99 octopus Xmas tree

Anne sez, "Futuregirl, an indie crafty designer, published a felt octopus pattern, and a grandmother with 99 grandchildren and great grandchildren decided to make one octopus for each of her grandchildren. You will not believe how beautiful a tree with 99 octopi on it can be." Link (Thanks, Anne!)

• [Gainclone]

  Although OCTOPODE is technically correct (and sounds much cooler) it is not the standard accepted plural form of Octopus. I say, let’s everyone start using octopode, octopede, octupulike, octopusules, octapsules, and all other kinds of crazy made-up plurals to throw-off the boys at the Word Regulation Facility.

• [help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread]

  It’s actually octopoids, although octopuses is perfectly fine.

• [Anonymous]

  Hi, I just wanted you to know that the grandmother in the octopi story you posted just happens to be my mother. I was sent to the boingboing site by Futuregirl. I was happy to see it at first because this is a pretty awesome place and it was so cool to see my mother’s handy-work listed here. However I was a little hurt by the negative comment about my mother’s family size.
  My mother happens to have terminal cancer and was doing this as one of her last projects to show her love and appreciation for her family. It really hurts to see her spoken of in this way by the boing boing list members.
  She is an intelligent, delightful and very resourceful woman, loved by her family and community. She has never been considered a disgusting waste of resources, and neither has any of her posterity.

• [normanack]

  As the person who sent in the link, I’m mortified that I made a mistake. The woman who made all those octop* did indeed make 99 of them, but she only has 90-some grand and great-grand children. I’m terribly sorry.

• [Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator]

  Anonymous, I’m sorry I didn’t catch those remarks before you saw them. I’ve removed the comment, and handed out a one-week suspension to its author.

  That’s an awesome tree, and you’re right to be proud of your mother and her work. Tell her we wish her a Merry Christmas.

• [Beanolini]

  How many times… it’s ‘octopodes’, not ‘octopi’!

  But yes, very nice tree.

• [Nelson.C]

  Normanack@9: that’s still quite impressive, implying around 4.3 children per family, which is a bit above the necessary replacement rate.

• [jimh]

  zomg! I <3 Futuregirl!
  Octophrost (The Santa of the Sea) is fantastic, and so is a grandmother who sews 99 of them! Thanks for this most wonderful post, it’s just the cute overload I needed this morning.

• [jason walker]

  … wait a minute. 99 grandchildren?! That’s an impressive number even by baby factory standards. I’m avoiding the obvious ‘clown car’ reference …

• [Ryan]

  Actually, #1, it’s octopuses; this is English after all. It’s also more widely accepted according to an informal corpus search with Google. ;)

• [pepik]

  Mmmmm — octopie </homer>

• [Lone]

  Rawr! Bleached skull octopus tree swarm plan’s your holiday doom!
  I guess with 99 grandchildren an octopus is an appropriate representation. I founded the village that raises my children? >.>

• [jimh]

  Wow, why did the part of my comment where I said “I <3 Futuregirl!” disappear? Is that verboten? Or was is a code thing?