WTF is an "Octenleggen"?

Hehehe, Miss O'Malley was nice enough to drop by and leave a comment on my cocktail party idea, but was a bit confused about exactly what I meant by Die furchtsamen octenleggen. Lemme 'splain...

That's just some doggerel German that got made up in the wee hours of the morning many years ago. The first part, 'Die furchtsamen' means "The scary", at least according to the online translator. The second part needs some more explanation...

My friend Rockhauler had an apartment in a tiny complex in Dallas, TX managed by an old German couple that spoke very little English. We arrived back at his place after a night of carousing, and a gigantic garden spider had built a web across his front door. Now, in spite of us both being big beefy rednecks, we're also both terrified of any spider bigger than a TicTac.

We needed to borrow a broom or something from the landlord to swat the horrific beastie, but we knew they would want to know what we wanted it for. Borrowing brooms at 3 am is most unusual. We dug through our pickled brains for the German word for spider. All our German comes from war movies, so we were out of luck.

Well, in times of doubt, go back to the basics. "Octo" for 8, and "leggen" sounded suitably German. I decided "Ein Octenleggen" was close enough, and it struck Rockhauler funny, and he started guffawing. That made me start to laugh, and after a while, we had woken up the entire area.

So, translated, it's "The Scary Spider". Sort of.

UPDATE: I found out 'Spinnen" is the correct word. 'Octenleggen' is funnier, though!