I'm curious, do any of you remember how or in what context you were introduced to (or encountered, if you were so lucky...) an octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus, and how old you were at the time? Earliest memory? I remember my parents taking me to the aquarium at the St Louis Zoo, as a kid. The octopus (which I now realize was several over several years) was kept in a dark tank in a dark room off the main walkway through the exhibit hall. It was rare to actually see him, although I refused to leave until I saw something, some movement. For some reason our visits were never timed to feedings. Then one day I saw the octopus roll out from behind the coral set up, arms and suckers feeling around on the glass, the substrate, searching, it seemed. I remember several other kids screeching and backing away from the tank--the movement so sudden and unexpected. I remained, nose pressed to the outside of the glass. I just remember wanting to touch the octopus, to reach back. I knew nothing about them as a child of no more than probably 8 or 9, yet I remember this so well, and I'm certain it felt like an invitation. I would later draw my family with heads in the middle of their bodies, torsos on top, arms on top of that. I called it my "Mars Family" drawing, but on closer inspection, I drew this around the time I saw that octopus. I still have the drawing!