Booty: Get Kraken!

With these Holiday gift posts, I generally try to keep my recommendations to vendors and items that I am familiar with and/or have had contact with myself. I have not, however, recommended gifts handmade by a family member. There's a first time for everything.

Today's unusual and delightful trove of goodies comes from Brigit's Knits. This Etsy showcase is owned and operated by 15 year old entrepreneur Brigit, who also happens to be my daughter. Brigit offers a wide variety of sea creatures from the gorgeous (and completely safe to cuddle) jellyfish shown above to hermit crabs (no terrarium or feeding required) starfish and sea stars and, of course, the now infamous Kraken shown at the sidebar along with a host of others.

All of Brigit's creations are hand knit by her. They are all free of small attachments (buttons, pins, etc.) so they are perfect for very small people. Brigit has other outlets, local consignments - she is featured at Sweet Adeline's here in Anchorage - and bazaars so her creatures are circulating far and wide. Just ask Captain Swallow and the lovely QM Seika - they took their Kraken and octopus on a whirlwind tour of the Big Easy last spring. Good times.

Please pop over and browse Brigit's offerings. Shipping is free in the U.S. but she also offers international shipping at a charge. Every dime earned goes into her college fund, and that warms a pirate mother's heart as you can well imagine.

Also, feel free to pop over and "like" Brigit's Knits on Facebook.

Happy Friday, Brethren! I hope it's warm and sunny where you are and if not, well, there's always grog.

Header: A jellyfish handmade by Brigit of Brigit's Knits

History: This Way Be Monsters

Back before sextants and telescopes, seamen had to do things the hard way. Naturally, that included sailing off to points unknown and exploring worlds that landsmen imagined were unchartable. The Vikings were surprisingly good at that sort of thing, sailing off to Asia and North America and everywhere in between. Besides incredible courage, seamen have always had a penchant for story telling. And it’s a sure bet that nothing was more fun that scaring the hell out of a lubber or two when you got home from a voyage to the edge of the world. Here, then, are a few of the stories which have come down to us from before the Great Age of Sail. These are imaginary locations and usually, along with their name, some slightly vague and terrifying description of the inhabitants or troubles one might encounter there are included. Antipodes: this was the land of dragons. One could also find such oddly named and nebulous beings as garamantes and troglodytes there. Brumae: these were large areas of open ocean where enormous patches of seaweed lurked. The weed was said to be able to founder a ship. These tales may have been inspired by the Sargasso Sea. Located in the middle of the North Atlantic, the area is often clogged with sargassum seaweed which can indeed disable ships. Frigor: these areas were supposed to be empty, frozen lands at the northernmost and southernmost tips of the world, an obvious reference to the Arctic and Antarctica. Mare Tenebrosum: here giant monsters resided. All the tall tales one could imagine – huge bats with human faces, gigantic octopi that could drag a ship to her doom and sea serpents of every description – resided in this unnamed, uncharted part of the sea. Torrid Zone: this was the equatorial area, where calms plague sailing ships and the air feels like a furnace belched it out. Sailors would add to this terror by telling of giant walls of flame shooting up out of the ocean and hindering their progress. This area was sometimes referred to as Perusta. Just a few thoughts on what lurks beyond the horizon, some more real than others. Header: Classic Kraken; tinted engraving via Wikimedia

Sea Monsters: Fowl Meal

As hard as it is for me to comprehend, it appears that the post you are reading is the 900th here at Triple P. So as a special treat, let’s talk about a giant Pacific octopus making a meal out of a Glaucous-winged seagull.


Evidently, at least according to this article at Bird Fellow where birdwatchers of the Pacific Northwest meet on the web, a lady named Ginger Morneau was out for a stroll at the Ogden Point Breakwater. The Breakwater, which I can state from experience is lovely, is located on the Pacific coast of Victoria, British Columbia. It is a haven for all types of wildlife and many bird watchers and sea creature enthusiasts congregate there to take pictures and videos of the abundant fauna.

Ms. Morneau was strolling the Breakwater on a nice day in late March when she noticed a gull with its head underwater, furiously flapping its ample wings. At first glance, it appeared that the bird was feeding on something just under the waves. A second look, however, told a different tale.

An octopus could be seen below the gull anchoring itself to nearby rocks while pulling the bird under with one massive tentacle. Ms. Morneau snapped a number of pictures and shared her unusual documentation with Bird Fellow. According to her, the entire struggle took no more than a minute. Once the octopus had successfully drown the gull, it pulled the bird bodily underwater and one assumes ate it.

Evidently this behavior is not as atypical as we might think. Both animals are predatory toward one another. Some days the gull eats the octopus, some days it’s the other way around. Ms. Morneau just happened to get evidence of the latter.

Curiously, at least to my mind, the Bird Fellow article notes:

Ginger described the battle as “primal” and although she wanted to rescue the gull, it wouldn’t have been possible…

I can’t quite wrap my head around why she wanted to rescue the gull. Nature isn’t sweet and an octopus, just like every living thing, needs sustenance. Everyone perceives things differently, of course, but I say good on you octopus. A gull’s a fine meal, if you can get it.

Header: Octopus vs. seagull, photo by Ginger Morneau via Bird Fellow

Booty: A Tentacled Yuletide

This beautiful picture taken by Pasquale Vassallo and posted over at NatGeo depicts a handsome Italian octopus with snow covered Mt. Vesuvius in the background.  Looks like the Holidays to me!  Click to enlarge for beautiful detail or click over to the original post.  Either way, pretty amazing.

Sea Monsters: The Walking Cephalopods

Last week, the First Mate sent me this brief but intriguing article from Yahoo! News. Entitled “Video: Octopus crawls out of water and walk on dry land,” and containing the eponymous video, it is probably no surprise that the piece itself is rather short. After all, a picture – or in this case a pretty amazing video – is worth a thousand words.


I am personally rather fond of octopi (yes, I did look it up; “octopi” is the correct plural). They are very interesting looking, intelligent, dexterous and painfully shy. The only animals they can tolerate being around for any length of time are the ones they like to eat. And that’s the gist of the article and the video. Evidently, a hungry octopus will happily drag himself over land to get to a tasty morsel.

That’s not all by half, though. A second article referenced in this one chronicles the experiences of researcher Alexa Warburton with a Pacific octopus named Athena. From the article:

Octopuses in captivity actually escape their watery enclosures with alarming frequency. While on the move, they have been discovered on carpets, along bookshelves, in a teapot, and inside the aquarium tanks of other fish – upon whom they have usually been dining.

Think about that for a minute. These things are like aquatic zombies. I’m thinking of pitching a new show to AMC: The Walking Octopi. Eerie.

Header: The octopus featured in the video, walking