I keep a silly personal blog devoted to a six-legged toy that both my kids have outgrown but which still amuses me.

I sometimes use that blog, and that toy, in classroom activities, and occasionally students develop an affection for what I called a “hectopus” (combining “hexagon” with “octopus,” though I concede “hexapus” would have been a better choice).

Anyway, one of my former students sent me this story about the sad fate of a real-world hexapus.

After catching an octopus, holidaymaker Labros Hydras followed local tradition by killing it and taking it to a taverna to be served for his supper.

That is when he discovered this was no ordinary specimen – it was a ‘hexapus’ with only six legs instead of the usual eight.

via Rainbow Hector Weblog