Let’s Have a Barbecue!

It’s 70 below, we won’t see the sun for another three months, but damn it, it’s Memorial Day and we’re Americans. We’re having a barbecue!

To celebrate the Memorial Day holiday, the 60 winter-over residents of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station celebrated the only way they know how; with copious amounts of food and libations. Photo: Homeless Heidi

Fortunately, this holiday celebration remained free of the shenanigans of the prior Christmas holiday.

It would seem obvious to folks in warmer climes that a barbecue grill should never be set up inside. That wisdom, however, was lost on last year’s winter crew – but in the spirit of “learn from your mistakes” the grill Photo: Homeless Heidi

was set up outside in -70 degree temperatures this year. That did little to quell the fire alarm system, however. But what party is complete without a fire alarm, right? And what party is complete without a flame thrower? Well, just to clarify, there was no “flame thrower” at this party either, so it must have been an incomplete party. There was, however, a a boiler burner – set up as a training aid – and to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea about what goes on down here in the winter – the picture of that training aid has been removed.

Seen written on a whiteboard near the party:
The flamethrower is proof that someone, somewhere said “I want to set those people on fire, but I don’t want to go all the way over there to do it”.

With all the necessities of a good party in place, Photo: Homeless Heidi

the mirth makers had but to set themselves apart in true “Polie” fashion. Usually, this involves dressing up in gaudy outfits and wigs,

but not this time. The Memorial Day ’08 fiesta was differentiated by the making of [expand title=liquid nitrogen]ironically, the amount of money spent to keep things cold at the South Pole is astronomical[/expand]martinis. Photo: Homeless Heidi

Myself, having grown up on a [expand title=dairy farm,] you see, vials of bull semen are stored inside liquid nitrogen tanks – the semen is put in a straw to accomplish the task of insemination[/expand] seeing liquid nitrogen and a straw doesn’t exactly invoke a “drink me” type desire; nonetheless, the specialty drinks were a hit and well received by all – well, all except the station’s chef, who relayed this message by email the next morning:

“Subject: vomit (in Antarctica, we get a lot of emails with this or related subject lines..???..)

who ever chose to use the galley mop, bucket and mop sink to clean up vomit should finish the job by cleaning the soiled mop, mop sink, and mop bucket that was simply left dirty in the galley. It is not the galley staff’s job to clean up after you.

Regards,
Name Removed

With the exception of the ill-placed vomit and resultant clean-up supplies, the party was seen as a huge success.

Other weekend events at the South Pole included selection of a geographic [expand title=Pole Marker]the ice over the South Pole is constantly moving. This means that the official USGS marker over the geographic South Pole is not actually over the Pole after a period of time. Each year a new marker is placed over exactly 90 degrees south latitude. The winter-over crew each year has the honor of designing the Pole Marker for the next year.[/expand] to be placed at the geographic South Pole on 1 Jan, 2009. The crowd favorite was this:

however, the National Science Foundation must first approve the design. Approval of this particular design is not expected.

The 2008 Pole Marker:

Photo: Steffen Richter
Design: Laura Rip