The fuzz

So Gurg asks a good question: what sort of weapons do we have on station and how are we policed? Well, contrary to the movie "The Thing", which insinuates that we have flame throwers and machine guns hidden away somewhere, we have only one gun. Or rather, the station manager for the National Science Foundation has the gun. But no bullets. Those are held by his deputy in a seperate location. The director has been deputized as a special US Marshal, or so he informed us upon our arrival briefing. In reality I think he has just seen the movie "Tombstone" a few dozen times to many. But I know a guy who knows a guy who has actually seen the gun, and just sitting in a desk drawer in the guy's office amongst paper clips and ballpoint pens. Apparently it is some sort of standard issue side arm, not the gold plated revolver we had imagined. So that is how we are "policed", oficially. It is rare for such measures to be needed though, the only story I can think of is the winter-over who went skipping through the Galley singing Mary Had a Little Lamb and hitting coworkers on the head with a hammer. Then there is the one about the dinning attendant who showed up to work naked but for her apron. She was promptly fired, but then she suprised them by hiding out on Observation Hill outside of town and then sneaking around between friends rooms being sheltered so as to miss the flight that was to take her off the ice. Naturally she was eventually caught, as is bound to happen in such a small community, but these are the stuff of legends. Although with only one gun and it with ammon stored elsewhere, we may be in dire straights if the Kiwis at the New Zealand base ever invade. At least we have them out numbered: 1094 to 97.