January 12, 2003

"What's that thing coming towards me VERY FAST...?"

The Exploding Whale Incident, billed as "most wonderful event in the history of the universe" by none other than Dave Barry.

(Via Mr. Helpful. This one is for Neal.)

Posted by Andrea Harris at January 12, 2003 02:56 PM
Comments

MUAHAHAHAH!

Trust government to fuck up something as simple as whale removal.

Posted by: Eichra Oren at January 12, 2003 at 09:32 PM

Hey, put the blame where it belongs: The Oregon highway Department. I saw the tape of this on TV awhile back. I laughed until I thought I would pass out. They only made two mistakes: They didn't get the crowd back far enough (only 1/4 mile), and they didn't use nearly enough dynamite, considering the size of the carcass. To say it blew chunks doesn't begin to cover it. Some of those chunks weighed over 200 pounds and flew over a quarter mile away, with one of them crushing the roof of a Cadillac. Flaming whale meat rained down upon the onlookers, prompting my very favorite moment, caught on tape:

(big explosion) "Wooooooo! (wall of flaming whale meat begins to drop out of the sky) "Hey, what's that?" (flaming whale meat starts to drop around personn standing off camera next to microphone) "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Normally, I'd say you had to be there, but hey, the tape was hilarious! (And much safer.)

Posted by: Chip Haynes at January 13, 2003 at 07:54 AM

I so wish I had seen that.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 13, 2003 at 09:27 AM

It was on one of those "The World's Biggest Blunders Caught On Tape" shows- on Fox, I think. They really did well, explaining exactly what happened and what they did- and how badly it went. The explosion wasn't all that big- the sand muted it I think, but the fallout- flaming chunks of whale carcass falling down over a quarter mile from the blast site- that really made it special. Check your local listings!

Posted by: Chip Haynes at January 13, 2003 at 11:48 AM

Aw shucks. Thanks for thinking of me. And what a bombastic story it is. Just for that, I'll go see the darn movie so I know what the hell you're talking about.

Posted by: Neal at January 15, 2003 at 12:39 AM

(Hey, guys, wait'll he sees there's no exploding whale in the movie. Hee hee hee...)

Actually I got the title quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. See, due to the use of the Improbability Drive, there's this giant blue whale falling through the atmosphere of a planet, but it's not a very smart whale, so it's sort of just musing along, wondering where it is, as the planet's surface gets closer and closer...

Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 15, 2003 at 10:07 AM

Whoops! I meant, sperm whale. (Just checked in the book.)

Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 15, 2003 at 10:09 AM