there just isn't any quality guacamole in antarctica
October 11th, 2001
"So, like, when you're there, what will you actually DO?!"
- My wife, worried I'll fall in with the wrong crowd in Antarctica
Date: October 11, 2001
From: Tony Hansen
To: Joe Mastroianni
Subject: Documented procedures
Joe - we must do the following.
- YOU are my authority on making killer margaritas, I know 'zip' about it. So go out and buy bottles of whatever.
- I will get the tortilla chips and salsa, and the pouches of freezable guac
- I will be taking a shipping box with me, containing the low-power aethalometer for the Pyramid. This will travel as accompanied baggage on the commercial flight to Cheech, and will then go with us on the Herc to McM. I will make an additional compartment in this box out of rigid styrofoam, together with a remote-readout domestic thermometer.
- you put the bottles into *your* luggage for comair
- I'll freeze the guac in liquid nitrogen at the Lab and pack it into the insulated box right before I leave for the airport. It should stay nice and cold all the way to Cheech. There, we can put it into a freezer at the hotel, freeze it for the 8-hour flight to McM.
- In McM, we'll pack all the stuff into a box going out to Lake Hoare, keep the guac cold by shoving it into a snowdrift until we actually leave on the helo.
Tony
Decoder ring
Aethalometer = Tony's pollution sniffing device
McM = McMurdo. Name of a body of frozen water (McMurdo sound) along which Robert Falcon Scott first established a base for exploration in 1904. Also name of the NSF base on Ross Island.
Cheech = CHCH = Christchurch, Nz. CHCH is the designator for the airport at Christchurch.
comair = commercial airlines, as distinguished from military transport
Lake Hoare = An actual location not in New Orleans where we're going this year, and final destination for the guacamole and tequila referenced in this note.
Herc = Korean War vintage aircraft the New York National Guard flies from CHCH to McM, frequently containing passengers
guac = precious cargo
helo = the conveyance from McM to Lake Hoare
liquid nitrogen = when ice-cold party supplies just won't do
snowdrift = portable refrigerator substitute supplied by nature or snow plows
margaritas = explorer's grog, elixir of life, liquid hangover
