If someone says, “Duh, an octopus has eight legs,” you can now say, “Actually, they have eight arms. A squid has two legs—er, tentacles—plus eight arms.”
You’ll be the life of the party. Or you’ll get a beer thrown at you. Either way, you’ll have remembered the real answer.
And honestly? The octopus doesn’t care what we call them. It’s too busy changing color, squeezing through a hole the size of a coin, and planning its escape from the aquarium. Again.
So, the final, coffee-cup-clinking answer is this: An octopus has eight wonderfully weird, brainy, grabby, taste-testing arms. But if you want to call them legs, go ahead. The octopus won’t correct you. It’s too busy using one of those “legs” to open a jar of pickles.
Now, who’s buying the next round? I’m parched.
