The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Octopuses have no internal or external skeleton (although some species have a vestigial remnant of a shell inside their mantle), allowing them to squeeze through tight places. Octopuses are among the most intelligent and behaviorally flexible of all invertebrates. Octopuses have three hearts. Two branchial hearts pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body. Although less efficient under normal conditions than the iron-rich hemoglobin of vertebrates, in cold conditions with low oxygen pressure, hemocyanin oxygen transportation is more efficient than hemoglobin oxygen transportation. The hemocyanin is dissolved in the plasma instead of being carried within red blood cells and gives the blood a bluish color. See many pictures at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus

Florida's latest arrivals are giant African land snails that grow as long as eight inches, chew through plants, plaster and stucco, and sometimes carry a parasite that can infect humans with a nonlethal strain of meningitis. The gastropods are among the most dangerous in the world, agriculture officials say. They each have male and female reproductive organs and can lay 1,200 eggs a year, allowing them to proliferate rapidly. Thousands of them have infested at least five separate neighborhoods in the Miami area. Federal and state agriculture officials have responded with a large-scale eradication effort. They've deployed 70 people to hunt for the pests house by house in the affected areas. Since the snails were first detected on Sept. 8, workers have collected about 10,000 of them from 114 properties. It's not the first time the snails have plagued Miami. In 1966, a boy brought home three of them from a trip to Hawaii and kept them in a terrarium, says Richard Gaskalla, director of the agriculture department's division of plant industry. Eventually, the child's grandmother released them into the garden. The creatures propagated wildly. It took authorities almost a decade to wipe them out, with a campaign that cost more than $1 million and snared 18,000 snails. Originally from east Africa, the snails can now be found in the Pacific Rim, Hawaii and several Caribbean islands. It's illegal to bring them into the U.S. without a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and no permits have been issued for years, says Mr. Gaskalla. Florida has had plenty of practice fighting off imported pests, which pop up in the state an average of once a month, says Mr. Gaskalla. Some arrive by chance, carried on cargo ships or air currents, while others are set loose by owners, intentionally or by accident, and then flourish in the subtropical climate. Arian Campo-Flores http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203791904576608673000592148.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_editorsPicks_1


schlemiel or schlemihl or shlemiel (shluh-MEEL) noun
An inept, clumsy person: a habitual bungler.
From Yiddish shlemil, from Hebrew Shelumiel, a Biblical and Talmudic figure who met an unhappy end, according to the Talmud. Earliest documented use: 1892. No discussion of schlemiel would be complete without mentioning schlimazel, one prone to having bad luck. In a restaurant, a schlemiel is the waiter who spills soup, and a schlimazel is the diner on whom it lands.
celadon (SEL-uh-don) noun
1. A pale green color.
2. A type of ceramics having a pale green glaze, originally made in China.
After Céladon, a character in the novel L'Astrée by the French novelist Honoré d'Urfé (1568-1625). Céladon is a shepherd who wears green clothes. Earliest documented use: 1768.
onomasticon (on-uh-MAS-ti-kon) noun
A dictionary of names, especially personal names or place names.
From Greek onomastikos (of names), from onoma (name). Earliest documented use: 710. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

In 1867, the Western Reserve Historical Society was founded to preserve and present the history of all of the people of northeast Ohio. Today, it is the largest privately supported regional historical society in the nation. When the original colonies of the United States were formed, most of the western borders were left blank, since the settlers didn't know how far west the land went. In 1786, the State of Connecticut gave up its claims to Western lands of the United States, except for a portion of northeastern Ohio known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. Later, the land was sold to the Connecticut Land Company, which surveyed and settled the region, but the name Connecticut Western Reserve - or just Western Reserve - continued to be used to describe the northeastern section of Ohio. See map showing Ohio directly west of Connecticut at: http://www.wrhs.org/index.php/homepage/about

The Connecticut Western Reserve was land claimed by Connecticut from 1662 to 1800 in the Northwest Territory in what is now northeastern Ohio. Although forced to surrender the Pennsylvania portion (Westmoreland County) of its sea-to-sea land grant following the Yankee-Pennamite Wars and the intercession of the federal government, Connecticut held fast to its right to the lands between the 41st and 42nd-and-2-minutes parallels that lay west of the Pennsylvania border. Within the state of Ohio, the claim was a 120-mile (190 km) wide strip between Lake Erie and a line just south of Youngstown, Akron, New London, and Willard, about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the present-day U.S. Highway 224. Beyond Ohio the claim included parts of what would become Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. The east boundary of the reserve follows a true meridian along Ellicott‘s Line, the boundary with Pennsylvania. The west boundary veers more than four degrees from a meridian to maintain the 120 mile width, due to convergence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve

Ohio's criminal statutes are in Chase's Statutes of Ohio (3 volumes, published 1833, covers 1788 to that date), Chapter LIII, An act respecting crimes and punishments (Jan. 15, 1805), with 38 sections beginning on page 438 of volume 1. This was in the 3rd General Assembly. Prior to that, Ohio used Northwest Territory law. Thanks, Rick.