Re: Humor and whales

[phile@stpaul.gov (Philip J Ethier)]

Well, here is what a friend of mine who lives in Portland had to say when
I showed him the whale story:
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Stranger than fiction, it is in fact true!  Unfortunately I have no
direct memory of the incident, even though I was living in Oregon at the
time:  I only heard about it three years or so ago on alt.culture.oregon.
By the way, there are people who hang out on a.c.o who would kill for a
copy of that tape... .

As far as I've been able to piece things together, it was actually a small
pod of whales that beached themselves, numerous methods were proposed,
all involving heavy equipment and great expense, and the pyrotechnic option
was tried (one time) as the cost-effective option.  Apparently there was some
damage to a car, and much consternation concerning the Reddi-Pop Whale Blubber
fallout... .  (The State Parks Department is now in charge of the Oregon
coast rather than the Highway Department... I don't know whether this
incident had anything to do with the transfer of authority.)

I wish that the poster you got this from hadn't removed the NOAA address
paths:  My uncle is with the Weather Service and just transferred to
Glasgow, Montana.  He's desperately seeking some sort of network
connectivity... .
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Well, there you have it.  Judge for yourself!