All waste generated by the United States Antarctic Program must be shipped back to the U.S. 60% of all waste from here gets recycled. Last year 100% of the plastic that was used here was recycled. Personal items and clothing that people bring down and then decide they don’t want for whatever reason can be discarded in what is called Skua (named for a scavenger bird that comes here in the summer). I stopped into Skua last week and found a blonde hair dye kit. I was pretty apprehensive but decided to give it a shot. I really like it. What do you think?

…One of the neater things about the culture at McMurdo is the mealtime conversation. Marsha and myself have been trying to break from our safe routine of sitting with the same people every day. We have been branching out and meeting some new people at mealtime. It has been very rewarding. Today however, we sat with our normal group of people. The conversation was rich in talk of world travel. We compared notes with our friend Holly on travel in Australia. We discussed travel in Europe with the group. It’s not every day or in every place that you can have conversations such as that with your co-workers. The conversation took a turn for the worse. Somehow or another we got on the subject of Dan Savage. Dan Savage writes a syndicated sex-advice column. As a reaction to Senator Rick Santorum’s condemnation of homosexuality, Mr. Savage challenged his listners to come up with a sex-related definition of the word “santorum” as a satirical form of political protest for the express purpose of “memorializ[ing] the Santorum scandal […] by attaching his name to a sex act that would make his big, white teeth fall out of his big, empty head”. I won’t print the winning word and definition here, it is certainly not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach nor is it safe for minors. If you insist, you can find it here. Lunch turned out to be a wonderfully fun experience with my friends!