Good morning, it’s Thursday.

First, a quick programming note: There will be no “Rise and Shine” tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 8, due to a personal conflict, or Monday, Oct. 12, which is Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day, depending on where you live. We will be returning bright and early on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

Moving on.

There’s a lot of “eight” going on today. It’s the eighth day of the month of October, which, once upon a time, was the eighth month in the 10-month Roman calendar – hence it’s Latin root “octo“, meaning (I think you got it by now) eight.

So it makes a lot of sense that today is National Octopus Day, celebrating the eight-legged marine cephalopod that is widely considered the smartest invertebrate on the plant – along with its relatives, the squid and the cuttlefish.

“Cephalopod”, by the way, translates into “head-foot” in Greek. Take one look at an octopus and its bulbous, many-legged relations and the reasoning behind the name is pretty self-explanatory.

Here are some crazy cool octopus facts to kick off your day:

  • The octopus has the largest brain-to-body size ratio of any invertebrate, and posses about 500 million neurons, which is comparable to what dogs have.
  • About two-thirds of those neurons are located in an octopus’ legs, which enables it to move them not only every individual leg, but each one of hundreds of suckers located on those legs, independently, as well as taste and touch with each leg.
  • Octopi (or octopuses, if you prefer, because it turns out that both are right) can solve complex mazes and puzzles, open jars, move rocks, and have been known to escape from their aquarium tanks. (They cannot, from a scientific standpoint, accurately predict the outcome of World Cup matches, though any number of people believe that to be the case).
  • If an octopus loses one of its arms, it can grow another – complete with muscles, skin, nerves, and suckers.
  • Octopuses can change color rapidly, either to match their surroundings to hide from prey or predators or to stand out.
  • Not all octopuses squirt ink, but those that can use it to confuse and escape from predators. Often, the ink contains a compound called tyrosinase, which is an irritant that gets in the eyes of anything trying to hurt the octopus and also dampens its sense of smell, buying sufficient time to get away safely.
  • Octopuses can lay anywhere from a few dozen to 500,000 eggs. (Yes, I know that’s a broad range). And they only mate once and lay a single clutch of eggs in their all-too-short lives.
  • The mother octopus protects and vehemently defends the eggs, forgoing eating to do so, and ultimately dying. (This is a pretty heartbreaking and altogether grim situation, don’t clink on that link if you’re squeamish or soft-hearted).

There are about 300 recognized species of octopuses. The largest is the Giant Pacific Octopus, which can reach a maximum weight of 50 pounds and an arm span of about 30+ feet. It lives for up to five years – the high end of the average octopus lifespan.

The smallest is the Star-Sucker Pygmy Octopus, which measures well under an inch in length – tiny enough to fit on your fingertip. It makes its home in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and only lives for about six months due to it incredibly tiny stature.

The good news for octopus lovers is that they are generally not endangered, though their populations are decreasing – as is the case with so many species these days – due to a combination of overfishing and habitat loss. This brings me to a hard truth on World Octopus Day: As amazing and sympathetic and intelligent as octopuses are, they are also delicious.

I am sorry. I feel deeply guilty every time I order octopus, and sometimes I talk myself out of it. But there is little better, in my opinion, than a well cooked octopus. I will be better; I promise. The best future version of me will be vegan. But today’s version enjoys meat, chicken, fish, and, yes, octopus, a little too much.

We’ll see intervals of clouds and sun today, with the slight chance of a rain shower. High temperatures will flirt with 70 degrees.

In the headlines…

President Donald Trump said he wants to develop one of his Florida golf courses in West Palm Beach into a presidential retreat where his successors can spend quiet weekends on the greens, describing it as “sort of a Camp David ”.

The plan calls for a parcel of the private club to be designated a permanent, official sanctuary for foreign leaders and future U.S. presidents, designed to host international summits and house presidents when they take vacations in Florida.

Elections officials in Florida removed Trump’s personal information from public voter registration records, after Trump cited a new state privacy law that does not apply to him as the president.

The Pentagon instructed U.S. Central Command several days ago to conclude preparations for resuming major combat operations in Iran, U.S. officials said.

High school students and their supporters were set to pour into streets across France again today, for the second time in a week, in a test of whether a growing movement of student protesters can swell into a nationwide wave of grievance.

The students are protesting against overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of teachers and decrepit facilities. But with parlous public finances, the French government can offer little remedy beyond continuing to suspend classes so students can air their complaints.

Tennessee is grappling with the ethical and legal questions surrounding the case of Christa Pike, 50, the first person to survive injection drugs that were supposed to be lethal.

Pike’s attorneys said she has pneumonia, a blood clot, couldn’t swallow, and is unable to move her arms or hands once she regained consciousness in a Tennessee hospital, days after the death row inmate survived a botched execution by the state.

In Texas, Jamaal Howard, 46, was put to death yesterday in the first US execution since the botched lethal injection of Pike in Tennessee last week.

Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

Hasan’s death would be the first U.S. military execution in over six decades — and the first by firing squad since World War II.

In the wake of the botched attempt to execute Pike, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a possible presidential candidate, is seriously considering whether to spare the lives of all 563 prisoners on death row in California as one of his final acts in office.

With the clock ticking down to Election Day on Nov. 3, a new poll in the New York governor’s race has Gov. Kathy Hochul with a double-digit lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman.

According to a Marist Poll released yesterday, Hochul leads Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, 53-42% among registered voters.

Landmarks across the state were bathed in yellow light as part of the state’s observance of the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, and Hochul directed flags on state buildings to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset.

Late last week, the Seneca Nation said a new gaming compact had been agreed upon in principle between the Seneca Nation of Indians and New York State. However, Hochul says not so fast because “currently, there is no agreement.”

Fare evasion has plummeted an average of 35% across the 20 stations where the MTA is testing modern subway entrance gates meant to deter the practice, Hochul and agency leaders announced.

A former assistant attorney general who accused AG Letitia James of improperly targeting Trump and his associates had been counseled for performance issues and an alleged failure to participate in meetings or to respond to missives from his supervisors.

Gillio Lopes, one of the men accused in the Cornell University sexual assault lawsuit, has asked for the state’s attorney general to be removed from leading the investigation into the incident.

Mayor Mamdani, trying to navigate a complicated political dynamic, faced criticism for calling the Oct. 7 terror attacks anniversary a “profoundly painful” day for many New Yorkers while criticizing Israel for carrying out what he called a “genocide” in Gaza.

The mayor posted a 211-word statement on social media that focused largely on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, drawing angry responses from Jewish leaders.

Mamdani’s statement was notably different from those released by other elected officials, including Hochul, who described Oct. 7 as “the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

The statement had garnered more than 11 million views on X by Wednesday evening — and the backlash was broad, sparking condemnations even from some fellow Democrats who hold differing views on the conflict.

Anti-Zionist protesters railed against Mamdani at a rally outside City Hall marking the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel.

Union Square was on high alert last night as demonstrators poured in ahead of a vigil marking the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Mamdani joined the ceremony, but did not address the crowd.

Mamdani arrived to boos from pro-Palestinian marchers who disrupted the event in Manhattan, which was organized by a pro-peace Israeli group.

The mayor appeared ashen and upset as he left, without addressing the crowd, flanked by his security detail as he walked to a waiting S.U.V. at 8:50 p.m.

Nearly two-thirds of Jewish voters in New York City disapprove of Mamdani’s handling of antisemitism, according to a new poll. Jewish voters also said Mamdani, a fierce critic of Israel, should not hold or attend an official city event marking the anniversary.

MTA officials announced that the agency is moving forward with a $1.1 billion rollout of modern fare gates after testing the technology at 20 subway stations over the last year.

A judge has ruled that Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne violated campaign law by accepting several donations that exceeded contribution limits going back to 2022, the start of the current election cycle for the position.

The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary’s ranking Democrat is asking the Justice Department and FBI to investigate former Bard College President Leon Botstein as a potential co-conspirator to Jeffrey Epstein in his international sex trafficking operation.

Botstein resigned from all of his positions affiliated with the college yesterday, though he insisted in a statement that “any assertion that I knew of or was involved in Epstein’s criminal behavior is wrong.”

GlobalFoundries is partnering with a Toronto-based quantum computing firm Xanadu Quantum Technologies to make its photon, or light-based, chips, the Malta-based chip manufacturer announced.

Gideon Grande, who quietly resigned as Albany budget director as details of the city’s dire fiscal crisis emerged in March, has been hired to construct budgets for Schenectady County.

The Albany Common Council has started examining the 2027 city budget proposed by Mayor Dorcey Applyrs, who plans several meetings to answer questions about the spending plan.

Chick-fil-A and Starbucks are among the businesses that will open new locations near Colonie Center as part of a commercial development that received early approval from the Colonie planning board this week.

Troopers charged a 20-year-old Hudson Falls man after he allegedly broke into a Main Street home early Tuesday morning — before a resident there shot him.

Whiteface Mountain, one of three ski areas managed by the state Olympic Regional Development Authority and the tallest mountain in New York with a weather station, saw its first snowfall of the season on Monday.

Photo credit: George Fazio.