QUESTION:
How long will Dr. Dogear Bovard be stationed on the base?  Does
he stay for a predetermined amount of time or does he stay from
week to week?

        Greetings from Mason City, Iowa, Jefferson Elementary School, Scott
        Petersen's 5th Grade Class!  We are enjoying learning about Antarctica.


ANSWER from Dr. Bovard, Resident Physician, Palmer Station
            Thu, 20 Feb 1997 12:41:17 -0500

Dear Fifth Graders and Scott,

Dr. Dogear Bovard signed a contract to be the medical provider at
Palmer Station from Sept. 96 until early May 1997.  There is another
doctor arriving in mid-late April to take over the responsibilities.
The physicians usually are here on 6 or 12 month contracts.  Ol'
Dogear plans to travel a bit in South America and hopefully do some
scuba diving in the Caribbean or S. Pacific before returning to the
states.  He hopes very much to be able to visit his pals at Jefferson
5th grade before they get out for summer vacation... that is IF they
get summer vacation this year due to snow days.

PS. Incidentally, since I have been asked elsewhere, the nom de
plume "dogear" (thats "chien l'oreille" in French) came from a
"beauty mark" of a slightly curled left ear at birth, like a
dog-earred page in a book, which, unfortunately, has pretty much
straightened with age. 

Dr. Bovard ("Dogear")