It’s a sure thing, Gib! A sure thing!

Alejandro Rubio used to work for me at [My employer], until he announced that he was leaving my team and applying for a year-long job in Antarctica. I gave him a reference with Raytheon; in a phone interview, I assured Raytheon HR that he’d do a great job of working with crotchety, idiosyncratic scientists. “What would Alejandro do if he had to work with a scientist who insisted on doing things a certain way, even if it wasn’t necessarily the best way?”

Knowing Alejandro to be a friendly, extroverted, 24-year old Stanford graduate, the very model of a Bright Young Thing, and the last person in the world to let stupidity go unchallenged, I smiled and lied through my teeth. “Alejandro would never rock the boat. He’d be a great team player in that sort of situation.” What the hell, I figured: all the crotchety Raytheon scientists I know could use a bit of prodding.

Anyhow, Alejandro seems to be having a great time at McMurdo station. He has a fantastic web site, which you can see here: www.jasperridge.com. The picture on the right is from his pool party last month. Seems to me he’s fitting in just fine with the crotchety scientists. In fact, he seems the very icon of 80s coolness; the big brother featured in John Hughes movies, calling from California to invite pasty geeks to ascend to Hawaiian Shirt Valhalla. Cf. John Cusack’s roomate Lance in The Sure Thing. I was flabbergasted to learn that Alejandro hasn’t seen this movie, so I Amazonned it to him in Antarctica. Incoming, private Gibson!