# "Exploding beached whale" engineer dies at 84
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 1, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886 "2013-11-01T23:26:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/1 "2013-11-01T23:26:03Z")
> **[Man Behind Oregon's Famous Exploding Whale Dies](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/11/01/242347861/man-behind-oregons-famous-exploding-whale-dies?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook)**
>
> Highway engineer George Thornton, who led a 1970 operation to blow up the dead whale on a beach, died this week at age 84. Thornton's decision resulted in a foul shower of whale blubber. Whenever video of the unlikely event resurfaces, some viewers...
This was probably one of the first viral videos. Dave Barry wrote a column about it many years ago, and in the years that followed, sometimes received that column, without the by-line, telling him that he should write a column about this.
đ
Good thing we donât have Smell-o-Vision, either. BTW, Barry could have just counted the smell rays. đ
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/2 "2013-11-01T23:33:06Z")
Hereâs a better quality video: [Destroyed in Seconds- Beached Whale Explosion - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZottYDpEE)
Afterwards the engineer who planned the explosion was quoted as saying: âNow I am become Death, the destroyer of Whales.â
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/3 "2013-11-01T23:41:25Z")
how does he want his remains treated?
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/4 "2013-11-01T23:51:44Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> how does he want his remains treated?
I probably donât want to know. đ
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/5 "2013-11-02T01:01:04Z")
If I were the engineer I would have put âwhale extractionâ in small print on my business card.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/6 "2013-11-02T16:42:55Z")
NB: The thread title says âreporterâ. This is the state highway engineer who did the demolition.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/7 "2013-11-02T16:59:40Z")
> [@johnpost](#):
>
> how does he want his remains treated?
There is a request at his service that attendees refrain from emotional displays.
Including uncontrolled blubbering.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/8 "2013-11-03T03:20:58Z")
Story [here](http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/10/george_thornton_the_odot_engin.html). George Thornton, the man who gained fame as the Oregon Department of Transportation highway engineer who blew a massive beached whale to smithereens 43 years ago this month, has passed away, age 84.
RIP, George. Thar she blows!
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/9 "2013-11-03T03:26:12Z")
For some strange reason, [exploding whales](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=706694) are in Cafe Society.
Yummy!
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/10 "2013-11-03T03:44:19Z")
A true Internet hero has left us. âš
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/11 "2013-11-03T13:53:10Z")
> [@runner pat](#):
>
> For some strange reason, [exploding whales](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=706694) are in Cafe Society.
>
> Yummy!
Rats. âš
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/12 "2013-11-03T21:25:52Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> NB: The thread title says âreporterâ. This is the state highway engineer who did the demolition.
Trivia note. People not in Oregon may wonder why a state highway engineer was responsible for cleaning this off of the beach.
This goes back about 100 years to governor Oswald West, who introduced a bill that declared all 400 miles of Oregon coast beaches to be part of the public state highway system.
> **[Oregon owes its public beaches to decision by Oswald West 100 years ago](https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2013/02/oregon_owes_its_beaches_to_dec.html)**
>
> Wednesday marked 100 years since the former governor sent Oregonians one big fat Valentine with the gift of public beaches. "This guy was a visionary," says Richard Walkoski, communications and research division manager of Oregon State Parks and...
Back then there were few roads along the coast and people used the beach for access between coastal towns. You can go to Hug Point state park and at low tide still see where a road was chiseled out of the rock to let cars get around the point.
This stroke of genius has kept the entire coastline as public property to this very day. No one can own their own little part of the beach or prevent public access. This tends to piss off some people who buy beach front property only to find out that Joe Blow can sit right on the beach in front of their McMansion and have a party.
Where I live in the North there are about 20 miles of drivable beach were the public can just drive down and dig clams, or picnic, or whatever. But even in the areas that are not accessible by vehicles, the beach is still public property, under control of the state highway dept.
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### Author:  [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/13 "2013-11-03T21:38:21Z")
Just for the record, the thread title is not correct. It wasnât the reporter, Paul Linnman, who died, but the engineer George Thornton.
I have Paulâs book where he recounts a number of the more interesting stories heâs covered in his career. Of course the whale features prominently, but the whole thing is funny and worth the read.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exploding-beached-whale-engineer-dies-at-84/672886/14 "2013-11-03T23:51:42Z")
Merged duplicate threads, and corrected âreporterâ to âengineerâ in the thread title.