Newsletter Leaf Journal CCII 〜 Dandy fireworks
Issue 202 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to new articles on bridge walks, English visual novels, Brooklyn fireworks, and more, to go with our usual assortment of 21 links from around the web and other news and notes.
Welcome to the 202nd edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator and editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. We have a good selection of new articles from the past week and plenty of other news and notes to report, so let us get to it.
Leaves from the week that was
I published five new articles since I mailed Newsletter 201.
I began the week with a review of a freeware visual novel called The Dandelion Girl. I have reviewed more than 20 visual novels written in some flavor of ONScripter, but this is the first one of the group to be an original English-language visual novel instead of the localization of a Japanese visual novel. Some science fiction fans may recognize the title of The Dandelion Girl as matching a 1961 short story by Robert F. Young. To be sure, the visual novel is a game-adaptation of Young's short story. My review not only includes a couple of links to the original short story, but also my assessment of some of the game's adaptation choices.
I brought September to a close with a (literal) bang, publishing a photo post of an unexpected fireworks show seen over Brooklyn Bridge Park on the night of September 14, 2024. While I still do not know what the fireworks were for, you will find photos, a GIF, and links to two videos I took of the display. Over on The Emu Café Social, you can read about how I almost lost the driving glasses which I once reviewed on The New Leaf Journal after watching the fireworks.
I ushered in October with a pair of posts chronicling a walk I took to Ikea on June 25, 2024. First, I documented my walk across the Hamilton Avenue Footbridge, which I used to cross Hamilton Avenue from Carroll Gardens into Red Hook (both CG and RH are neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York). Long-time readers may recall that I previously documented a walk across the Footbridge (before it underwent some renovations) in 2022. Once I was in Red Hook, I made my way to Ikea. A certain item in Ikea inspired me to write a photo post about that leg of my journey as a new Justin and Justina dialogue. Why did I, N.A. Ferrell, actually go to Ikea? That may be the subject of a future post...
Finally, I documented a fun book recommendation I found at a Brooklyn Barnes & Noble. While I photographed the recommendation several months ago, readers will see why I saved the photo post for October.
I published several new posts on our sister site, The Emu Café Social, in addition to the one I referenced with my fireworks article. I wrote about an annoying character in a recent anime while also previewing a full New Leaf Journal article you can expect to be published in the near future. A Hacker News comment inspired me to write about the nostalgic smell of freshly opened Pokémon cards. Finally, I offered my thoughts on using WordPress.com Reader as social media.
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on the world wide web...
English, then and now...
There are no more Chads in England
Ed West at Wrong Side of History. September 10, 2024.
Or Godwins, Soens, Rainalds, Ailwins, Lemars, Ordics, Alrics, Sarois, Ulviets, or Ulfacs.
English, our mixed Mother Tongue
Ed West at Wrong Side of History. October 2, 2024.
On the fall of old English.
A language of beautiful impurity
Ed West at Wrong Side of History. October 3, 2024.
Imagining a more English English.
The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US
Ben Yagoda for The Guardian. September 26, 2024.
At least they're not exporting German lingo.
Why it’s time to stop worrying about the decline of the English language
David Shariatmadari for The Guardian. August 15, 2019.
A study in how to take a fair point and make unjustified leaps from it.
Thoughts on Japanese cuisine
Japan's humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world
Justin McCurry for The Guardian. September 27, 2024.
I have not seen much onigiri out in the wild but maybe I don't get out enough.
Japan’s amazing egg sandwiches sold from self-serve roadside fridges have an inspiring backstory
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. October 3, 2024.
They should offer a no-mayo version.
Japanese squirrel sweets are an adorable autumn-only nerikiri treat
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. September 22, 2024.
While the squirrel nekikiri do not look too tasty to me, I dare say I have not seen a more adorable dessert.
Bleak discoveries
‘Now we know where the dead went.’ Did grave robbers plunder battlefields?
Andrew Curry for Science. April 2, 2024.
A morbid 19th and early 20th century trend.
Razed city that rebelled against Rome 'remained uninhabited for over 170 years,' excavations reveal
Tom Metcalfe for LiveScience. September 29, 2024.
Who dares wins... except when they lose... badly.
Attacking stories from angles no one else sees
Viral video of teacher assault sparks Uzbek-Russian row
Eurasianet. October 4, 2024.
Say what one will about Russia but most countries managing a massive invasion of their neighbor would be too preoccupied to make an international issue out of a solitary violent teacher in Uzbekistan.
These Fish Have Legs—and They Can Use Them to Taste Prey
Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. September 27, 2024.
Looks like they're skipping "leg day" though.
HP injects AI into its printers
Martin Brinkmann for Ghacks.net. September 27, 2024.
Maybe this is performance art.
Why Are All the Quarterbacks Bad Now?
Ethan Strauss. September 16, 2024.
Nickelback inflation.
Nice design
Collecting Pokémon Cards Again
Johto Times. September 26, 2024.
I concur that the Poliwhirl card pictured in the article is slick.
Japan’s next prime minister is a bit of a maverick
Philip Patrick for The Spectator. September 27, 2024.
Builds some wild and crazy model ships and planes.
Excuses to link to your favorite internet author
Tupperware failed because of how it succeeded
Molly Libergall for Morning Brew. September 19, 2024.
Alternatively: "What do you mean? This is tupperware right here!" said Justina as she pulled out a Rubbermaid food container.
DirecTV’s buying its rival for $1 (kinda)
Cassandra Cassidy for Morning Brew. October 1, 2024.
Say what you will but those dishes will still be up 100 years from now.
Outside lights deadly to birds, especially this time of year
Jessica Damiano for AP (via The Washington Times). October 1, 2024.
Takes may differ, however.
Japanese convenience store plans to increase shoppers’ phone data capacity just for visiting
Elliot Hale for SoraNews24. September 23, 2024.
A nice perk but at tension with my cautioning against installing food store apps on your phone.
O tempora, o mores!
NYC bracing for widespread anti-Israel protests planned on one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 terror attack
Desheania Andrews and Aneeta Bhole for New York Post. October 4, 2024.
9/11 feels like a long time ago.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics to track page hits. In each issue of the newsletter, I list our five most-visited articles, according to Koko Analytics, for the one-week period beginning with Saturday and ending with Friday. Below, you will find the most-visited articles of 2024 Newsletter Week 40 (September 28 through October 5). I will include 2024 and historic (which runs through the first week of 2021) ranking information for each article.
<1> An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
22 appearances and 6 top placements in 2024; 34 and 11 overall.
<2> Broken Optical Audio Cable Door "Fix"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. September 16, 2023.
6 appearances in 2024 & overall.
<3> Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 5, 2023.
20 appearances and 9 top placements in 2024 & overall.
<4> A Sign of Affection - Anime Review
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 28, 2024.
3 appearances in 2024.
<5> The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 – Statistics and Analysis
Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
7 appearances in 2024; 53 appearances and 4 top placements overall.
We had another solid week by recent standards, but the views were a bit more distributed outside of the top five. Granting the parity, however, the top five set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. Things were close at the top -- with each of the top three articles leading at one point or another during the latter half of the week, but my Norton Safe Search review came out on top for the 4th time in 7 weeks. The fourth and fifth place articles were notable. My review of the A Sign of Affection, which has been a consistently solid performer, notched its third top five. My 2022 statistical analysis of Pokémon stats in the first two generations of games notched its seventh top five of the year but its first since Newsletter Week 18, which culminated on May 3. This was a rare week with no articles from 2021.
News leaf journal
I had planned to publish a review of Living for the Day After Tomorrow, a 2006 anime, today (being October 5, 2024), but that will likely take an additional day or two. I have in addition to that project a number of in-progress (some just about completed) drafts and some photos I want to turn into articles, so we are still on pace for a busy October. One project to look forward to is a Halloween history post -- but I will save the particulars of what kind of Halloween history until I actually publish it within the next two weeks.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed this issue and are not already a regular reader, you can sign up for our weekly email, subscribe to our RSS feed, or check in on the newsletter archive once in a while (see all the options).
I dare say we are off to a good start to October and autumn 2024 at The New Leaf Journal, and I look forward to publishing some interesting articles in the coming weeks. I hope you join me there and here as well as on The Emu Café Social.
Until October 12,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.