Andy Woodruff

@awoodruff.bsky.social

cartographer of things https://andywoodruff.com/

I’ve been buying these for the kids lately and can’t get past this picture on the box. Why would you open a box of Cheez-Its outdoors on the moon? There’s no way to eat them!! Very wasteful.

Picture from the back of a cheez-it box: an astronaut in a space suit lounging in a chair apparently on the moon, with an open box of cheez its which are floating away.

Oh no, we’re doing the daylight saving time thing again? Have you people learned nothing from me? There is no universal solution but to overthrow the clock and live by the sun.

A map of the USA showing the most satisfactory plan to have reasonable sunrise and sunset times: abolish daylight saving time, use it permanently, or keep the current twice yearly time change. On the western side of time zones it’s best to abolish DST; on the eastern side it’s better to have permanent DST.

Big news from Maine: it is the only state to share a border with exactly one other state, and it is the only one-syllable state name! Unclear at this time how either of those will affect the 2026 midterm elections.

Someone bought Boston in 50 Maps from Amazon—where there are actual images of the actual maps—and thought they were getting a street atlas for getting around town. But still found it interesting enough to give it three stars. So, uh… success?

Okay, about 4700 labels later I might declare this map done soon. Then again, it surely could cross 5000 if I just take a few years to track down names for every tiny pond etc. 🤔

Shaded relief map of the White Mountains and Lakes Region in New Hampshire.

I'm thrilled to announce that I will soon be an author! My book, The Twin Cities in 50 Maps, is a cartographic portrait of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The book includes 50 painstakingly designed maps and deeply researched essays that trace the Cities' urbanity, history, ecology, and culture.

Bild

Big thanks to @bplmaps.bsky.social for hosting the Boston in 50 Maps book launch tonight! A delight to see a little crowd of people excited about maps, new faces and old friends alike. Plus this fun combination drink ticket/bookmark they made using my Storrowing map, which I promptly lost.

Photo of a bookmark containing the title “Boston in 50 Maps” and a map of so-called “storrowing” crashes in Boston.

Pretty solid evening as a carto-parent! Overheard the 5 year old making maps for a while (FYI fellow cartographers, apparently the rule is that maps cannot use colors besides blue and green), and then one of the bedtime "books" with the 3 year old was a map of Spain in a guidebook.