Found in the dense rainforest canopies of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, the tree octopus has been driven to near extinction due to bow hunters, alkaline rain, suction blight, and over-harvesting by increasing numbers of Sasquatch, their natural predators.
(Thanks to the Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site for this rare picture.)I've been advocating for tree octopuses (note the proper plural) ever since I set up this blog. In fact, that was THE reason I started blogging. Many of my faithful readers will remember my petition to stop the cruel trade of tentacle-related goods, like shaped rubber bands, which led KiddyTime Bandz® to introduce an Octo-Safe™ label on their entire product line (excluding red shapes.) Simultaneously I continued to post tips on mollusk photography (best time of day for lighting: 3:47 pm) and warn about the dangers of travelling in Sally Sucker-Cup Country. Indeed, many a hiker has been driven to drinking by the maddening howls of these arboreal cephalopods.
This is why we have so many microbreweries in the Northwest. Check out the bios of their founders, and see how many first started drafting after returning from the woods.
So now I'm pleased to offer on tap, for a limited time only, the illustrious Angry Tree Octopus Award.
The ATOA goes to a blogger who makes regular, frequent appearances. This angers the octopus, who doesn't like it when someone shows up more than he does. (Which is never, because he doesn't actually exist.) He would rather see a blog disappear entirely...but that's what the White Dolphin Award is for. So the octopus must go to a place he hates the most, a highly visible blog, and thus he exists in a state of perpetual indignation.
I award this award to Snarke over at Snarke, who wins it hands down. Not only does she blog like a fiend, but she also posts a vlog with equal frequency, once updating every day for an entire year. That's commitment. Really, she deserves to win this award twice. She writes about many things, but most of all the wondrous network of super-nerds that makes the Northwest such a great place to live. She is a font of knowledge for every quirky fun event that goes on in the Portland metro area. And now I know who John and Hank Green are thanks to her.
To accept this award the recipient must appease the ego of the tree octopus by blogging at least five tree octopus facts. These can be, for example, which type of tree it prefers, or its migration patterns, or what restaurant you two ate at together recently, or boxers vs. briefs. And then, if the recipient so desires, he/she can make the ATOA angry again by making it appear on someone else's blog.
Tomorrow, the last of the awards! Will it be...for you??
3 comments:
I believe this is the best award that has ever been given. Hopefully, it makes it way around the web. Plus, the awareness of this elusive creature may help to save it.
YAY! Thank you! As soon as I saw the title of this post I thought "oooh oooh, let it be meeeeeeeeee" and it was! Yay!
Okay... I have to go look up facts now.
BTW: I've been reading faithfully but suck at remembering to comment. Thanks for bringing me out of the commenting closet! :)
High praise, Brett! It'll be a good day indeed if I ever see one of these awards appear anywhere else.
E, my friend, you found it even before I could go over to your blog and tell you! I was holding this one especially for you, knowing you to be, like me, a tree octopee devotee. So...all I have to do to get you to comment is give you an award? Duly noted. Good luck with your, ahem, research!
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