Monday, December 04, 2006

I'm a Lemming


I am a lemming. Lemmings are small rodent-like
mammals that blindly follow others like them,
even jumping off cliffs at times...or so the
legend goes.

I had sworn off writing on this particular topic.
Today, I join the fray of other McMurdo bloggers
and add my two cents.

Recently a reporter for MSNBC, Miguel LLanos,
arrived at McMurdo on a special assignment.
He's here to write a report about Global
Warming. While here, he is writing daily
dispatches about life at McMurdo. It makes
interesting reading and can be found here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15834019



Unfortunately, Mr. Llanos got off on the wrong
foot. He experienced many of the things that
have bothered most of us who work in Antarctica.
For good or bad, he wrote about them for all to
see. He's already been lambasted, lampooned and
generally crucified by the McMurdo population so
I will not do that here. To some extent, I agree
with the masses. However, Mr Llanos does bring
up many good points. The whole process can be
very daunting. Especially the first time one is
here. I'm sure many of us had similar feelings
on our first trip. Most of us don't have millions
of readers to see those feelings though. Since he
posted those unfortunate lines, Mr. Llanos has been
pretty humble and generally reconciliatory. I think
we should give him a break. I for one am looking
forward to meeting him when he Bag Drags. I hope
the remainder of his experience is a good one.

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