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#1: Mark Conger (aruba) on Mar 16, 2006 [SPOILER]

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Or penguins. You could say they were penguins. Penguins are cute. Nobody would smack a penguin.

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We never smack spiders in our house either--or vinegaroons (which are another ugly, but nice, bug-eating bug which people around here mistake for a scorpion). I could design a vinegaroon puzzle, but most people would recognize it as only a splotch.

The comments alone on this 1 made it lots of fun! It's a fun puzzle too though.

That is the best puzzle description ever!

Very cute! Enjoyed seeing the final picture and your description. Good job ... Thanks!

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I'm actually pretty completely drug free. I used to drink Coca Cola, but dropped that years ago. Caffine and alcohol are rarities for me.

Generally I find my mental processes quite sufficiently weird without modification.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with regularly weird mental processes. I don't even think I can think in a straight line. ;-)

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Lovely. Worth doing the puzzle for the comment alone.

i believe octopus with one leg hiding. as for its gender i'm not sure. it could be either. could it be both?

Jan is usually down to earth and very insightful, but with the description and the flow of comments here, it makes me wonder if you were on something when you did all this. You say you are drug free, but how do you know someone else didn't slip you anything? Maybe in your Coke, or in your sushi. Maybe they hid it in your boiled octopi Sunday dinner.

I find it quite easy to achieve bizarre mental states without the aid of drugs. However, in this case I was mostly emulating the verbal style of an old friend of mine.

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DEFINITELY an female octopus since you cannot see the hectocotylus ...

LOL Jota!!!!!

That's a very nice, and skillful, little piece of writing.

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Very cute puzzle and the writing gave a lift to the day. Thanks.

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Okay, I know that nobody is going to read this because this puzzle is one of the beginning ones and almost nobody does these, but here goes: After reading through 26 funny comments, I was amazed that no one caught that an "etymologist" studies word origins. An entomologist studies insects. Spiders, on the other hand, are studied by arachnologists. You might think that octopi are studied by octopologists, but NOOO, they are studied by, get this: teuthologists or marine biologists. Penguins are studied by orinithologists. In case you didn't notice, I am a bit of an etymologist myself. There I feel much better, even if nobody reads this. (Are "octopologists" people who apologize for the number 8?)

:)

What does the number eight have to apologize for? Being just slightly too overweight to qualify as a day of the week or a musical note?

I agree that 8 has nothing to apologize for, but as an octophile, I must defend my friend and say she is NOT overweight. She is not abnormal in any way, just different, that's all. She is too GREAT to be a day of the week - that is so linear anyway. She is the basis of the mighty CUBE, so there! She may not have the shape of a musical note, but her eighth notes are amazing, and the octave is the most wonderous musical phenomenon. Her beauty stops traffic all over the world! Lay her down gently, and her love will last forever.

And as a child I discovered that 8 has all the answers:
http://michaelthompson.org/magic8ball.php#

Synthia, I enjoyed your little journey into etymology here. You may be surprised at how many of us go back and solve those early puzzles. :-)

Synthia, that's for a thought provoking comment.
According to the Urban Dictionary, Etomology is " The study of great things".
G-d bless the internet!

I am so delighted to know that all you guys have followed this. Teresa, you are an octopologist in the true sense of the word "apologist" as "one who speaks or writes in defense of someone or something." Could you wax equally poetic for the number "9"? It is my favorite number. Jota, in all my googling last night for words, I never came across a definition of "etomology." Thanks for the info. I did find one misguided soul who claimed the study of insects was "ectomology" which I decided was actually what the Ghostbusters studied.

:-)

So would "ectomology" be the study of the skin or a hard carapace?

Just to clarify, Synthia, the age of a puzzle has nothing to do with whether or not it's comments get read. However, one must have solved to catch the updated comments. (Anyone can read the comments of a specific puzzle if they select it from a menu.)

The more dedicated of us catch up on the forum daily. It's always were I start when I first log in and, if I've been on long enough, I'll check it before I quit as well.

Actually, study of (outer) skin would be ectodermology and hard carapace study (of insects) would be exoskeletology.

The "m" in ectomology is out of place. If just the study of "outsideness" is meant, then it should be ectology. As best as I can figure, ectomology would be the study of external tumors (ecto- : outside, external + -oma : tumor + -ology : the study of).

Yes, I'm a geek. And yes, we're saving up for a full OED.

Ooh. An OED! I've always wanted a set. Have no idea where I'd put it.

Bookshelves?

Yes, emphasis on the plural. http://postimage.org/image/1gkcpbhhg/

Ooooooh. I want one too. When I was growing up, my folks had this huge dictionary that I just loved to get lost in. It was bound in leather and was really heavy. I had my nose in it every day. My Mom is just as bad. One time I went to visit my folks on vacation, and my Mom and I spent hours going through the dictionary finding interesting or funny words. It was hilarious. Well, to us it was.

And I was just being silly ...

Me, too, Martin. Geek silly. I've always liked making up words.

Jota, the full OED consists of about 20 volumes and each are the size of a typical dictionary. It also costs about $1000 for a new set. I live in a small, old house with no built-ins. All my current bookshelves are full. I'd have to buy more shelves.

Teresa, how about a series of puzzles on your favorite words? Imagine a puzzle for "ululate."

And I was just being "smart" Synthia ;-)

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cool puz, funny creator

Jan, your comments here make me think of the Eddie Izzard bit about how people think he's on drugs, but when he's actually on drugs he starts talking about insurance and municipal bonds.

Synthia and Teresa, there's a "compact" OED -- two enormous volumes, the thinnest onionskin paper I've ever seen, and four pages from the "normal" version on every page. It comes with a magnifying glass.

Synthia took my comment on ento- vs. ety- in the -ology department. I will pass on a bit from an English prof from long ago: "ent-" sounds like "ant", so that's for bugs. And while 8 may not owe any apologies, any child can tell you that 7 sure does. Why? Because 7 8 9.

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I think reading the comments on this one was more fun than the puzzle! (Especially since I messed up on the eyes somehow and I cheated to fix it...)

Fantastic! I loved solving this, and have been having full on belly laughs at the description and the comments. I must read comments all the time from now on. Jan: your friend must be great to talk to :)

I was happy to find a puzzle by Jan that I hadn't completed. And then I got to the comments. Quite a fun read.

Fun, entertaining and enlightening! WOW!

This back and forth is amazing, thanks to all of you for the laughs! Enjoyed the puzzle too.

Synthia, Teresa, Jota, the OED is also online. Briefer, I suspect, but very accessible and helpful nonetheless, and no bookshelves required.

The Oxford Living Dictionary is free ( https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ ), but the OED is not.

If you're lucky enough to live in a city whose library has a subscription, then you can use the OED for free, but for the rest of us, it would be a $300/year subscription. Still, for the first three years that would be cheaper than buying a print version for $1000. ( http://www.oed.com/ )

HAHAHA!!! What great comments. Oh my word. This was fantastic. Saw it was a Jan Wolter puzzle and had to solve it. Reading all of the banter back and forth brought him back to life. Thank you everyone. And just for the record, I am not an "ologist" of any kind. :)

People who don't know the difference between "entomologist" and "etymologist" bug me beyond words.

:-D

This is just as enjoyable (and edifying) in 2021 as it was back when Jan created it and commented on it. It was interesting to see how, over the years, new friends joined. What a legacy Jan left! And now, I'm going back to click on the link for a bug with a name that made me want to view it!

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Oh wow, this was fun reading!

Jan had the compact OED with the magnifying glass. It's still in our living room.

What's bugging me is that I have *no* *idea* which friend he was emulating. That seems like something I should know.

this was still fun to read (and solve!) and in response to #27, I noticed (yes, I'm a word geek!), but I usually just shrug and give someone the benefit of the doubt. HOWEVER, a case could be made for #35, perhaps display case, or we could just shelve that idea for later examination... and before Google, I slept with a dictionary by my bed so I could look up words that randomly popped in my head, or that I came across in my nighttime reading. ;-)

I think I enjoyed the explanation and all the comments as much as solving the puzzle! Good job!

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