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amybrady.bsky.social
Amy Brady, PhD
@amybrady.bsky.social
1K followers 400 following 370 posts
Wrote a book called, Ice: FROM MIXED DRINKS TO SKATING RINKS—A COOL HISTORY OF A HOT COMMODITY | Environmental historian & journalist | Newsletter: "Library of Wonders": https://libraryofwonders.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-library
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amybrady.bsky.social
Amy Brady, PhD @amybrady.bsky.social · Oct 23
Depending on how you feel about books, maps, and, well, me, I either have great news or bad news for you: there’s gonna be another Amy Brady book in the world! 📚
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
pgagliardi.bsky.social
An image from @amybrady.bsky.social's book Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks–a Cool History of a Hot Commodity

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700456...
December 2, 2025 at 9:50 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
Should I be writing? Yes. But am I looking through seed catalogs instead? Also yes.

Sigh.
December 1, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
greenleejw.bsky.social
Each week on my patreon, I write about maps and about the process of drawing maps for books.

I'm hoping to get membership up over 500 subscribers, and we're close! It's free, so if you're curious, go read some articles. If you like it, please consider subscribing!
patreon.com/SurprisedEel
Surprised Eel Maps | Patreon
Custom Maps, Artwork, and History
patreon.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
oregonthedm.bsky.social
Part 100! of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg

This 14th century door at Exeter Cathedral, UK, is thought to be the oldest existing cat flap.
Cat leaking out of an old wooden door
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
dghaskell.bsky.social
So, this study shows that Europe pretty much sucked for tens of thousands of years, and then domestic cats showed up 2000 years ago from North Africa
November 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
greenleejw.bsky.social
Thanksgiving is upon us! So...how best to show your distain to your terrible relatives? How about eel pie?

In his 15th C. cookbook, Bartolomeo Platina includes a recipe for eel pie w/ instructions to feed it to your foes when it's done, because eel pie has no redeeming features.
🗃️🧪
Meme. Painting of Bartolomeno Platina kneeling to meet with the pope. I've cut the pope out of the picture, so you'll have to take my word for it. Barty is wearing a red shirt with a blue sleeveless doublet. It's quite natty, and you might believe that it's a Patagonia fleece vest. Bart's silver hair is carefully sculpted and cut, and he is carrying *just* enough of a 5 o'clock shadow to be sexy, and not enough to be slovenly. Women want him, and men want to be him. And he knows it. The expression on his face might be taken for intent interest. His eyebrow is arched, his gaze is intense, and his jaw might be quivering with attentiveness. But it's more likely that he is feigning interest with an expertise born of long practice...like a grad student stuck in the front row of a lecture by an imminent, but terribly dull, guest speaker. Bart is, instead, probably thinking about shots of pumpkin-spice vodka. Meme text reads: "I've baked you a pie because you mean that much to me"
November 26, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
rosemarymosco.com
As the year comes to an end, I'm reposting some of the comics I made this year, including this ridiculous thing.
A six-panel comic. In the first panel, a yellow warbler says "Hey so I'm going to go out on a limb here." In panels two through five, the warbler hops along a long branch against a blue sky with clouds. In panel 6, it stops at the end of the branch and sings.
November 25, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
aprilwolfe.bsky.social
It’s my birthday! I’m gonna do something cool and human today like read a book and go for a walk! Do something cool and human today!
November 25, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
pastpostcard.bsky.social
Don't know if you'd be interested in a bit of work on Saturday 1st July, they're booking people to roam around in wild animal costumes uptown.
November 24, 2025 at 8:46 AM
amybrady.bsky.social
Hey there’s a bird here and I don’t know what it is, can you come look at it?

Me:
a man in a suit is running in front of a building that says tom cruise
Alt: Tom Cruise in a suit is running in front of a building
media.tenor.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Spotted a rare white deer, walking with @sallyfisherprice.bsky.social today...
white fawn with ears prodding forward, from side
November 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
tobytram.bsky.social
Ok, this is cool.

In America, in Nebraska, we lived next to an airbase. British Vulcans were based there; Vulcans are the coolest of planes - an art nouveau Star Wars of a shape and Neil Young feedback of a roar. I recall them flying over, and here one is, all faded like a photocopy of a photocopy
A small house in B&W. Suburbs of Bellevue, Nebraska. Everything is faded, like a memory dug up by special effects in a movie. In the sky is a shape… Same image, but more contrast. The shape is taking…shape. It’s now a thicker line with a hint of wings. A grainy B&W photo of the distinctive Vulcan bomber, not far overhead. You can hear the roar in the photo.
November 20, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
greenleejw.bsky.social
Sure, monks loved their eels. But so did the nuns!

In 1235 Henry III granted a charter to the nuns of Godstow Abbey that included the rights to local eel-rents.

Or, rather, some rights. Turns out, the nuns couldn't get eels all year round...just in the autumn. 1/2
🗃️🧪
Meme. Painting of a group of nuns, sitting in a half-circle. They are all wearing back tunics and white veils and scapulars. The older nun in the middle, whom we'll call Sister Venjens, is pointing to a nun on her right. That nun, who looks like her name is probably Sister Elopine, has her own hand over her chest. Her cheeks are flushed, and she looks is moderately aggrieved. She is clearly being accused of something of bad (like stealing waffles) but not terrible (like trading waffles for sex). A nun on the right -- Sister Quantiphone -- is also pointing towards Elopine. She has Venjens' attention, and is likely offering corroborating evidence. Perhaps she followed a trail of waffle crumbs right to Elopine's room. But maybe she ate the waffles herself and is deflecting blame. The rest of the the nuns are watching this moment with reserved curiosity; likely this is not the first time these nuns have had a dust-up. Meme text reads: "Lots of eels in the fall nun the rest of the year"
November 19, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
catsofyore.bsky.social
“The Family Pet” Postcard from my collection, mailed 1910.
CP toned black-and-white photo of a short haired, tabby cat sitting up for a professional photo portrait. The cat has a fancy metal collar with a bell and a light colored bowtie to it. Text at the bottom reads the family pet. In the lower right corner there’s more text that reads copyright by CE Bullard 1902.
November 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
Evergreen
November 17, 2025 at 5:51 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
Last of the lady coral asters, with squirrel-munched pumpkin 🌱
In the foreground, a potted lavender China aster. Behind it, a bright orange pumpkin with a spot clearly chewed on by squirrels
November 15, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
amybrady.bsky.social
If I weren't a writer I would've been an archivist. I learned so much in this interview w/Malika Desire, reference archivist at the NYPL. We discussed her work, her favorite question ever received, and the witchy display case she curated for the NYPL!
libraryofwonders.substack.com/p/interview-...
Interview with an Archivist
Witches, Witchcraft, and the Art of Curation
libraryofwonders.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
If I weren't a writer I would've been an archivist. I learned so much in this interview w/Malika Desire, reference archivist at the NYPL. We discussed her work, her favorite question ever received, and the witchy display case she curated for the NYPL!
libraryofwonders.substack.com/p/interview-...
Interview with an Archivist
Witches, Witchcraft, and the Art of Curation
libraryofwonders.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
amcglashen.bsky.social
New from @carriej.bsky.social: Folks, we’ve got a white loon. 🪶https://www.audubon.org/magazine/once-lifetime-photos-capture-rare-white-loons-first-summer
‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Photos Capture a Rare White Loon’s First Summer
Montana photographer Tony Gangemi documented a season in the life of a leucistic Common Loon, from its first days as a “little cotton ball” up until its first flight.
www.audubon.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
greenleejw.bsky.social
You want to know how important eels were in early medieval Britain. I hear you.

Bede says they were very important. And grave goods from a 7th C. burial site in Cambridge include a copper bowl w/ the skeletal remains of three complete eels.

Who says you can't take it with you?
🗃️🧪
Meme. Medieval painting showing a burial and funeral. There are two gravediggers lowering a body into a fresh grave. There is a shovel on the ground next to them, so you know they've just finished digging. The body is wrapped in a winding sheet & looks quite dead. Standing at the foot of the grave are three religious men. They have neatly tonsured hair, so are either monks or wannabe monks. They are wearing vibrant blue cloaks, and one of them is reading from a large red book. At the edges of the scene, behind the monks on one side and behind the grave on the other, are four figures dressed in black, with black hoods covering their faces. They might be mourners. Or they might be ninjas, sent by a rival clan to disrupt the ceremony and distract the monks while a second team of ninjas breaks into the abbey to steal the fabled Book of Half-Dead Dreams. If they succeed, then the world will be in peril. Somebody warn the monks! Meme text reads: "When you have a grave need of eels"
November 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
Morning!
A hand holds up an I Voted sticker in front of a very cute white and gray kitty
November 4, 2025 at 2:19 PM
amybrady.bsky.social
going into the week like
November 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
mike.tig.as
me explaining daylight saving time to the cat
tuxedo cat swatting a man’s nose (cat paw somewhat motion blurred). the man is recoiling/wincing.
November 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
theplantinitiative.bsky.social
Essay from @orionmagazine.bsky.social by Priyanka Kumar - Eating Apples: Finding hidden happiness in nature’s variety. "I suggest finding beauty in the apple’s flesh." orionmagazine.org/article/eati...
Eating Apples - Orion Magazine
Finding hidden happiness in nature’s variety
orionmagazine.org
November 2, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Amy Brady, PhD
benjaminpercy.bsky.social
Me after doing fall chores all weekend.
November 2, 2025 at 9:48 PM