A: When you use explosives to get rid of a dead one! Last week’s story of how the U.S. military shot down a satellite carrying toxic rocket fuel brought at least a couple comparisons to Oregon’s Exploding Whale. The military had lost control of the crippled satellite in late 2006 shortly after it was launched. The bus-sized hulk was finally threatening to fall out of orbit, and people’s lives were at stake should the fuel tank, or any amount of the one thousand pounds of unused hydrazine rocket fuel it contains, return to Earth. In order to minimize the amount of material that might be left in space, the government waited until just before the satellite was ready to fall out of orbit before conducting its operation. The goal was to blast the satellite into as many small pieces as possible, and to have those smaller pieces burn up as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? At least they weren’t expecting sea birds to eat up all the small pieces! Anyway, Bob We

Much to my surprise, one of the Exploding Whale limericks I submitted to  Bob Welch ‘s  Oregon limerick contest  was  chosen as the winner  from the 286 submissions! This clearly says more about the unending appeal of the Exploding Whale story than it does about my ability to rhyme, but I am honored nonetheless. As detailed in a  previous post , four other would-be poets were sufficiently inspired by the Exploding Whale to make similar submissions — again testimony to the enduring nature of the story! So, for the record, here is my winning limerick: Florence is home to a tale surreal In which a dead whale stunk a great deal Boom! went the dynamite One chunk took quite a flight And crushed Walter’s new Oldsmobile. Of course, “Walter” is Walter Umenhofer, whose brand new Oldsmobile 88 was crushed by a huge piece of flying whale meat following the explosion. Walter is mentioned in several of the newspaper articles covering the incident (e.g.,  1 ,  2 ,  3 , and  4 ) and was profiled by Bo

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for the Exploding Whale to make an appearance on  Register-Guard  columnist  Bob Welch ‘s  blog ! I mean, seriously, what do you think he expected when, in honor of Oregon’s 149th birthday (which was on Valentine’s Day, February 14), Welch  asked his readers to submit limericks honoring the state’s places and geographic features?  Well, I for one felt  obligated  to submit  something  related to the Exploding Whale. And apparently, I was not alone. In addition to my three entries, four other readers were moved to poetry by our beloved cetacean detonation. Please, feel free to read through  all 286 submissions . Or, at the end of this entry, you can read just the limericks that referenced the Exploding Whale.  From the 286 submissions, Bob will pick the top three and award them gift certificates to a local book store. In addition, the best limericks will be published in his February 21st column. ( Update: See  this posting  for the surprising results!

Just a quick heads up to let you know that  Register-Guard columnist and longtime admirer of Oregon’s Exploding Whale  Bob Welch  has officially entered the Blogosphere with his new RG blog titled  Close to Home with Bob Welch . Welch has written several columns ( 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 ,  11 ) about or referencing the Exploding Whale, and hopefully we’ll see periodic mention of it in his blog as well. Welcome, Bob!

The  CNN  program  News to Me  recently aired  a segment on Oregon’s Exploding Whale . In addition to the original  KATU video , the piece features clips from interviews with Paul Linnman and Doug Brazil, the reporter and cameraman who in 1970 documented the momentous event. While the video contains a brief, unattributed screen shot of  our Dave Barry page , TheExplodingWhale.com is, unfortunately, not directly featured. (And why not?) But the  animation by Abdul Hameed Gamiet  and the  comic strip by Greg Williams  — both covered on TheExplodingWhale.com in recent months — were featured prominently in the story.