The History Channel has a cryptozoology series, Monster Quest, and as you might imagine, I spent the evening watching the Champ and Giant Squid episodes with rapt attention*. I eagerly await the giant fish and swamp beast episodes. Oh, happy day, made even happier by this clip from It Came From Beneath the Sea.

Legend has it that the director only budgeted enough money to animate six of the monster’s arms, prompting Ray Harryhausen to dub it a ‘sextopus’.

*Curious thing: both the squid and BirdZilla episodes have featured researchers from UMN.

Update: The first two episodes I watched were rather well done, but the BirdZilla episode was just silly. I want a copy of it so I can use it to teach my students how not to structure an argument. It was more or less like this: There's no way there are gigantic birds that carry off small children and feast on human flesh. Nobody has any reasonable photos or non-crazy witnesses or bones or really anything. Nope nope nope. But if there were, here is what it might look like! And here is how it might have gotten blown all the way from south Africa to Iowa by the mighty late-70s winds! Maybe that could happen in an El Nino year! But seriously, there is no such thing. Here’s another scientist to tell you that this isn’t really even possible. Carrying off monkeys, maybe, but certainly not humans. No way.

Besides, the idea of gigantic people-eating birds is preposterous. Sea monsters, now, those are sensible.