I was showing my husband the location of a hotel we'll be staying at in London and he pointed excitedly to say that we could walk across the bridge and say hello to "Large Benjamin" and now I'm wheezing.

Runner up: All I Need by Radiohead at 2:45 🫠 youtu.be/FM7ALFsOH4g?...

Back half of the bridge in Spark: 2:40 youtu.be/jVMwDd8V_kY?...

When I found out the teahouse was down the road from John McCrae's birthplace, I was obligated to check it out. (House/museum was closed, alas!) The wrought iron "failing hands" holding torches was a bit much, no?

Going to send an email inquiry on Monday but boosting in the mean time. 🗃️ Also if anyone has suggestions on things to do/places to eat in Ramsgate (other than the tunnels, which is the reason for the visit) let me know!

What do you mean you don't hang out on a discord with live song-by-song updates on Tori concert setlists? (We were waiting with baited breath when Horses was announced to see what would happen. Good on her and deep cut easter egg to reference Battle of Trees.)

What a wonder that we can watch Integrity's return live in the palm of our hands. Hooray for splashdown!

There is no season like Tori Amos tour season and nobody was going to predict that opening song. 🤣

TNA UK Pros: What happens if I don't get through my bulk orders files since they're limited to a one day appointment for booking? Should I make a second appointment on the next day for the same files?

Of course someone made a 3.5 hour video dissecting House of Leaves. youtu.be/93oMgqBz-TU?...

What better way to spend your Wednesday than supporting this year's MA cohort?

Well, it finally happened. Made an archival/research room request typo for files on "pubic" air raid shelter sanitation complaints. I hope the archivist has a sense of humour. 🗃️

The tail end of season four of Battlestar Galactica has been hitting harder on this particular rewatch. (I will never stop championing this show, as messy as the finale is. Cylon plan? Never met her.)

Goose: passive perception of 14 and +4 to all dexterity saving throws Western Student: roll a stealth check with disadvantage to see if you can escape Lawson Hall

Out now in Europe with ibidem and to come out on April 14 in North America at @columbiaup.bsky.social

Even more fantastical: this doctoral fellow can ~ take off to France~ with her 1,500 year old boyfriend and make some cursory tippy-taps at her article while staring longingly out the window of medieval French tower and reviewer #2 is nowhere in sight (Who am I kidding. Diana is living the dream.)

Starting watching A Discovery of Witches and the most fantastical aspect of this vampire/witch show is a young historian PhD who has tenure and fellowships flung at her left, right, and centre on both sides of the Atlantic.

@alliedarmour.bsky.social FYI schedule for Laurier is out on their website. Looks like we're both on Saturday!

Young Sherlock is good. ™️

Current POV. No more essay marking for me, according to Pancakes.

bank station wept in awe

Of course I'm going to watch this. 🙃

I love Blair's writing. I've never mushed a day in my life but I understand very well how hard it is to lose something that was once an integral part of your life.

A little known fact is that successfully comporting yourself with a goose either via diplomacy or a tactical withdrawal is a breadth requirement for your BA at Western.

"...whole fields sometimes develop a habit of mistaking density for depth, of assuming that if something is difficult to read it must therefore be profound. But sometimes it isn’t profound. Sometimes it’s just confusing. And sometimes it’s just bullshit." open.substack.com/pub/drstacey...

The digital copy fee for TNA at £1.52 / $2.58 per page really makes my funding request for research travel to photograph them myself seem like a bargain. This is not an archivist dig - historians love archivists! The funding cuts to these services that we're seeing in the UK/CA are disheartening.

Second year of the PhD in a nutshell.

Anyone else completely unable to search the Hammersmith/Fulham and Westminster City archives? I know Chelsea/Kensington is still down from a cyber attack but it doesn't matter what browser I use, I'm still getting nothing from the others.

I've finished watching Dark and no amount of flow charts and family trees will help me to fully understand -exactly- what happened in that show, especially in the last five episodes.

Bless the undergraduate who asked me today if a PhD took a year and if I was "done" yet.

Well this is interesting and unexpected. I'd recommend reading Tim Cook's Lifesavers and Body Snatchers if you're interested in background info on the practice. 🗃️ #cdnhist www.canada.ca/en/departmen...

Written portion of the comp fields:

Has anyone got access to this? I am looking for the original wording of South Africa's Native Labour Regulation Act 1911. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/10321...

Writing the final comps paper and I feel like my four horse people of the apocalypse are Jurgen Habermas, Benedict Anderson, James Carey and Nancy Fraser.

We'd all be happier if we lived somewhere walkable (The Deep Space Nine space station)

Currently polishing an absolute turd of a paper and looking at past work is reminding me that when the lightning hits, I can write a decent bit of prose. But this is very much not a lightning strike moment.

Pancakes is offereing critical assistance while I write this paper.

Miles 4, 7 and 11 are the worst in the half marathon and busting through the 1,000, 3,500 and 7,000 word barriers in exams or papers are also the worst. I will not be explaining further.

Received my first packet from the magic lantern mail club today! Carla-Jean is a magnificent historian and the cherry on top was the "Lean into it" sticker with the golden virgin of Albert. If you know, you know! 🗃️ #cdnhist

I feel like I bounce from Neutral Good to Chaotic Neutral to Neutral Evil in the span of five pages.

Fighting the urge to just abruptly end my major historiography paper with this:

For one reason or another there are about to be a bunch of drunk Canadians milling around in about 90 minutes.

Nothing is more humbling to a grad student struggling to write 10,000 words after having a solid four months to do so than seeing fanfic authors churn out 100,000+ in the same period.

I'd like to thank Heated Rivalry, the Tim Hortons NHL Challenge, and my PhD office mate Andrew's boundless and misplaced enthusiasm for the Leafs for my new found interest in hockey. Finishing my comps paper in style.

A common fictional narrative shows people with nonconforming identities finding self-acceptance in towns and cities. This #LGBTQHistoryMonth, archivist Lottie Wood explores how author E. M. Barraud found the opposite, through rural work and the Women’s Land Army. merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...

Check out my first post for @activehist.bsky.social where I write about using the archival sources from the @westernuhistory.bsky.social dept in the classroom. activehistory.ca/blog/2026/02...

I don't know what Brennan Lee Mulligan's Endless Dungeon show is going to be like, but that didn't stop me from clicking BUY as soon as tickets were released.

It is Pancakes' Day and she is already decrying the lack of flapjacks as she tries to eat my toast.

I feel like it's going to be a few more years before there is another finisher since there were an unprecented five in 2024.

When the writing isn't going well, put little anecdotes in your footnotes. As a treat. (Will I forget to delete this? Likely.) Someone save me from 1960s British homefront historiography. I need a "people's nap" from the "people's war." 🗃️