KABOOM

 It's a story that should have happened in 2020 rather than fifty years ago in 1970. But it is a classic and we love it 

Watch the Video and then we will discuss, but here are the basics. A 45 ton whale washed ashore in Florence, Oregon. It smelled. No one wanted to cut it up and bury it. So naturally, engineers decided to blow it up with dynamite.

Nothing could go wrong with that right? Right?

 

 Off all the hilarious unforeseen side effects which should have been foreseen, is the fact that the seagulls who were all standing by ready to eat the whale carcass were scared off by the explosion and did not return. Every time we think of the dead whale meat raining down over dozens of square miles of Florence, Oregon, with the hope that seagulls would eat the bits and pieces, and those birds scared to death by 25 pounds of TNT blowing the whale sky-high, we can not stop laughing. Engineer George Thornton should be enshrined in the Engineer Hall of Fame, if there is such an entity, for his supervision of this project. How many engineers can add "blew up a Pacific Grey Whale" to their resume of work? 

And then of course there is the person whose car was destroyed by whale blubber. We can envision how they filled out their insurance forms:

Describe the accident: "I parked my car in a legal parking spot near the beach. Unbeknownst to me, a group of brainless idiots who work for the Oregon Department of Highways decided to use TNT to blow up a dead 45 ton whale. A large piece of whale blubber flew a quarter mile through the air and landed on my car and destroyed it. Really. I am not making this up." 

So dear and loyal readers, November 12 will be forever enshrined on this blog as "Exploding Whale Day". As one commentator wrote, "it is a story that belongs in 2020 if ever there was one."  The only thing better would have been if it would have occurred on a Friday the 13th, which happens to be today. 

Enjoy your weekend. The virus is raging. Stay inside and stay safe.