Duck Soup

[David Morris]

When I was a freshman in college ('76) my second semester roommate, Melvin, 
a very geeky kid who'd quit midway through the previous year and was back 
for a second try, received mail all the time addressed to the "King (or 
Kingdom) of Antarctica."  Turns out his story was that after WW2 Antartica 
was carved up and offered to the victors of the war.  The US supposedly 
turned-down its claim, which somehow was later "claimed" by someone (?) who 
later bestowed it upon Melvin.  The claim was supposedly only made final 
when the claimer took physical possession, and Melvin planned to start a 
colony there.  He had adds in various Sci-Fi/Fantasy mags about his plan, 
looking for recruits, and thus the mail.  (Does anyone out there know if 
there's a lick of truth to any of Melvin's story?)

He was very open about his plan (which I think he ripped off from a James 
Bond movie):  He was actively recruiting the "best & brightest" to colonize 
his new Kingdom.  Once ensconced he planned to (somehow) provoke a full 
nuclear war between the the US and USSR.  His Kingdom  being safely tucked 
away in the nuke-free tundra, he and his fellow geeks would afterwards 
emerge inheritors of the earth.  Melvin was a true misfit, but he aimed to 
fix that!

He tried to recruit many others in my dorm, but never me.  Those he 
approached would later come to me expressing concern about my safety, having 
to sleep in the same room.  Luckily I was a freshman architecture student 
and thus kept very late hours, managing to miss Melvin during his waking 
hours.

I will always have the story of my freshman roommate Melvin.

David Morris




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