Category: Antarctica

Everything heard about Catch-22 was true.
funny
mesmerising
a masterpiece.
For once, a” brilliantly original” book
that was
brilliant and original.

Catch-22, original title a not catchy, Catch-18
a byword for double jeopardy
the gloom to the bright side of win-win
lose-lose.
Catch 22 compelled Yossarian to remain at war
living through a tour de force of farce.
promotions and medals for cocked up bombing raids
wheeler dealers profiting from misery
commanding officer stunned
commissioned and ranks prayed to one God
pompous colonels and generals
air-conditioned from the frost and heat of war.
Fiction right?

At the back of the kitchen was a storeroom
a long thin rectangle of floor-to-ceiling shelves
with cartons of cleaning supplies
sponges, detergent, scouring pads and powder, wiping towels.
common knowledge.
If cleaning materials were needed for private use
a quick visit to the kitchen storeroom
to collect sponge or wiping towel
decant detergent or scouring powder.
It had been happening for years – unofficially.

It came to the attention of the hierarchy.
this was theft. To be halted immediately.
The store room locked. No exceptions.
No exceptions included the storemen
boxes piled up in the corridor.
The unauthorised still required the unsanctioned
avoidance of detection necessitated speed
time forbade discrete selection
prospectors snatched a carton –  and ran.

For the back story click Backstage

Admiration of rogues
almost universally embedded in the human condition
folk heroes
scoundrels
buccaneers
those getting in the face of the establishment
raising a single finger to conformity.

Conformists
everyone in McMurdo was – or sly.
Rules. Multi-layers of dense prohibition
reduced everything to the lowest common denominator.
A direct breach resulted in termination
a challenge excluded reemployment.

Perhaps that’s why we were avid of vicarious confrontation
tales of bold transgressions from seasons faded
passed down as family heirlooms
artefacts curated on perpetual descent

“Oh, that story,” sighed the boss of 12 years
about the worker he dismissed for climbing Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus 25 miles distant and 13,000 feet high
a challenge to anyone with a mountaineering impulse
and not to be trespassed
a double challenge.

Yes, the person concerned was a mountaineer of ability
and may very well have climbed illegally
but the truth was far less subversive.
The alpinist worked as a janitor
his supervisor couldn’t always find him
and raised his concerns with the management.
The boss had a sound understanding of evasion
and located him asleep in a storage locker.

A warning was issued and instructions for no repeat.
a recurrence and termination.
He wasn’t sacked for climbing the boss exhaled again
“ it was for sleeping on the job.
If possible it would have been for stupidity.”

For the back story click Backstage

Digestive biscuits and lemonade
medicine to 1960’s high-temperature children.
Coarse brown wheat flour and sugar
flat shaped and baked
born under the name wheaten
‘digestive’ an early fudging of science, by marketing.
Many years later
still available by birth title
and chocolate coated.

We were all in our 20’s
young people seeking adventure – and money
all remembered the cures and rewards of childhood.
Steve was a navy cook
surname Wheaton
inevitably christened Chocolate Wheaton
sound bitten to “Chocky Wheaton.”

History: Scott and Amundsen racing to the South Pole
heroic and indelible.
Chocky said he had never heard of them
or here, before
said when he returned to Ohio
his father asked, “son, where was that place you went
I looked all round the globe and couldn’t find it.”
He turned the globe upside down
“ there it is Dad.”

For the back story click Backstage