Timely!
There's a remastered 4k video of the infamous exploding whale incident that was just released for its 50th anniversary and there's no better way to spend 3 minutes of your day. https://t.co/mt4Y45PbMl
— Adrenochrome Harvester (@ClenchedFisk) November 12, 2020
Baud
Last time visited the Oregon coast,there was a dead whale on the beach. :-(
Jim Appleton
I remember watching that in real time.
Kind of like witnessing the Zapruder film.
Baud
If that happened today, it would probably go viral.
ETA: There would be memes.
Tim C.
I remember in the pre internet era telling people in Arizona about this and they repeatedly called me a liar. Also, that’s how Oregon do!
TriassicSands
Unbelievable! Any halfway intelligent 12-year-old could have told those guys the whale needed at least a medium-size nuke! You know, 100 kilotons or so.
Wyatt Salamanca
Trump is like a beached whale, except that the whale would have conceded the election by now.
Melania should give him a pacifier and a diaper change and maybe that will help move things along.
TriassicSands
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Trump would require something in the megaton range.
Betty Cracker
Valued commenter Aimai brought that clip to my attention several years ago. I laughed so hard I cried, and I made everyone I know watch it. Not everyone found it as amusing as I did.
TriassicSands
I’ve been on beaches with dead whales from Washington State to southern Baja California, and I promise you, Trump stinks a lot worse.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Isn’t that location now immortalized as “Exploding Whale Beach” or something like that?
Googling….
Not the beach. But this June the town did name “Exploding Whale Memorial Park“.
Manxome Bromide
@Baud: There were. I learned about it about fifteen years after it happened because humor columnist Dave Barry wrote it up for a syndicated column, and that column was widely distributed.
This description of it was good enough that when I finally saw the video with my own eyes, probably in 2015 or so, I knew exactly what would happen and when, and it was everything I had been promised.
Dave Barry’s tireless cadres of “alert readers” served many of the roles that I now rely on social media for.
germy
Whales are sensitive and intelligent creatures.
JAFD
Good evening !
Eye seems to be doing well, KOW. still adjusting to computer-screen brightness, taking screen time easy. Daylight, with new lens, seems to have the ‘six inches of snow fell overnight’ blue-white glow.
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes ! Stay healthy, happy and hydrated.
Baud
@germy:
So, unlike Trump in every way.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Manxome Bromide: That would explain why I was aware of this incident, since I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear about it 50 years ago.
I was an avid reader of Dave Barry for many years when his column appeared in the Washington Post and I lived in the DC area.
Wyatt Salamanca
@germy:
Whales have more gravitas than Trump.
Baud
Good to remind people they made the right choice.
Wyatt Salamanca
@TriassicSands:
I suspect that Trump will need to be heavily sedated on Jan 20th.
Elizabelle
Timely! LOL.
Ah, that car. Amazed that hasn’t shown up in the Farmers Insurance commercials.
RobertDSC-Work
@JAFD:
Glad you are on the mend. Keep building those good days.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Baud:
That’s a good reminder that we only have a few more weeks of Trump’s sickening doucheocracy.
TriassicSands
@Wyatt Salamanca:
OMG, what if there is a shortage of carfentanil?
Calouste
IIRC there was also a beached whale that exploded due to the gasses that build up in its body during decomposition. Not sure if there’s video of that, and I’m not going to look.
satby
@JAFD: Good to hear that it went well JAFD! Enjoy your new, brighter and I hope clearer sight. Cataract surgery is usually one where everyone is happy with the result.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@TriassicSands: That reminds me. Medical peeps were saying that the dexamethasone he was high on right after his Covid treatment was a very temporary treatment and that they should be weaning him off of it shortly.
So should he about now be having some sort of withdrawal and feeling even more miserable? That would be nice to contemplate.
Van Buren
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I recall several times being convulsed with laughter at a column of his, often punctuated with, “I am still not making it up”
Chyron HR
@Baud:
I think you mean remind people that
HillaryBiden is aHawkBawk, while Donald is a Dove.Elizabelle
The Dave Barry article about The Exploding Whale.
The Whale has its own website. That is a kind of immortality, poor thing.
debbie
I remember this. What a horrorshow when the pieces began to rain down. Years later, a whale carcass spontaneously combusted, but I can’t remember where this was.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Another awesome explosion courtesy of Mythbusters: Cement Truck
debbie
@JAFD:
Congratulations! I remember after cataract surgery on both eyes at the same time, my mother spent her first day back home marveling at all the colors in her apartment. It was almost like she’d dropped LSD.
patrick II
@TriassicSands:
You could have dropped that exploding whale in a hurricane and it would have probably stopped it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@JAFD: My wife had this surgery some years ago. We’ve both been extremely myopic all our lives so I consider it kind of a superpower that since the surgery she can go a whole day without needing glasses for anything.
Are you done with both eyes? I remember an awkward point in between surgeries, when she had only one eye done, since glasses places aren’t equipped to change one lens at a time, despite the frequency of this surgery.
kindness
I still find it incredible that people thought blowing up a whale carcass was a good idea.
Yutsano
As has been said so many times before: Alexandra Petri is a national fucking treasure.
debbie
@kindness:
My memory isn’t perfect, but I think this incident may have been the forerunner for AFV.
cain
Jeezus, I’ve been looking at that video since I came to Oregon 23 years ago. I don’t think our state will ever live that down. haha :D
HumboldtBlue
This also Oregon native Tonya Harding’s birthday so exploding whale is apt.
mrmoshpotato
“…blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.”
Well done!
CaseyL
The video is quite wonderful, but it’s Barry’s article that makes me laugh uncontrollably every time I read it.
@JAFD: Congrats, and may your visual skies be clear and sharp from now on!
Luciamia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: He’s been on it for this long??
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@JAFD:
Congrats!
Kristine
@Wyatt Salamanca: I wish they’d sedate him now and shove him in a disused closet until Jan 20.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: Both sides are equally as bad! Upchuck Toddler said so!
Oh, and Hillary was “overprepared” like she was taking the possibility of being President seriously.
Kristine
@JAFD: glad things are going well
mrmoshpotato
@patrick II: Whalicane?
rikyrah
rikyrah
@JAFD:
?????
hotshoe
@Wyatt Salamanca: I would be okay if they get the sedation wrong and he happens to never wake up.
Tony Jay
Who the fuck blows up an 8 ton whale?
People who can’t be arsed cutting one up and moving it, that’s who.
Kristine
Just read Barry’s column.
“As God is my witness, I thought whales ? would blow up in small pieces suitable for seagulls.”
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Most of human knowledge is the result of trial and error.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay: Guys who have a shitton of dynamite – that’s who!
Ken
My favorite Dave Barry column is the one about the group of retirees who won the lottery, chiefly for:
Kristine
@hotshoe: so would Melania
Fair Economist
@Tim C.:
That was my reaction when I first heard about it. Then a friend showed me the video and I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe. My favorite part is right after the explosion when the cheers of excitement turn to cries of horror.
Aleta
@Tony Jay: They just had to tow it out to sea.
Ken
I remain impressed that people figured out how to eat cassava, fugu, eels, cashews, and potatoes (before they were bred to reduce the toxins). Also anything in the fungal kingdom.
Fair Economist
@debbie:
Might have been the Taiwan exploding whale.
HumboldtBlue
Tom Metzger. the SoCal racist who got taken to the cleaners and who was penniless by Morris Dees, has died.
Fuck him and fuck his motherfucking family.
steppy
Changing the subject because talk of exploding whales is vile, and our proprietor would probably approve of my post. My lovely wife was at the local Lancaster County, PA, independent supermarket and picked up two heads of cabbage at 11 lb. each. We just made a shit ton of sauerkraut. Nearly filled the crock. She also got a load of turkey necks and backs and is making stock in the Instant Pot. What with all the canning and drying and freezing, we are set for the cold dark winter.
MomSense
College of the Atlantic’s Allied Whale program is doing some interesting research.
https://www.coa.edu/allied-whale/ Allied whale
MomSense
@steppy:
I really like Lancaster. Had some friends who lived there.
hotshoe
@Kristine:
Ha, yes!
Kent
Oh geez. I was a kid living in Eugene when this happened. We actually saw the dead whale that weekend. So much more to the story. I’m on my phone and will expand when I get back in front of my computer. I showed this video along with two others of different exploding whales every year in my marine science classes
Benw
@mrmoshpotato: crosswhalefire hurricane
mrmoshpotato
@steppy:
A round of applause for you and the missus.
Sm*t Cl*de
@Kent:
That happens to me sometimes, usually after eating too much sauerkraut.
mrmoshpotato
@Benw: Oh man. Imagine if they’d decided to burn it!
NotMax
Lancaster county? Cabbage?
Local law requires putting up jars of chow chow.
:)
caring & sensitive
@Ken:
The one that always amazes me is blue cheese
Wapiti
@JAFD: I had a lens replaced last year – the eye that still has the original equipment sees everything with a yellowish tint, comparatively. Took a little while for the brain to adjust.
steppy
@NotMax: I know. I feel like a scofflaw putting up green tomato curry instead.
Benw
@mrmoshpotato: lol!
Since it was the Oregon Dept of Highways that did it, I’m shocked the solution wasn’t to flatten in with a steamroller!
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: It was one of the earliest videos to go viral once that became possible.
mrmoshpotato
@Benw: Mmmm squished whale!
JCJ
@Calouste:
Another classic, but a strong stomach is recommended
https://youtu.be/qTwldXfG8bE
Wyatt Salamanca
@Kristine: @hotshoe:
I wish the 25th amendment could be invoked right now because Trump is at peak batshit crazyness.
Also too, I hope that the Four Seasons Total Landscaping building is added to the National Register of Historic Places
Mike in NC
@Baud: After we get President Biden, I give it six months before reporters go out looking for people who regret voting for him.
Keith P.
@Mike in NC: At a diner
Kent
So to expand on the story. First off the highway guy in the video was like 4th in command at the local highway office and not who you’d want making decisions. Except that all the bosses were elk hunting and this was the the pre cell phone days. So. He winged it
JMG
I read on Twitter that the site of the whale explosion is now a park with a cutesy name relating to whales.
Yutsano
@JCJ: Thanks for the warning. Instant sperm whale anatomy lesson!
getsmartin
@Manxome Bromide: Here’s the Dave Barry piece — https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1990/05/20/thar-she-blows/8f6bc076-3843-4653-99d0-a50df88eabaf/
CaseyL
@Kent: Imagine if there had been cell phones back then, though. Imagine being one of the bosses, deep in the woods, focusing on bagging an elk. Maybe you’ve had a few beers. Maybe more than a few.
And then you get a call from your No. 4, telling you there’s a dead whale on a beach, the county called him to get rid of it, and what should he do?
A bunch of drunk highway guys full of men-in-the-woods bravado and bonhomie. Brainstorming dead whale disposal.
I think the only difference would have been how much dynamite they recommended!
Calouste
@Kent: Also, highway department explosive folks don’t strike me as being the top of their profession, compared to say the people who do controlled demolitions of buildings.
Baud
@CaseyL:
Don’t forget the seagulls. They were an integral part of the plan.
JAFD
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Hello again!
Right eye was done Tuesday, left’ll be next month.
The nurses in the preop room should take their ‘patient-de-tensing’ routine to open mic night at the comedy club. When such things resume…
Hope y’all will have a happy Thanksgiving !
debbie
@Fair Economist:
This is what I semi-remembered.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony Jay: Did you get Myth Busters in the UK? They’d nuke a whale, no problem.
My favorite episode was the one where they accidentally shot a canon ball through the wall of a guy’s house.
Aziz, light!
@HumboldtBlue: Tonya Harding is still here; lives across the river in Vancouver WA and is an unabashed Trumpy.
CaseyL
@Baud:
Seagulls are an important part of oceanic waste removal.
They are also an important component of oceanic waste creation.
A seagull shat on my head once. I was a kid, on the beach – fortunately, swimsuited and heading for the water.
After realizing what had happened, I headed for the water a lot faster and dove in head-first.
And I can tell you, seagull shit smells really, really bad.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mike in NC:
In Brooklyn coffee shops!
Mike in NC
@Wyatt Salamanca: Only if they include the adult bookstore next to it.
Rokka
@JMG: The new name is “Moby Dick Blowed Up Real Good Park”
Spoiler Alert: It’s not 4K and they didn’t clean up the video.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Aziz, light!: I suspect she and her mother might’ve found common ground there, if LaVona is still with us
Mike in NC
@Aziz, light!: Let me just say that “I, Tonya” is a brilliant movie.
PJ
@Mike in NC: Six months? Before he’s inaugurated, they’ll be interviewing people who will be angry Biden hasn’t done anything yet.
ETA: New York magazine already has a piece up about how Biden was a poor choice for Democrats, given his “narrow” win over Trump.
juliet tango
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It’s just a few parking spaces with access to the river bank, and it’s right next to the sewage treatment plant. I live nearby (upwind)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PJ:
Gee, I wonder why NY mag didn’t say Trump was a poor choice for Republicans given his narrow win over Clinton?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PJ: it’s… um…. going on now..
ETA @PJ: Without looking: Sarah Jones?
Calouste
@Rokka: They missed a chance there to name it the “Moby Dick Blown Up Real Proper Park” aka the “Moby Dick B.U.R.P. Park”
BruceFromOhio
I would very much appreciate the highway department packing explosives around the GOP and blowing it up into even more unrecognizable chunks that can be easily discarded.
Seagulls optional.
Ruckus
@Wyatt Salamanca:
And a larger vocabulary.
Oklahomo
This was one of the first videos I ever downloaded from the internet, from Usenet, as a series of Base64 segments that had to be assembled.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Mike in NC:
Between Fantasy Island bookstore, the cremation center, and the iconic Four Seasons Total Landscaping, I can’t think of a better location for Trump’s Presidential Library.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
What is the bloated whale dosage?
Wyatt Salamanca
@Ruckus:
So true!
Kay
One thing Trump has done is make it really clear who will defend the country and who won’t.
This guy will probably get fired for telling the truth- he’ll get fired by one of the low quality Trump hires.
smedley the uncertain
@germy: When they are alive.
Roger Moore
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Can we please start early?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: on the other hand, remember the latte salute
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Roger Moore:
I second this. Where’s the good shit he was allegedly being given to keep him calm before so he could speak in a monotone and read off a teleprompter?
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: I reported in an earlier thread that Krebs had already resigned or been fired, based on what I read on Twitter, which is always true, right?
Kent
More back story on the Oregon exploding whale
Reportedly there was an explosives salesman from Milwaukie visiting the Highway department in Florence at that time. Highway departments in coastal Oregon go through enormous amounts of explosives because they are always blasting away slides and rock on the narrow mountain roads. He had stopped in Eugene and had reportedly bought a new Caddy (No Oregon Sales Tax) at a dealership that was offering “A Whale of a Sale”
He was there advising the local highway dudes and recommended 4 sticks of dynamite. They mistakenly packed it with 4 cases of dynamite….Yikes.
His new caddy was one of the cars in the parking lot 1/2 mile away that was pelted and smashed by tons of flying whale blubber.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Milwaukee. Please.
smedley the uncertain
@Calouste: These are the Guy/Gals who remove inconveniently located land masses to allow for their wonderful highways. Takes more than a pick and shovel.
Kent
Also exploding whales are a world-wide phenomenon. But mostly they explode naturally
Here is one in the Faroe Islands. https://youtu.be/7X0hq0ug9q4
Here is one in Taiwan: https://youtu.be/aicIbUvE5tw and https://youtu.be/0sC0nTHN960
About 5-6 years ago a blue whale washed up somewhere in the Canadian Maritimes and they put up a whale cam web site titled: “Has it Exploded Yet?” My HS aquatic science classes avidly checked it daily. It never exploded. Scientists just ended up cutting it up.
Kent
Portland suburb. https://www.milwaukieoregon.gov/ Come to think of it, now I don’t know which city the story corresponds to.
Dan B
@Wyatt Salamanca: But would they include the discount store and crematorium for peak experience?
Uncle Cosmo
@CaseyL: You’re lucky that was a seagull & not a foo bird. (You know what they say: If the foo shits, wear it!)
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Okay, but I’ve seen you doing it in reference to the city in Wisconsin. I am glad we had this talk.
Kent
@Omnes Omnibus: I stand properly chastised! In my defense I have family living in Milwaukie Oregon and I live 30 min away so that is the spelling that leaks out by habit.
smedley the uncertain
@Calouste: You WIN.
Dan B
@Dan B: Dildo store.
Autocorrect :<(
prostratedragon
@Yutsano: Truly needs a dramatic reading.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Could have been Minneapolis, you never know.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Milwaukee is more likely to have experience with large aquatic things because of the lake.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, right, forgot about the lake.
JCJ
@Omnes Omnibus: Not large by any means, but when the alewives die off it is quite stinky. Each one is maybe three inches, but when there are thousands of them it is rather unpleasant
JustRuss
@cain: I came to Oregon 25 years ago, wasn’t on the job long before one of my student employees showed it to me. Truly a classic.