[rexarex]

Here’s a few a remember from my time at McMurdo Station

- The fry, fried > The accumulation of brain fry, mental fog, apathy etc that builds over time accumulated on ice especially during winter.

- The CRUD > a general cold everyone eventually gets and then is immune to on the base. Usually there’s a lot of congestion or ‘crud’. Probably exacerbated by the volcanic dust and dry climate.

- Ice Wife (or husband) A monogamous couple but only on the ice. May or may not be involved in other relationships off ice.

[bitbckt]

Both uses of “crud” and “fried” are parts of the lexicon where I grew up, nowhere near Antarctica. I suppose they must(?) have been imported from somewhere, but neither seems very unique to McMurdo.

[scherlock]

Crud is widely used. My kid's pediatrician and my PCP both use it to describe a general cold or cold symptoms. I'd say it has been in general use for about decade.

[madcaptenor]

I have the crud right now. I probably got it from my kid.

[marcellus23]

Where do you live? I'm in northeastern US and never heard anyone use crud like this.

[cmpalmer52]

It’s very common in the Southeast US. It’s also a term within the science fiction community in the term “con crud” for any sickness acquired at a SF convention.

[thih9]

I found none of these in the pdf linked elsewhere[1]. But perhps these are less formal, sort of mcmurdo’s urbandictionary?

[1]: https://monoskop.org/images/8/8b/Hince_Bernadette_Antarctic_...

[joshvm]

These are very US-centric, though I've not been to other countries' stations so there's probably some crossover. In two winters I've never heard anyone use fry/fried - toast/toasty is used at Pole. I imagine it's a similar set of vocabulary to within the military, especially as a lot of the naming conventions are holdovers from the Navy (e.g. we eat in the galley) and there are workplace-specific acronyms. Ice/being on ice is internationally ubiquitous though.

Also as a non-American it's quite hard to judge if there's a change in accent. We have people summering/wintering from across the country so it's a melting pot of pronunciation to start with. I think you'd be able to make a better observation from one of the bases with a much smaller population of neutral-accented people.

Skua (bin) is in that dictionary though, and that's still widely used in the US. As is toast(ed). Interestingly ice widow is referenced, though I've never heard that used.

[meyum33]

Ice Wife reminds me of Chinese migrant workers who form similar relationships on construction sites during development projects. Looks like this phenomenon is cross culture.

[thih9]

See also Nikah mut'ah and its history

> This was primarily used by those who could not stay at home with their wife and traveled a lot. For example, a traveling merchant might arrive at a town and stay for a few months, in that period he may marry a divorced widow, and they would take care of each other. When he has to leave to the next town, the marriage is over, and he might sign a mut'ah contract at his next place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_mut%27ah