In Antartica, there are people who get paid minimum wage to scrub pots. Why not?

When I was in Yellowknife this summer, watching the float planes overfly the bush pilot monument, I was told the story of the Yellowknife-based twin otter pilots who had been the only ones able to get a critically sick scientist out of Antarctica when access was cut off by an intense storm. I had heard that story in the news, though not the Yellowknife connection. At the time, it had made me wonder what life must be like for scientists living in Antarctica, the most remote, spartan, and therefore possibly exotic, continent on Earth.

Apparently, it’s like this:

i really like it here. i realized that in my first 24 hours. i really like the thing that i came here to discover: the community. it’s very intersting. people with phd’s mopping floors. drunk blondes with shit for brains as taxi drivers.
i’ve signed up to be the pinsetter at the bowling alley. i get paid $15/week by raytheon to do it.

and this

mcmurdo is like a college campus. it is about the size of a college campus. but htere are many men with beards. everyone lives in a dorm and has a roomate or roomates. everyone eats in the same place at the same time. when you drink, everyone knows you are drinking, so it’s best not to make an ass of yourself. or, if you do make an ass of yourself, make sure you are at least cocky about it. this guy john got naked a couple weeks ago at scott base and now he’s known as ‘naked john’. he’s got a reputation that he plans to live up to. i’ve seen him naked at least 5 times in 3 weeks. we are all taking bets to see how long it will be before he’s kicked off the island. in the meantime, we are enjoying his jackassery.

and things like this happen

tomorrow is my day off. i think i’ll ask if i can drive a bulldozer and help move some snow off the ice runway. the weather is getting worse now, and there are 2 flights scheduled to leave for Pole tomorrow. it will take half the day to clear the runway if the condition doesn’t stay crappy all night. 7000 gallons of fuel was spilled near the runway the other day. i heard they dug a moat around it and stared at it for a while wondering what to do next.

You can learn all this and much more at Sandwich Girl’s website. If you find postings from Antartic Dish Dawgs interesting, there’s also this (although it’s finished now): Phil: Adventures in the Great White South. For more general strange information about the very southest place on earth, there is Big Dead Place. Check out “Ask A Fucked-Up Antartican” for some basic Q&A:

Hi Kelly,

If I was going to have an “Antarctic” themed party (which I wouldn’t), I would hope that it was an Italian Antarctic Programme themed party; I hear they eat like kings and drink wine at lunch. But if you are looking for hints on a McMurdo themed party, here’s what I suggest:

First, fill a few chaffing dishes with chicken wings and deep fried mozzarella sticks. Then pour a large bowl of potato chips and set out some dry nachos with the cheapest salsa you can find. Then invite 1000 people whom you live and work with, even the ones you can’t stand, and make sure that about half of them are horny guys and 1/4 of them are un-interested women. Don’t forget to have a lame theme like “Disco Night”, “Redneck Ball”, or “Country Bingo” and encourage everyone to dress up.

Apparently there is science that happens there too, but:

i wonder every day why all this happens.
oh yeah. science.
it;s amazing how much money is being sunk into this. and how little is actually going to the science part of it. 90% is for support, flights, food, etc.last week on my day off i went to the main science building (crary lab) and hung out with an anthropologist who took me around and gave me a private tour of the facility. i saw videos of live eruptions of mt erebus, and antarctic fish that were growing weird things on their heads, and a giant frickin laser beam that is supposedly really bright in the middle of winter.

Humans. Everywhere they go, they’re always so… human.