Howdy!
Well, I am back from a wonderful afternoon with my darling granddaughter and absolutely buoyed by the experience. So, I will stick my head in the noose one more time and procede with a question for you scuba mavens out there.
I tend to rely on logic and I am guessing that my dive instructor, a wonderful teacher and person, probably told me exactly what Mario the Maddening so eloquently stated above. However, I probably looked at him holding all the strange appearing gear and said to myself, "Self, the octopus is the gadget with all the arms," and I was happy (as in fat, dumb and....). Because, LOGICALLY speaking, something with 4 appendages looks more like an octopus (the animal) than something with only one appendage.
Sooooo--winding up for the high, hard one--why the hell is the alternate air device called the "octopus"? I have looked in every scuba book that I own, Websters, Roget's, and Martha Stewart's Seafood for Singles. And I just cannot find an explanation.
(Now I have placed a bet with myself as to WHO will answer this question correctly. If I win, I will award that person a bottle of good California Cabernet. You will have to trust me, though, because I am revealing to no one who that person is. Again, this bottle does not go to any person with the correct answer--only to the "horse" I have my money on.)
Granpa Joewr