Ice Cream for Breakfast, Book Activism, Valentines, Bad Bunny & More: Endnotes 06 February

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

Here’s the scoop! Tomorrow is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day! The holiday has three simple rules: (1) Eat ice cream. (2) On the first Saturday of February. (3) For breakfast. It was started by Florence Rappaport in Rochester, NY. Legend has it that the tradition began in 1966, when an epic blizzard hit the city, keeping kids home from school. Florence’s children were bored, so she declared they would all have ice cream for breakfast. It became a family tradition and through the decades, Ice Cream for Breakfast Day has been celebrated around the globe — in Nepal, Namibia, Germany, New Zealand, Chile, Honduras, China, and Israel. And tomorrow, Prague. On our menu, we’ve got homemade Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons (recipe) from the Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook (drizzled with homemade hot fudge sauce) and a side of pretzels for dipping. We will also be watching the original animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians in our pajamas, probably with bedhead. (BTW, this is an excellent essay about the gorgeous art in Disney’s 1961 film). We humbly suggest you consider doing your own version of Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. You can hit your local ice cream shop, get pints of your favorite grocery store brand and eat straight from the container, or make your own: Here’s a video with four easy ways to make homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker.

• News you can use! There’s a new book called The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America. LitHub has the scoop on the book and a recipe for an ancient version of mac and cheese. ‘As the dish bakes, the bay leaves release their essential oils and infuse the kitchen with floral, citrus, and peppery aromas… When sufficiently heated, the fresh cheese contracts, sweating whey from the curds that provides liquid to cook the dough, which will plump up and undulate slightly as it expands. Little by little, the crust acquiesces to the Maillard (browning) reaction, and the fat and honey will join forces to act upon the cheese, turning it a golden orange; some of it will seep out and caramelize. These combined processes unleash notes of toasted nuts, browned butter, baking bread, and toffee, which harmonize with the herbal aromatics.’

• We’re big fans of fantasy/horror author T. Kingfisher in our house. Read the first chapter of her recent book Snake-Eater. This contemporary fantasy centers around a woman trying to escape her past and finds herself beholden to a vengeful god. According to Paste magazine, it features a remote setting, a house full of secrets, and an eclectic cast of colorful supporting characters. The first sentence is a banger: ‘Selena picked her new home for no better reason than the dog laid down on the porch.’

• So cool! The new graphic novel More Weight retells the story of the notorious Salem witch trials — and how they continue to resonate 300 years later. Read the review from The Comics Beat.

• The Ministry of Time was one of my favorite reads of 2025. I didn’t realize it has a fan fiction connection.

• Awesome job title alert: The Royal Museum in Greenwich has a full-time Curator of Time. You definitely want to listen to her interview on this episode of History Extra.

• An explainer I didn’t know I needed until I saw it: A Pictorial Guide to Medieval Architecture. The illustrations are so cool.

• This ‘which came first’ quiz was surprisingly delightful and informative. I got 11/15, but I didn’t even care about the wrong answers because the correct explanations are so much fun.

• I like that there are practical, actionable ideas in this piece about tending to our bookish communities: It’s Time to Get Loud About the Books You Love. ‘One bit of advice I keep seeing is to find our lanes. To acknowledge that no one person can do everything, or try to help fix everything at once. And in that spirit, I’ve been thinking about something in my lane that always needs doing, but especially now: supporting the art you love.’

• When you’ve had enough of humans: Five Sci-Fi Short Stories Told Through an Alien POV.

• ‘It still has the ability to shock.’ This is an excellent essay about Wuthering Heights from the BBC. ‘Whether you are a fierce lover or loather of Brontë’s deeply flawed characters, the harrowing and unsettling plot and the toxic romance, Wuthering Heights has possessed its legions of fans throughout history.’

• Related: A Wuthering Heights movie set tour!

• Also related: You can sleep in a replica of Catherine’s bedroom via Airbnb. ‘Cathy Earnshaw invites couples to step inside her lavish Thrushcross Grange bedroom in West Yorkshire for an immersive overnight stay inspired by Emerald Fennell’s sizzling take on the classic novel.’ It will be available three separate times for two guests to stay; booking opens on 20 February.

• Sweet! Stories and images of Victorian Valentines, from a Cataloguer at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

• The fascinating story of a ubiquitous white plastic chair. Bad Bunny, who just won Album of the Year at the Grammys and is performing at the Super Bowl this weekend, featured two white plastic chairs on the cover of his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Those simple chairs are imbued with meaning. ‘In the hands of Bad Bunny and Eric Rojas, the photographer behind the album cover, the monobloc chair becomes more than furniture: it is cultural shorthand, laden with memory and emotion. In Puerto Rico, these chairs are everywhere, drawn into circles by family, friends, and neighbours to talk, laugh, and share stories – becoming a symbol of community and identity.’

A good night sleep, or a ten-minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine. — Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

Top image courtesy of Jason Richard/Unsplash.