Octopus

If you aim to dethrone Dmitri's legendary grilled octopus, you'd best have a few tricks up your sleeve. And it appears that Estia does, and does: Its extraordinary octopodi is sourced from Portugal and Spain, cleaned and tenderized with sea salt in a dedicated washing machine (that's right, just the rinse and spin cycle), braised in red-wine vinegar, and grilled over charcoal. Over the fire it's basted with the house vinaigrette, which slowly caramelizes, yielding a crackling, sweet crust.

Pete Cusimano was the first guy to throw an octopus on the ice at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Had he known how the tradition would grow, he'd have cornered the market. Cusimano, who ran a fish and poultry market, did the ugly deed first on April 13, 1952. Now, as the Red Wings prepare for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night, throwing octopuses is a tradition. "I wish I had known 40 years ago," said Cusimano, 68. "I could have locked up this thing and retired.

Just when Chicago gets a sparkling, state-of-the-art sports palace, the United Center, here come fans of the Detroit Red Wings to - splat! - mess it up. At least that's the plan. Detroit fans are hoping to continue one of the grosser sports traditions and throw an octopus or two on the ice whenever their team scores against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight in Game 3 of their Western Conference final series. But officials at the United Center have a message for those who plan to bring mollusks to the arena: Don't.

It had eight long legs and eyes as black as night, and it stretched 15 feet across. Its suckers, for seizing and holding prey, were bright pink. But the children did not fear its presence, they were never in danger. This gangling, blue-green octopus was suspended from the ceiling by pulleys. "He was actually pretty scary looking when he was all wire," said Tara Levy, 11, as she stood under the octopus, painting its stomach. "Once we got him covered with newspaper, plaster and started to paint him, he looked pretty good.

A chambered nautilus, one of four of the deep-sea creatures from the Indo- Pacific, adjusts to its new residence at the State Aquarium at Camden. The exhibit has red lighting to protect the delicate relatives of the octopus. Nautiluses live in dark ocean depths, coming to the surface on moonless nights to breed.

For decades now, friends and family have known where to find Jack McFadden on a Friday or Saturday night. He's probably standing at a bar, or at the edge of a room, as statuesque and calm as an English butler. McFadden, 55, has almost had to be what could be described as the eye of the storm - he's in the restaurant business. During a 15-year period through the 1980s, he owned three hugely popular establishments: The Restaurant & The Bar in West Chester, the Marshallton Inn and the Oyster Bar, both in Marshallton, West Bradford.

YOU PROBABLY KNOW that Red Wings fans have been tossing octopi on the ice during playoff games for the last 58 years. What you may not know is that there is a method to their cephalopod madness. Before the series, the Red Wings reminded fans of the o-fish-al rules to prepare, and throw, octopi. They are, in no particular order: 1. Pick an octopus you can handle. The fans between you and the ice don't want you to come up short. 2. Boil the slimy creature so that it's . . . well . . . less slimy.

Since it opened last July, people around my neighborhood have been talking about the Butcher's Cafe. At the north end of the Italian Market, the BYOB restaurant has the reputation of a homey neighborhood spot. It quickly took the place of Litto's Bakery & Caffe across the street, a similar family-run BYOB that closed a couple of years ago. The second we walked in the door, I got a sense of what makes it so popular - it's like going over to a friend's place to eat. The host sat at the front desk with a glass of red wine next to the reservation book.

Last week, news "surfaced" about a giant deep-sea bug and a nine-legged octopus. This week, it's the creepy "Oriental yeti" as well as a new lizard species. Learn something ewww every day. Or so it seems online. Such critters have been crawling all over recent lists of popular searches. "My god, it's a monster!" That was Reddit.com's headline when a someone posted a couple of grisly pictures, asking readers to ID a bizarre 2.5-foot creature found at a depth of 8,500 feet - more than a mile and a half down.

  Most days, Jeff Nash, a lawyer and Camden County freeholder, wears a suit and tie. On Sunday, he'll dress as an octopus, with eight black tentacles stretching from his hooded sweatshirt and with his face and shoes painted gold. Nash, who is also vice chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, is part of an intermittent Mummers comic brigade known as the Golden Schleppers. The group of South Jersey politicians, county, and municipal workers and their friends came together in 1990 but hasn't participated for 10 years since a key member died, Nash said.

SEOUL, South Korea - I have made it a general rule in life to avoid eating anything that fights back. Nonetheless, here at Noryangjin fish market, the dish before me - fully alive only moments before - is still squirming. "Chew vigorously," my friend Nick advises me, as I seize a particularly ambitious piece of sannakji - a freshly dismembered bit of raw octopus tentacle - between the metal blades of my chopsticks, dredge it through a small dish of sesame oil, and pop it, writhing, into my mouth.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Some stories are irresistible. Whether they happen to be true or not is almost beside the point. That's how it is with Matt Anderson and the octopus. The story of a onetime No. 1 draft pick blowing his career by tossing an eight-legged sea creature is just too bizarre to go away. Anderson, who acknowledges tossing the cephalopod in a strange pregame promotional event while he was with the Tigers, has always maintained that the injury to his arm that very night was a mere coincidence.

OK, OK, we'll follow up on the Lindsay Lohan sentencing Tuesday in L.A. But reader, read on, for we also discuss (1) The exciting new Betty White calendar; (2) Paul the Octopus ; and (3) music news, real and terrifying. (Right: It's summer.) As the world knows, in two weeks LiLo begins her jail term, nominally 90 days, but likely to be as short as 25 since it's a nonviolent offense by a female. She hurled down and danced upon probation terms for a 2007 DUI. Two fashion notes: (1)

Working man's food - it has to be good on the go, filling and cheap. Philly has its cheesesteaks, of course, Chicago its deep-dish pizza and Tokyo the takoyaki. That's "tako" meaning octopus plus "yaki" for grill: pieces of octopus-flavor balls of crepe-like dough that are served with a sweet sauce that has notes of plum, apricot and just a hint of vinegar and clove. A garnish of bonito-fish flakes adds to the aromatic quality. Philadelphia now has its own version of this street food - Maru Global, on 10th Street near Locust.

YOU PROBABLY KNOW that Red Wings fans have been tossing octopi on the ice during playoff games for the last 58 years. What you may not know is that there is a method to their cephalopod madness. Before the series, the Red Wings reminded fans of the o-fish-al rules to prepare, and throw, octopi. They are, in no particular order: 1. Pick an octopus you can handle. The fans between you and the ice don't want you to come up short. 2. Boil the slimy creature so that it's . . . well . . . less slimy.

Last week, news "surfaced" about a giant deep-sea bug and a nine-legged octopus. This week, it's the creepy "Oriental yeti" as well as a new lizard species. Learn something ewww every day. Or so it seems online. Such critters have been crawling all over recent lists of popular searches. "My god, it's a monster!" That was Reddit.com's headline when a someone posted a couple of grisly pictures, asking readers to ID a bizarre 2.5-foot creature found at a depth of 8,500 feet - more than a mile and a half down.

To understand the particular affection with which certain longer-term (but not necessarily old-time) Philadelphians regard Dmitri's, it is useful to step back 20 years to its debut at the corner of Third and Catharine. It is still right there, a bite-sized, big-windowed Greek cafe, its faded teak benches set out on the sidewalk. These were an important feature; waits for one of the 38 seats could stretch on toward an hour, and a plate of hummus and grilled pita, and a few glasses of white wine from your wine tote made the wait tolerable.

WITH SO much talk about Pizzeria Stella, at Head House Square, it seemed time to head on over and find out if this upper-crust pizzeria was the real deal, or just blowing smoke from its wood-burning oven. In my mind, few starters stimulate the appetite better than prosciutto from the San Daniele region, so an order ($10) went in before we even made our pie choices. One of the characteristics for preferring this cured ham over Prosciutto di Parma is that it is slightly sweeter, less salty, and the texture is softer.

WITH SO much talk about Pizzeria Stella, at Head House Square, it seemed time to head on over and find out if this upper-crust pizzeria was the real deal, or just blowing smoke from its wood-burning oven. In my mind, few starters stimulate the appetite better than prosciutto from the San Daniele region, so an order ($10) went in before we even made our pie choices. One of the characteristics for preferring this cured ham over Prosciutto di Parma is that it is slightly sweeter, less salty, and the texture is softer.