# 44 years ago today, Oregon gave us the bird
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 12, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457 "2014-11-12T16:03:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2014, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/21 "2014-11-14T08:47:11Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#):
>
> I note that to this day, media coverage of the event continually fails to mention the bowl of petunias inexplicably found near the whale’s carcass. I have to think “coverup”.
Wasn’t that bowl of petunia said to have muttered “Not again!”?
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/22 "2014-11-14T11:14:17Z")
Maybe the makers of the movie _Tremors_ got the inspiration for chunks of monster raining down from this video.
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### Author:  [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/23 "2014-11-14T15:46:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> What evidence do we have that Tonya Harding wasn’t born from the exploded carcass of a whale like some figure from ancient myth?
Duhthena?
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/24 "2014-11-14T16:40:39Z")
> [@Muffin](#):
>
> She blew her video career too – or more correctly, she blew her bridegroom on video and failed to profit from it.
That reminds me of a movie outtake: At the end of a dance, a woman tells the man she’s with, “You remind me of a trumpet player I used to blow!” 😃
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/25 "2014-11-20T23:09:00Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#):
>
> Take it out to sea and let the Navy have target practice.
They did that with the bow section of the [New Carissa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa). As I recall, there were some people who suggested we do to the ship what we did to the whale. Some of them were actually serious.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/26 "2019-11-12T18:22:41Z")
Five years later she’s had five more birthdays but we’ve had zero more exploding whales; I feel so cheated.
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### Author:  [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/27 "2019-11-12T20:01:04Z")
> [@Spiderman](#):
>
> Five years later she’s had five more birthdays but we’ve had zero more exploding whales; I feel so cheated.
The problem is that video is fake. It wasn’t explosives - two planes actually flew into the whale and demolished it.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/28 "2019-11-13T00:02:46Z")
> [@Slash1972](#):
>
> The problem is that video is fake. It wasn’t explosives - two planes actually flew into the whale and demolished it.
OK, that was worth zombie-fying this thread.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/29 "2019-11-13T04:17:09Z")
> [@Slash1972](#):
>
> The problem is that video is fake. It wasn’t explosives - two planes actually flew into the whale and demolished it.
And there was a grassy knoll nearby. 🙂
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### Author:  [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/30 "2019-11-13T09:48:24Z")
This reminds me of an old book we found in a closet at my school’s library. It was written late 1800s by an english clergyman who was, as was common in those days, something of an amateur naturalist. The chapter describes a whale washed up on the shore and his efforts to study it before the townsfolk had completely stripped it of all its valuable blubber and bone. He was particularly interested in the huge heart and clambered up to get a better view when he slipped and fell head first into the aorta. The locals had to drag him free by his feet.
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### Author:  [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/31 "2019-11-13T15:30:48Z")
> [@Slash1972](#):
>
> The problem is that video is fake. It wasn’t explosives - two planes actually flew into the whale and demolished it.
Yes, but at what temperature do steel whale bones burn???
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### Author:  [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/32 "2019-11-15T01:15:24Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> And there was a grassy knoll nearby. 🙂
Crowded with Ukrainians and Iranians.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/33 "2024-11-12T02:39:55Z")
Today is the 50th anniversary of Oregon’s exploding whale
Wikipedia is commemorating it on the front page.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/34 "2024-11-12T02:59:53Z")
> [@jayrey](#):
>
> I agree that they used a bit too much dynamite on the whale but, as an Oregonian, I’m more embarrassed by us being known as the home of Tonya Harding. What a piece of work she was.
I mean, aside from the whole kneecapping thing, she was quite an impressive skater, one of the very few women in history capable of a triple axel.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/35 "2024-11-12T11:20:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I mean, aside from the whole kneecapping thing, she was quite an impressive skater, one of the very few women in history capable of a triple axel.
[Speaking of Tonya Harding…(verse 2)](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dU95v23MQ4c)
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/36 "2024-11-12T16:29:39Z")
I pause for a moment contemplate the blackened hellscape where Portland used to be.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2024, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/37 "2024-11-12T20:05:54Z")
C’mon, everybody. This incident was just a fluke of Oregon history.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/38 "2025-11-12T14:44:26Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> This incident was just a fluke of Oregon history
Nah, a dead fluke on the beach they could have just picked up & thrown in a nearby trashcan, no dynamite needed.
ETA: it looked like a current post; it was hours away from being a year old
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/44-years-ago-today-oregon-gave-us-the-bird/704457/39 "2025-11-12T20:11:46Z")
That would have been quite a tale!
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