Henry the Hexapus and more March

Dear Henry Albert,

Henry the Octopus/Hexapus): English Marine Experts discovered an octopus with six legs. *Octopodes (*Octopodes is the plural of octopus.) usually have eight legs which are not really legs. And they aren’t arms either. They are tentacles. And you have to be careful of how you spell and pronounce tentacles because people can think you are talking about something else which can be very confusing.

Some people think the plural of octopus is octopi or octopussys. The “oct” means 8. So octopus is OK if you have eight things. But, Henry got six and ‘Hex” means six so Henry is a Hexapus.
So they named the octopus with six tentacles a “hexapus”. They named him 'Henry' because it alliterated well with 'hexapus.' The supervisor who named him Henry is named Carey Duckhouse.

Duckhouse, Schmuckhouse, so what? What is important is that you got a new cousin. His name is Levi and Uncle Mike and Dave are the Daddies. More to come ....

The octopus (Greek Οκτάπους, 'eight-legs', with plural forms: octopuses, octopi, or octopodes, see below) is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda.

'Henry' was discovered in a local zoo along with seven other Octopodes. No one noticed his missing legs until he attached himself to the inside of his glass tank.

Some people thought he was named Henry after King Henry the 8th who had eight wives but only two legs. Until Henry, the most famous six-legged octopus was one that appeared in a 1955 B-movie, “It Came From Beneath The Sea.” In order to save money, the producers made their octopus (hexapus) with only six tentacles. Octopuses are renowned for having three hearts, blue blood and the ability to alter their skin complexion in the blink of an eye.

Other birthdays in March:
March 10, 1957: Osama Bin Laden. Terrorist created by Carter & Reagan
March 31, 1596: René Descartes, philosopher, mathematician
March 31, 1732: Franz Joseph Haydn, composer
March 31, 1811: German chemist R.W.E. von Bunsen, invented the Bunsen Burner March 31, 1927: Cesar Chavez, labor leader Duckhouse? What kind of name is Duckhouse? I went to Yeshiva with a kid named Mousehouse. Mousehouse was a translation of something. Maybe Duckhouse is a translation something also.

And Grandpa Joel did an important scientific experiment in March. I dropped a cell phone in the toilet to see if it would work or float. It didn’t work or float. Drying it with a towel or slamming it against the wall didn’t make it work either. My friend Don suggested putting it in the microwave oven but Ralph said it would melt and it would be better to put it in the toaster oven on “light” for 2 minutes. It worked!

And what does this prove? One thing is we have Daylight Savings Time. That is when we move the clocks one hour ahead to confuse the chickens or roosters and certainly people.
Eliot Spitzer quit as Governor of New York because of a peccadillo. (Peccadillo (plural either peccadillos or peccadilloes), from the Latin word for sin, is commonly used for a petty misdeed and, by extension, for an antic.) Anyway, he got caught. He was known as #9 when he was peccadilloing. So they are selling sweat shirts which will help the economy.Peccadillos, armadillos and avocados are all different things.

Hello March

Dear Henry Albert,

February is gone. The Stock Market dropped over 300 points on February 29, 2008 (Leap Year Day or Extra Day). It’s a good thing it only comes once every four years.

We hope March will be better. March has the birthdays of famous and important people. Albert Einstein was born on March 14th and Dr. Seuss was born on March 2nd.

And do you know who was born on March 11th? (Ask your Mommy and Daddy)

Scientists said there is a big increase in the amount of Jelly Fish. When your Mommy and Uncle Mike were little kids, I told them about Jelly Fish, but they used to giggle and think I was joking. They also thought I was kidding about Oatmeal Fish and String Bean Fish and Peanut Butter Fish. Giggling is good.

You are learning to talk and make sounds. You say “up” and “la-la-la”. Soon you will learn “Mama” and “Dada” and “zugepes” and a lot of other words. Sounds are important too. Especially if you are a bus or a fire-engine. A bus goes “HONK! HONK!” And fire-engines have sirens that make a lot of noise.

Animal sounds are important. Did you know that a lot of people don’t speak English and a lot of creatures are not people? There are more Chickens and Bugs and Spanish and Chinese speaking people in the world than Americans.

What if everyone in America went around babbling in Chinese and Spanish and Chicken and Bug? John Wayne believed that all Americans should speak English.
March 1st is National Pig Day and Peanut Lovers Day The 5th is Multiple Personality Day and the 6th is both Dentist's Day and National Frozen Food Day .
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) warned that you should not eat alfalfa sprouts until further notice because of suspected infection.
No alfalfa sprouts for Henry!

And the answer is ….. Lawrence Welk.

And maybe some other person who is giggling and eating their hat.