparently I’ve been misled as the octopus I was thinking of, the argonaut, doesn’t actually have a detachable hectocotylus.
Zefrank lied to me.
That’s interesting, when I was a kid I remember always hearing that an octopus has eight tentacles and a squid has ten. I suppose ‘limbs’ might have been a more accurate descriptor.
Oddly, I knew that cuttlefish have a distinction between arms and tentacles. I’m not in biology, but I always thought of them as tiny squid, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they were related.
If you’re correcting me on the joke, it’s a pun where “ten tickles” sounds like “tentacles.” The number ten is unrelated to the number of limbs - it’s actually usually told about an octopus
Octopi have no tentacles, those are all arms!
So wait, you’re telling me that an octopus doesn’t have tentacles at all?
My whole entire world (in regards to a small subset of cephalopods) has been turned upside down.
Yeah, I had the same feeling when I learned about that. It seems to be a common misnomer.
I wonder whether @[email protected] knew and based his name on it or it’s just a coincidence 🤔
I did know! One day many years ago (we’re talking 1990s here), I was talking to people on IRC and I said, “you know what would be awesome? If squid could fly.”
And then I looked just for the hell of it and it turns out they can. I’ve been FlyingSquid ever since.
I still think that’s one of the coolest things in nature.
I think you’re one of the coolest people in the fediverse … keep flying you crazy squid
Thanks! I feel the same about you!
This is an amazing origin story! Loved that you drop IRC. Paints a good picture of how long you’ve had the handle.
I’m old and I’ve been on the internet since the pre-web days. First time I used the internet was when a friend showed me how to use a MUD in the local university computer labs, but I was still a high school freshman, so that would have been 1991-1992, somewhere in there. I remember thinking that this new web thing I saw would never be as good as Gopher. Oops.
When the day gets late the Squid dons its little propellers and crosses the heavens squirting the night sky until the cuttlefish of day chases it forever westward.
And here I was thinking it was just a fun username.
Way back, i spent 1 day in my life really believing they do exist, until digging deeper exposed me to the sad truth.
It’s like a squishy transformer
