September 5, 1997

What's with the whole penguin connection anyway?

First there was the Bud Ice Penguin singing the haunting line, "Doobie, doobie, do," and supposedly drinking up all the Bud Ice at parties across the country.

Next came the cryptic Bonfire Snowboard Clothing ads featuring flocks of Emperor and Adelie Penguins romping on the ice.

Now, according to the August 11, 1997 issue of Newsweek we find out that due to seasonally higher temperatures in Antarctica the penguin populations are beginning to die off. "Average annual air temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have climbed 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, 10 times faster than the global rate," reports Newsweek. In fact, the magazine reports that six colonies of Adelie penguins (the smaller ones) have gone extinct since 1975.

Could there be some kind of connection here?