"British town uses Oregon’s ‘exploding whale’ fiasco to teach social distancing"

They had me at 'exploding whale'.
From the New York Post:

A town in England used Oregon’s “exploding whale” incident to teach a lesson about the importance of social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Doncaster Council shared the tale of a sperm whale that died and washed ashore near the city of Florence, Ore., in November 1970. City officials attempted to blow up the 45-foot, 8-ton mammal – a plan that went “horribly wrong,” the council said in a thread on Twitter.

At the time, the Oregon State Highway Department decided to use 20 cases of dynamite to disintegrate the mammal. They believed seagulls and other scavengers would clean up any remains....

....MUCH MORE

The on-the-scene reportage of the event is quite amazing.