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Exploding Whale: And Other Remarkable Stories from

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Paul is a naturally funny guy, and now we know he can lay it out on paper, as well.

In this book he weaves memories from his career around, between, and through a serial narrative of his most famous story---the exploding whale of Florence, Oregon. Never heard of it? This event, along with the dynamite, the stench, the rain of blubber, and the resulting 'cover-up', established a comic standard for bureaucratic ineptitude. In his book, Paul answers all the questions and puts to rest the rumors, finally.

More important, this is an honest, insightful look inside television news as used to be, and as many us wish it had remained.

Paul shares as many laughs as nuggets of wisdom.

To Oregon television viewers, Paul Linnman is a familiar, friendly voice and face they've welcomed into their homes as a reporter, anchorman and talk show host for most of the last 35 years. To the rest of the world, he's "the guy who blew up the whale." Which is kind of a shame, in a way. First, it's not quite accurate...it was the state Highway Division that blew up the whale; Paul and his cameraman, Doug Brazil, were just there to record it. Second, it may be the oddest, but by no means is it the finest story Paul has told during those decades.

First, the facts, briefly. In November, 1970, a dead sperm whale washed up near the town of Florence on the Oregon Coast. No one quite knew how to dispose of it. After due consideration, the decision was made to use dynamite. The hope was to blast the carcass into small enough chunks for the gulls and other scavengers to take care of. It didn't quite work out that way. All the spectators got sprayed with whale goo, and had to dodge hunks of falling blubber. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but one large fragment landed on a new Oldsmobile a quarter of a mile away and flattened it.

Much to Linnman's surprise, the story has taken on a life of its own, thanks to the Internet, humorist Dave Barry and others. In this memoir, Paul seems a bit bemused by all the attention, but is good natured and gracious about it as well. He just wishes people would also ask about some of the truly inspiring stories of human courage, character and achievement he's devoted most of his career to chronicling. In this book, he interweaves many of these great "people" stories with all you could ever want to know about the infamous whale. Linnman also adds a few enlightening and entertaining anecdotes about life behind the scenes in television news to round out this fine volume.--William C. Hall

Back in the days of yore, before DSL and fast internet connections, even before the days of Firefox ... I mean, in the days of Netscape fitting on a floppy disk ... there was a viral video that was viral before viral was viral. It was the funniest video you could find on the infant internet, this really cool extension of university networks. It was an exploding whale.

Not only was the video great for grabbing smiles and laughs from friends and coworkers, it always was a great story.

The book has been out for a while, but I didn't know the full details. It's interesting to read, fun and you get a large amount of backstory. At times, it can get boggy, but I liked it all. This guy has a lot of great stories to tell (as do a lot of veteran newsmen) and it doesn't read like TV news copy, thank goodness!

Worth it. Try it.