@newyorker: In November of 1970, the broadcast journalist Paul Linnman went to the coastal town of Florence, Oregon, where the carcass of a 45-foot sperm whale had washed up on the beach. Nobody could figure out how to move it, so the State Highway Division decided to blow it up. The story took off. It was rebroadcast around the country, and the exploding whale became a kind of mascot for Florence and a point of pride for many of its residents. As for Linnman himself, he became forever associated with the blast. In Winslow Crane-Murdoch’s documentary short “Oh, Whale,” Linnman returns to that fateful beach and reunites with his old partner Doug Brazil, as the two reflect on the strangeness of that day and the story’s improbable sticking power. 

The New Yorker

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Tuesday 10 November 2026 00:00:17 GMT