Tom,

I read your post and went looking for the magazine and, geez, is my house a
mess. I'll do a major clean up this week and see if I can find it.

It was in an aquarium hobby magazine, (salt water?) that I found at Barnes
and Noble. I think it was about three months ago. The blue-ringed octopus was
the cover story and cover photo, which was why I noticed and purchased the
magazine. I hadn't ever read it before. The piece was very interesting. The
author felt that these critters should not be kept as pets. The business
about the poison, (tetrodotoxin or something like that) being molecularly
identical in such different animals (gastropod and cephalopod mollusks, fish
and amphibian) made my jaw drop. I thought, wow, cool, is that ever wild!

It seemed unlikely to me that anything so extreme wouldn't be common
knowledge to the hardcore conch-Lers. I'm wondering if I'm getting loopy in
my old age and remembering incorrectly. But if the pharmaceutical companies
aren't sharing their information, maybe that's why.

At any rate, by hook or by crook I will turn up a copy of this magazine and
get the name of the author. For now, I've got to tackle the woolly
mammoth-sized dust kitties under my bed!

Ellen