Voting Station

George Thornton

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Bureaucrat

The Resume

    (circa 1929-October 27, 2013)
    Assistant engineer with the Oregon Department of Highways
    In charge of removing a 45-foot long 8-ton sperm whale that washed up at Florence, Oregon (November 12, 1970)
    Removal covered by KATU-TV of Portland resulting in a widely-circulated video

Why he might be annoying:

    He attempted to blow up the whale with half a ton of dynamite, with the idea that the remaining pieces would be small enough to be eaten by gulls and crabs.
    Pieces of whale landed up to a quarter of a mile inland from the beach, with one large hunk crushing a car.
    In the whacky coincidence department, the owner of the car said he bought it during an Oldmobile dealer's 'Get a Whale of a Deal' promotion.
    The noise from the explosion scared off the gulls that were supposed to eat the whale remnants.
    Most of the whale still remained on the beach after the explosion, and eventually was hauled off and buried.
    After Dave Barry wrote about the exploding whale in 1990 (without indicating that the incident happened 20 years earlier), the Oregon Department of Transportation was inundated with calls from reporters thinking they were on the trail of a current event.
    He refused to talk about the exploding whale for years, saying that every time he gave an interview, 'It blew up in my face.' (Not unlike the whale.)
    He insisted the operation had been largely successful and blamed media reporting for making it look like a disaster.

Why he might not be annoying:

    For anyone wondering why highway engineers were put in charge of whale removal duties, at the time Oregon classified beaches as a 'public right of way,' putting them in the Highway Department's jurisdiction.
    He consulted with officials from the Navy before deciding on blowing up the whale.
    No one was injured in the explosion. (Although plenty of people were probably squicked out by being showered with bits of whale blubber and blood.)
    The incident inspired KATU-TV reporter Paul Lindemann to observe, 'The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.'
    Video of the explosion has been viewed more than 350 million times on various websites.
    The exploding whale has been called the first story to go viral on the internet.
    To quote Dave Barry, 'I am probably guilty of understatement when I say that what follows on the videotape is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 90.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying