Wanted to read a page turner on the plane. But no.

If Tuesday finds you in Edmonton. #cdnhist #envhist #weatherhistory

Nearly five years ago, I took a chance and launched in a new direction. Still writing, still research, still southwestern Ontario as my beat, but looking back in time even as I continue to cover the present. This journey has been profoundly rewarding. It's not just... (thread)

Coming to @cndhistassoc.bsky.social conference on #PEI? 🦞 @nichecanada.bsky.social is hosting an all-day #envhist field trip to the beautiful North Shore on Sunday, 31 May, & we have a few spots on the bus. Contact me - [email protected] - for details. First come, first served.

Coming to @cndhistassoc.bsky.social conference on #PEI? 🦞 @nichecanada.bsky.social is hosting an all-day #envhist field trip to the beautiful North Shore on Sunday, 31 May, & we have a few spots on the bus. Contact me - [email protected] - for details. First come, first served.

Never saw this before: a student ending every exam question with “Yeah.” His own little “Amen.” 😀

Guess I’m done marking for the day.

This is fun. niche-canada.org/2026/04/22/w...

#EarthDay 🌎is as good a day as any to advertise this upcoming @ualberta.bsky.social talk. www.ualberta.ca/en/events/ki... #envhist #weatherhistory

The best thing about grading #His1840 Graphic History exams? Some students offer goodbye doodles. (This one channels @berincole.bsky.social.)

Thanks to Valerio Caruso for inviting me to speak and publishing it and the interview that followed on "Environmental History and Deindustrialisation Studies" in the journal Global Environment (open access) www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

This interview with the makers of Wildflowers for @nichecanada.bsky.social was fun! The film is about Mary Schäffer Warren, who surveyed Maligne Lake in Jasper Nat'l Park in the early 1900s for the Geological Survey of Can. (an extraordinary feat for a woman then!) niche-canada.org/2026/04/14/r...

Another year, another amazing set of final assignments from #His1840 #GraphicHistory students. Take a moment to look at these 4, shared with their permission (alt-text for their details). @westernuhistory.bsky.social

Our public history project with the City of London and the London & Middlesex Historical Society is in today's Western News: #westernu @westernupubhist.bsky.social news.westernu.ca/2026/04/west...

Canada: Hold my beer, eh?

My inner voice has been calling the book on the early history of the Meteorological Service of Canada "Boys5casta." #weatherhistory

Enjoy the new layer on GeoPEI, and take in the Island from 30,000 feet, or just above the tree line! www.upei.ca/GeoPEI

Congratulations to Cheryl Troupe, John Sandlos, @arnkeeling.bsky.social, @tinaadcock.bsky.social, @kdubin.bsky.social, & @micahtrue.bsky.social

"I am rarely sorry to reach the end of a book written by an academic, but in this case I was." I'm rarely sorry to reach the end of a book review written by an academic, but in this case I was.😀 Pologies for being a proud papa, but 2 yrs out, this is the *only* review my book has received.

#otd 50 yrs ago, #PEI launched Energy Days, w/ int'l experts speaking on the future of energy - a 1st step in PEI's plan to become a world leader in self-sufficiency & sustainability. This spring @joshmacfadyen.bsky.social & I are writing about the spirit of ‘76. Watch the skies. #cdnhist #envhist

@westernu.ca really needs to start offering science.🤓

In the past 24 hours *book club invitation: 100% chance of scam *talk invitation: 40% chance of scam *media request: 20% chance of scam What a time to be alive. If indeed I am alive & not a simulated element of some other scam.

@ledevoir.com drawing attention to the Parks Canada Library issue today: www.ledevoir.com/culture/9660... #envhist #cdnhist #parkscanada

Applications are now open for the 2027-2028 L.M. Montgomery Institute’s Visiting Scholar Program! The next Visiting Scholar will participate in Institute Management Committee meetings and help plan the next biennial conference in 2028, where they will also present a keynote address.

This is the best & most important thing I've ever written. (...Of course, I always say that. What's the worst they can do - check?)

@nichecanada.bsky.social has just published my "5 minute read" about the reduction/closure of #ParksCanada library services. Take a look. #envhist #cdnhist niche-canada.org/2026/03/16/i...

"Late in 2013, we used the NPSHistory.com model and began the process of converting Parks Canada publications into electronic editions." - Randall D. Payne and Harry Butowsky niche-canada.org/2014/05/20/a... #envhist #parkhistory #parkscanada #cdnhist

If only AI had been around when Spandau Ballet was writing "True."

Time for another round of "name that Timothee Chalamet Movie™️" "I don't want to be farming okra, or things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive,' even though it's like, no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the okra farmers out there."

My book came out almost 2 years ago - 4.8 on Amazon, 4.7 on Goodreads, but who's counting? - & I just got word the 1st (& only?) review of it will come out soon.🙄 www.mqup.ca/Books/B/Beco...

Pleased as punk to see that the @cndhistassoc.bsky.social & @lmmipei.bsky.social 2026 conferences both have papers, by different scholars, that seem to be built around greengablesdiary.ca. #cdnhist

try 50+ years: 8 double-0, 565, 7421 That’s the magic number, free to everyone, Phone today & sail away to the island in the sun, 8 double-0, 565, 7421!

One offshoot of being on a Cormac McCarthy kick is that I start wearing corduroy shirts & tight jeans to work. Honey, where are my cowboy boots?

That time I watched the first half hour of this 1944 musical comedy, thinking it was the Terry Gilliam one, & that making it seem like a 1944 musical comedy was classic Terry Gilliam.

Spent some time just now touring @westernu.ca sites commemorating the American annexation of Canada. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/w...

Join us on Friday, March 6 as we welcome Prof. Jennifer Bonnell to our graduate conference. Prof. Bonnell's keynote will be on, Foragers of a Modern Countryside: Honey Bees, Beekeepers, and Changing Agricultural Landscapes in the Great Lakes Region, 1880-1940. history.uwo.ca/graduate/his...

Elegy for a golden goal. Do you remember where you were when you read "Do Your Remember Where You Were?"? Still the greatest thing that I, or anyone, ever wrote about hockey, or anything. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/do-y... or try smry.ai/proxy?url=ht...

Girl just walked into this room & yelled, “Snoopy!”

We look forward to welcoming guests on zoom from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Oil Museum of Canada, the Petroleum History Institute, Lambton County Archives, Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Library, Billman Geologic Consultants, Inc., Double B Well Services, & more! @maryeb.bsky.social

Change is coming to the Ontario conservation authority system, but is it the change we need? In this @nichecanada.bsky.social post, I look at the history of the agencies that have been the "primary care providers" of our relationship with our watersheds. Thoughts? niche-canada.org/2026/02/14/o...

One of the things A.I. has taught me - truly - is that I’ve got to be more positive in my feedback to students.

In 2016, as @westernu.ca History grad chair, I had a pot of $ to offer incoming grad students. In 2026, all Social Science grad programs (Psych, Econ, Anth, Soc, Geog, PoliSci, Hist) combined have less than what I had 10 yrs ago. But, hey, we're still @u15ca.bsky.social. We'll be fine.

It’s disgusting to watch the United States choke the life out of Cuba & its people.

Join us for our upcoming Graduate Conference - Spaces and Places: Exploring the Physical and Conceptual Environments of History - Friday, March 6, 2026 -Western University. The schedule may be found here - history.uwo.ca/graduate/his...

Today! For those who wish to join online, here is the zoom link westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/91063003930 Meeting ID: 910 6300 3930

1st time above freezing in, what, a month? 🥶

It’s like witnessing the origin of a Swiftie.

You let your dog pee on a snowman, I’m going to throw a snowball at you. A man’s got to have a code.