Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXIX 〜 :) story
Newsletter Leaf Journal 219 features links to new New Leaf Journal articles on anime and AIM emoji anecdotes, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes including a reference to one of our articles in The Athletic.
Happy February and welcome to the 219th 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 and its short-form writing sister site, The Emu Café Social, Nicholas A. Ferrell. I published a slate of new articles to begin February 2025, and I bring those to you below along with links from around the web and other news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I published four new articles at The New Leaf Journal since mailing Newsletter 218.
One article comes exactly as advertised: January 2025 at The New Leaf Journal. January was our busiest-ever month not aided by an article appearing on Hacker News page one, and our most-visited article ranking (featured in my review) included some unusual (by recent standards) suspects.
In Emojam and Emoji Story-Telling Memories, I was inspired by a news report about a kid-friendly beeper-inspired device in Japan which supports emoji-only messaging to share a story from my own high school days about the untapped potential of emojis in story-telling.
Finally, I published a pair of anime articles. Blondes in “I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class” is my first anime hair color analysis article since August. It covers one character in the ongoing show I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class (shocker). Next, I covered the appearance of the Soseki-tsuki ga kirei story (see my 2021 essay on the backstory) in Tsuki ga Kirei in Shangri-La Frontier. Shangri-La Frontier is also ongoing but the episode I discuss in the article aired in December.
I got back to posting about things I learned over on The Emu Café Social. I learned about Mars (the candy maker) becoming a vet tycoon, the importance of lizards to Ozempic, how a creative deed ensured the survival of Brooklyn Borough (formerly City) Hall, and IMDB's Usenet origins.
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on what is going on around the world wide web.
Fancy architecture
Kengo Kuma and Shigeru Ban design kennels for Architecture for Dogs exhibition in Milan
Gabriella Wong for de zeen. December 4, 2024.
If this becomes a thing in New York City, please let them go with the sound-proof design.
This 1958 residence is the only house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in New York City
Ephemeral New York. January 13, 2025.
Not half-bad.
Cause & effect?
FDA upgrades Frito-Lay potato chip recall to highest level of classification
Misty Severt for Just the News. January 28, 2025.
The recall was caused by the presence of milk in the chips. That did not strike me as too exciting but I suppose it would be exciting in a bad way if milk could send me to the hospital.
The hospital at home movement is growing in the United States
Lola Butcher for Knowable Magazine. January 29, 2025.
I was at NYU Langone Hospital in Manhattan for my only extended hospital stay back in 2019 (I shared an anecdote from my recovery). I had a 70-something inch TV in my room. Not sure home would have been an upgrade.
Something is bugging me
The caterpillars that can kill you
Bob Holmes for Knowable Magazine. January 15, 2025.
Or save your life pending research. Be nice to the caterpillars (but don't touch them).
Live beetles hidden in Japanese snack packages found by customs agents at LAX
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. February 6, 2025.
THIS IS NOT WHAT I ORDERED BUT I WILL NAME HIM STAN.
Decline from what we once were
Beloved NYC grocery store defies orders to close after alleged vermin invasion, 7-year-old cheese found in inventory: 'We've neglected it a bit'
Zoe Hussain and Katherine Donlevy for New York Post. January 22, 2025.
Viewer discretion is advised.
The lonely Italian cheesemaker on East 29th Street immortalized in a 1949 painting
Emphemeral New York. January 6, 2025.
I hope he ended up doing good business that day.
What's Meta up to?
Mark Zuckerberg Opts for Free Speech—After Thinking It Over
Martin Gurri for City Journal. January 14, 2025.
While I appreciate the great loss to the fact checking industrial complex, I will continue not speaking on Facebook and Instagram.
Leaked Instagram Contracts Reveal What It's Paying Creators for Reels
Amanda Perelli, Dan Whateley, Sydney Bradley, and Geoff Weiss for Business Insider. January 27, 2025.
Two step plan I can support: (1) Ban TikTok; and (2) Quarantine the TikTok "creators" on Instagram.
A long walk spoiled
Which New York City Neighborhoods Are Trending Most in 2025? (archived)
Matt Yan for The New York Times. January 23, 2025.
I wasn't impressed with first-placed trender Ridgewood when I passed through it a few months ago before running into BLOB DYLAN.
Winter is the best season for hiking
Joseph Petitti. April 26, 2022.
I am a proponent of winter walks but let's not get carried away.
Money well-spent
Casual Viewing
Will Tavlin for n+1. Winter 2025 issue.
I am not too up to date on Netflix world. This essay does not lead me to believe I am missing out.
Netflix Isn’t Worth $25 a Month, and It Seems Like Even Netflix Agrees
Jason Atem at Inc. January 26, 2025.
I'm glad we can find common ground.
Saving the animals
Can Lynx Be Saved in the Balkans?
Emily Soreghan for Smithsonian Magazine. October 17, 2024.
These guys are giving it a good go.
Scientists hoping these tiny froglets can save their species
Sylvia Hui for The Associated Press (via The Washington Times). February 3, 2025.
Talk about pressure.
Checking in on Central Asia/Eurasia
Tajikistan’s Afghan Conundrum
Bruce Pannier for Foreign Policy Research Institute. November 25, 2024.
A very interesting essay on the issues Tajikistan faces being on the border of the re-established Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan launching effort to ban electronic cigarettes
Eurasianet. January 13, 2025.
Vaping fans may have to reconsider their travel plans to Uzbekistan and/or Kyrgyzstan.
Turkmenistan: Taking megalomania to new heights
Eurasianet. January 31, 2025.
The problem with some of these leaders of former Soviet states trying to do the full personality cult is that they lack the personality.
All the stuff you can do with corn
When Whiskey Was the Backbone of the US Economy
Patrick J. Kiger for History. October 10, 2019.
Alternatively, you could say it was the cob of our economy.
The India popcorn tax controversy
Dave Lozo for Morning Brew. February 2, 2025.
I don't want to be corny but there is a kernel of truth to the assertion that Indians are popping off about this tax.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics (see my 2022 review) 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, I present the five most-visited articles of 2025 Newsletter Week 6 (February 1-7) with 2025 and historic (going back to 2021) ranking information for each of the five articles.
(1.) Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
N.A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
2025: 4 appearances and 1 top placement.
Historic: 8 appearances and 2 top placements.
(2.) January 2025 Look at Pixelfed Social
N.A. Ferrell. January 29, 2025.
2025: 2 appearances.
(3.) The Best TV Anime of 2024
N.A. Ferrell. January 31, 2025.
First appearance.
(4.) Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace
N.A. Ferrell. November 15, 2023.
2025: 2 appearances.
Historic: 4 appearances.
(5.) The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis
N.A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
2025: First appearance.
Historic: 56 appearances and 4 top placements.
Analysis
Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships exploded on views in Saturday and had the top-five strongest days in 2025 consecutively en route to a dominant first-place finish. Its one-week performance would have placed it a close second overall in January. Its traffic was almost all from Google and its spike in views on Sunday seems to have coincided with the Luca Doncic-Anthony Davis trade announcement, despite that trade not obviously implicating my article.
Spots 2-5 in our weekly ranking were also interesting. My new Pixelfed review finished runner-up (no surprise after its strong start), and I expect it to compete for the top spot in Newsletter Week 7. Third place did surprise me -- my review of the year that was in anime posted a very strong debut week to place third. My 2021-2023 anime reviews failed to leave an impression on the rankings, so I am glad to see my 2024 review come out of the gate strong (especially given how much work it was to put together). Continuing on the anime trend, my study of hair color in Raven of the Inner Palace continues to perform well -- notching its second appearance of the year. Finally, my Pokémon generation 1-2 stat study makes it four consecutive years with at least one appearance in the weekly ranking.
Finally -- one notable article was missing. My review of Norton Safe Search saw its 25-week ranking streak come to an end, missing the cut for the first time since the week of August 3-9 in 2024. It came missed the ranking by just one spot and its performance would have been good for ranking in more weeks than not, so I expect it to still be a ranking regular in the coming weeks. Norton missing the ranking also means that we no longer have any articles in the running to make every weekly ranking in 2025. My tsuki ga kirei essay's perfect 52/52 weekly ranking appearance record from 2022 survives for another year.
Notable leaf journal
I noted in Newsletter 215 that I had observed a couple of referrals from nytimes.com of uncertain origin -- but which seemed to most likely be related to my Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships article. I finally found the source thanks to Google Search Console: Joe Vardon's January 6, 2025 article at The Athletic titled The Cavaliers - at 31-4 - are echoing greats like the '16 Warriors, but don't tell them that archived. (Note: I do not think it had a direct effect on the article's strong performance last week.) We were linked in the middle of the article in the following passage:
"The No. 1 offense in the league resides in Cleveland, as does the No. 9 defense (having a top-10 offense and defense is often the magic formula to winning a title)."
Interestingly -- I did not specifically consider in that article whether having a top 10 offense and defense is a magic championship formula. I was focused on whether NBA champions are, relative to league average, stronger on offense or defense. But the citation is on point in the general sense since I concluded that while champions on average are slightly stronger on offense than defense, it is the case more often than not that offense and defense wins championships. I am working on a short post inspired by The Athletic link.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you are not already a regular reader, you can sign up for our weekly email, add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader (see RSS introduction, or simply check in on our newsletter archive when you are so inclined (see options). I will be a bit busy for a few days but I will try to post a few New Leaf Journal articles. At the very least, I should have one fiiting article (or review) for Valentine's Day, which falls on the eve of the upcoming Newsletter 120. Speaking of Newsletter 120...
Until February 15,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.