56 yrs ago today, Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare gives a talk "Carbon Dioxide and All That" at the University of Toronto. Fun fact- Hare was in the audience in 1938 when Guy Callendar spoke... allouryesterdays.info/2025/11/09/n...

Hope the historians out there have Ian McEwan’s future-fiction What We Can Know on their Christmas reading. Escape & not escape.

@nytimes.com today.

Today we are highlighting an excerpt from the latest book in our Canadian History & Environment series with @ucalgarypress.bsky.social, Mountain Voices, in collaboration with the Alpine Club of Canada "Prospector’s-Russell Col, Mount Logan" by Alison Criscitiello niche-canada.org/2025/11/06/p...

What's been the most exasperating Jays news in the 3 days since the World Series? That Kirk, Guerrero, Gimenez, & Clement wuz all robbed Golden Gloves (but hey, Ty France won!?) or that Bichette, Scherzer, IKF, Bassitt, & Diminguez (&, oh, France) are all free agents?

I got home just after my family had finished dinner. *Just* after. Food had been put in the fridge for me a minute earlier. Solve an argument: Was this “dinner” or “leftovers”? Does dinner become leftovers as soon as the fridge door closes?

Just submitted a grant that asked for recent "contributions to training" - MA & PhD supervisions. My list was of histories of kudzu, snow, highways, oil & gas dev, sand sucking, alternative service work, NASA missions, the blind in nature, POW camps, & yellow fever. History prof = no comfort zone.

A slow, bluesy “Ok Blue Jays” - Sarah Harmer? Diana Krall? - running through my head today.

Springer forward, fall balk

Whatever happens: what a great Jays season.

Giving off some Normanne Bates of Green Gables energy handing out candy. The kids keep walking.

“So you could have gone to bed after 3 pitches?”

We're accepting applications until 30 November, but *today* is the last day to apply if you want a chance to win $250 worth of books in the UBC Press Nature | History | Society series. #envhist #climatehistory #cdnhist

Well this is a gut punch. I was just extolling the virtues of his books to my tutorial students this week. What a loss for the field and his family. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Ok, you don't want Ontario to quote that 1987 Reagan radio address? Fine. How about this 1988 one? www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/spe...

Taking this break from grant writing to show Grant writing. Grant-writing, amirite? My mind's gone. There's just nothing. At this point, I'd give you $10,000 to give me $10,000.

To encourage early applications: Thx to the good folks at UBC Press, 1 lucky person who applies *by 28 October* & ends up coming to CHESS will receive $250 worth of books in the Nature | History | Society series - winner's choice! www.ubcpress.ca/nature-histo... #envhist #climatehistory #cdnhist

🔥Today, Canada designated the Miramichi Fire as being of national historic significance.🔥 www.canada.ca/en/parks-can...

To encourage early applications: Thx to the good folks at UBC Press, 1 lucky person who applies *by 28 October* & ends up coming to CHESS will receive $250 worth of books in the Nature | History | Society series - winner's choice! www.ubcpress.ca/nature-histo... #envhist #climatehistory #cdnhist

Remembering the last pitch that a Jays player faced in the World Series. I was bartending at the Queen's Grad Club when Joe Carter hit his homer. There's no procedure for such bedlam. "Free beer for the house!" I may have shouted. All 3 floors. Later, I sheepishly phoned my manager.

Note that CHESS piggyfronts the @cndhistassoc.bsky.social annual meeting 1-3 June - event.fourwaves.com/cha-shc-2026... - also in Charlottetown, PEI. 2 events, 1 travel, no waiting. #cdnhist

"Climate & History," @nichecanada.bsky.social's Canadian History & Environment Summer School, 29-31 May 2026, on Prince Edward Island.🦞 Apply now to attend! The deadline is 30 Nov, but we'd much appreciate early apps. #envhist #cdnhist #chess2026 #gojays niche-canada.org/2025/10/20/c...

Springer? More like Autumner. (Ok, I’ll admit, this clearly fake fan went to bed after the 6th.)

Today: 3 months’ time: “Or, for short, ‘A.I.’”

🎂 I don’t feel old, but then I come across a picture of me from the 1930s.

Well, that's a wrap. With the anniversary of the Miramichi Fire passed, these books that defined the 1st 1/2 of my 2020s are now well & put to bed. I promise never to post about them again. From now on, it's all climate/meteorology history & Dad jokes.

Beautiful sunrise in Fredericton. ‘Course, as anyone in Fredericton can tell you, this pic is of sunset. Last night’s, actually. Sue me.

I'm in Fredericton tomorrow, talking the Miramichi Fire. 🔥🔥Catch me on CBC Fred @ 6:40am, CBC Moncton @ 7:40am, or CBC online. #NewBrunswick @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social www.mqup.ca/miramichi-fi...

“We estimate that 5,400 (3,400–7,400) acute deaths in North America and 64,300 (37,800–90,900) chronic deaths in North America and Europe were attributable to PM2.5 exposure to the 2023 Canadian wildfires.” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Miramichi Fire was not the 1st #wildfire, of course, but it's usually the 1st in Canadian, North American, & even global lists of fires. With its bicentennial on 7 Oct, we'll have had 2 centuries of thinking, worrying, & writing about #forestfire.

I give up.

Thanks, Becky & Ben for the invitation & for the great day. Beausaert, Bradley, Souchen, McCorkindale, Luby - it's so encouraging to see the degree to which @uguelphhist.bsky.social has invested in new, productive #cdnhist faculty.

My quiet protest won, I will renew use of my neighbour’s Disney+.

The 2025-26 Rural History Roundtable begins on Tues Sept 23rd, when @alanmaceachern.bsky.social presents "Becoming Green Gables: The Making of a Famous Farmhouse." His talk is from 330-5pm at @uofglibrary.bsky.social, room 246B. For info on how to attend via Zoom: www.uoguelph.ca/arts/rural/r...

Just dropped! The Champlain Society's "Witness to Yesterday" podcast convo between @nobyrne.bsky.social & me about "Becoming Green Gables." champlainsociety.utppublishing.com/digital-cont... www.mqup.ca/becoming-gre... #cdnhist #greengables @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

Sick burn.

Call for Nominations: 2026 NiCHE Book Prize Books published in 2024 and 2025 are eligible! Submit your nominations by December 31st! niche-canada.org/2025/09/16/c... #envhist #cdnhist

In a few years, the exact timing of AI's rise to ubiquity will be forgotten & it'll just be assumed that the books I laboured to research & write in the early 2020s involved AI. 🙄 So save this: they didn't!

Graphing #envhist in Canada? Number of new books published in @ubcpress.bsky.social Nature/History/Society series, 2005-on, & the @ucalgarypress.bsky.social Canadian History & Environment series, 2011-on.

If you're in Guelph or on Zoom on the 23rd, come hear me talk #GreenGables & rural history. #annewithane

Looking forward to "Mountain Voices" taking its place atop the Canadian History & Environment tower of power. And we're always looking for more books for the series. If interested in developing an #envhist / #cdnhist collection, drop a line. @ucalgarypress.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social

With contributions from Chic Scott to Liza Piper to Bruce Cockburn (!) to …dozens & dozens more, this is a fantastic, monumental (mountainous?) work. Cheers to Eric & all. And great to have it in @nichecanada.bsky.social / @ucalgarypress.bsky.social Canadian History & Environment series.

Really thrilled to announce that our new book on the history of the #MohawkInstitute is now available in #OpenAccess format. You can pay for the physical book, but you can also read a digital copy for free. This was a very important choice for us: press.ucalgary.ca/books/978177... #cdnhist #cdnpoli

I am shook. Watch to the end. This is Truman Show stuff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEby...

This story. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

What does this guy know? It starts "Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no strings."

The 1st question that an academic should ask themself when choosing a new topic is "What would *I* like not to read?"

It's time to look into what's happening with the Rural History Roundtable at @uofguelph.bsky.social. Fall '25 has three hybrid sessions, including a November double billing. All are welcome to attend! More info on @alanmaceachern.bsky.social's Sept 23 talk coming soon. #aghist #cdnhist #ruralhist

Truer now than ever.

Not much new here, tbh. But the photos.