Whale limerick wins contest!

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 Bob Welch in a recent column. 

You can read Bob’s original columns regarding the contest here:

And here’s a link to our permanent archive of the column announcing the contest results:

Update 2/22/08: Bob posted an entry on his blog with the winning limerick and a brief mention of TheExplodingWhale.com, stating: 

Hackstadt, of course, has more than a passing interest in the infamous exploding whale story and in Walter Umenhofer, the Eugene man whose car was crushed by the blubber. Hackstadt is the self-appointed curator of everything “exploding whale.” If you doubt me, see his Website at www.theexplodingwhale.com.

Here’s a link to the the entry on Bob’s blog: