I hesitated making this the destination today, since I am not a snow and cold fan and also because I know for a fact that at least one reader has snow "for reals," but after the day I've had at work, going sompelace silent has great appeal. Perhaps next "trip" I'll try to do something equatorial, but today, the ice is like snow: a sound baffle that insulates my poor eardrums against one more assault by the telephone's insistent and seemingly incessant shrieking for my attention.
Remote.
Austere.
Uninhabited.
Incredible.
Queen Maud Land's borders are not as well-defined as one might expect in the 21st century. Apparently Norway, who claims it as a dependent territory, has never really bothered to delineate the northern and southern borders: just the eastern and western ones. In fact, as recenty as 2008, the Prime Minister of Norway was naming mountains, so you've got to figure on there being some space in which to stretch out and be alone in this vast area; maybe even a spot that is still unnamed.
I was reading a book recently (kind of a cheesy one, but okay for brain candy I guess), that had something in it about how it has been proposed (by whom I'm sure I don't know) that Antarctica be designated as a repository for the world's print library because of its being an ice desert. Apparently conditions are ideal for preserving paper there. I knew you could put a book (or other object, but let's face it: this is me, the unrepentant bibliophile) in the freezer to inhibit mildew, but I have to admit I never drew a line of logical progression between that and shipping a box of books to Antarctica for shelving. Maybe we could park the books in Queen Maud's back yard there where her border is a little fuzzy relative to the pole. Let's call that Library Land!
