There are few better insights into someone’s personality than looking at the way she or he answers questions. Asking people what they would bring with them to a deserted island is a telltale way to find out their prized possessions, secret obsessions, and quirks. It can sometimes even reveal things about your closest friends that you would never otherwise know. Part personality test, part random questionnaire, and with a nod to Bowdoin alum and the first explorer to reach the North Pole Robert E. Peary, comes Stranded at the North Pole. A weekly profile of different Bowdoin students, as if it was just the two of us wrapped in fur coats sipping on hot cocoa in a dog sled. Sometimes serious, sometimes frivolous, but always entertaining, this questionnaire aims to familiarize you with faces that you might see walking across the quad or sitting in a back booth at Moulton.
Today, in honor of our Nightclub theme Late Night Pub this Friday, I am stranded at the North Pole with the on campus band The Neeks, seniors Michael Power, Stephen Sullivan, and Robbie Zhang-Smitheram…
You’re stuck in the North Pole for 24 hours. Describe how you spend your day:
MP: Building a big igloo.
SS: Just a massive igloo.
MP: With high ceilings. Gotta sleep in something. Then I’d go fishing.
RZS: This is probably the most boring answer.
MP: I might shoot myself.
SS: I might shoot myself too. Actually, I’d probably spend the whole day trying to find an exit out of the North Pole.
Which artist would you travel all the way to the North Pole to see perform?
MP: Biggie.
SS: I’d do Tupac. I’m just kidding. I’d see Kanye West; I’ve never seen him perform before.
RZS: Jay-Z, but he’s gotten kind of worse. So Jay-Z, a couple years ago.
MP: Robbie’d see Coldplay, no pun intended.
What food and drink could you subsist on during winter hibernation?
MP: Mango juice and couscous. That’s what I lived off of this spring. And frozen pizza. Anyone can survive off of frozen pizza.
SS: I’d do barbequed pulled pork, and M&M cookies delivered from Moulton.
RZS: A cobb salad wrap. I had a cobb salad wrap for lunch.
If you could bring only one album, one article of clothing, and one book with you to the North Pole, what would you bring and why?
MP: Article of clothing is probably going to be pretty easy for me: a scarf. Robbie would take boat shoes. And Sterv would take his Redwing shoes.
SS: No, I’d take a comfortable hoodie.
RZS: Album is tough because people don’t really think of albums as a whole anymore.
MP: I’d bring Nas’s Illmatic. Done. Every song you can listen to over and over again. It’s timeless.
SS: I’d take KIDS mixtape. My book would be Decoded by Jay-Z.
RZS: Mike doesn’t read.
MP: I’d take GQ. I’d take a yearly subscription to GQ.
RZS: For book I’d take The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’d take the whole series.
If you could each strand one other person on the North Pole with you, who would you choose and why?
SS: Gisele.
MP: It has to be a girl. I’d say Mila Kunis, for sure. Not even a question. But that would get fucking annoying.
SS: Don’t put Gisele, don’t do that.
RZS: Are we all trying to pick a hot actress?
MP: She’s not just a hot actress, she’s a cool person.
RZS: Have you met her?
MP: For 15 minutes. She called me out, that’s why I like her. She told me to stop stereotyping black people when I asked my black friend if he wanted to get fried chicken with me at Roscoe’s.
SS: And Robbie wants to bring his cats. He’s a real cat person.