By way of giving a little more back story to yesterday's word of the day post, I'm republishing an entry from my family blog from 2 years ago today.
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I recently mentioned our latest music acquisition, TMBG's Here Come the 123s, which has been getting heavy play around here. One of the heaviest in the heavy rotation is a catchy tune titled "Triops Has Three Eyes". Sample lyrics:
Needles have an eye
Tornadoes have an eye
Potatoes have a lot of eyes
But triops has three eyes
Triops has three eyes
So, Griff approached me the other day:
Griff: "Mom, are Triops really real?"
Me: "No, they're a made-up creature. They Might Be Giants sometimes sing about real things, and sometimes they sing about pretend silly things, and sometimes they mix both together. Triops is a made-up silly thing."
Why did my spider sense not tingle? Never, ever act like an expert unless you have definite, recent, first-hand knowledge of a thing.
The next day I was watching the DVD version of HCT123s with Reese and up come the knitted hand puppets of John and John, telling us that the next song is about a real, ancient creature that actually has three eyes.
Oh, crap. They're joking, right? I googled it. Yeah. Triops has three eyes. To be more specific, this "living fossil" has two compound eyes (think of the classic dragonfly eye) and one ocellus (light sensor).
What's more, my friend Angela informed me that she and her son Reese are growing Triops in their home. Apparently you can buy them in a little kit like Sea Monkeys. One online order later and a trip to the grocery store for distilled water, and guess what we're going to do? Stay tuned for our own triops adventures...
