Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXLVI 〜 Summer's End
We have no new articles to share in issue 246 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, so I share seasonal articles from The New Leaf Journal archive along with 30 links from around the world wide web.
Welcome to the 246th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social. This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.
I was busy last week. That resulted in my publishing no new posts. But I do have enough time to mail a new newsletter. I advertise this publication by stating that it is distinct from NLJ and ECS. What better time to prove it than by capping a week with no new NLJ and ECS articles.
Leaves from weeks that were
Summer officially ends here on Monday, September 22, 2025. Because I have no new articles, I decided to dig into the archive for some articles that fit the ending summer, beginning autumn theme.
(Note we have summer Sun in Brooklyn, New York City, as I write this.)
I begin with my September 5, 2020 post from the early days of The New Leaf Journal, Bed in Summer, Bed in Winter. Prompted by a Robert Louis Stevenson children's poem, I posted some thoughts on the days shortening as we move away from summer.
Back in December 2022, I published At Summer's End - Visual Novel Review. At Summer's End is the 2006 localization of a December 17, 2003 freeware Japanese visual novel called Natsu no Owari ni. It remains free to download and read. The novel is a short piece about the changing relationship of two childhood friends in junior high school. It is not only set in the "end of summer," but it also subtly uses the changing season thematically. It is not a great novel--I ranked it dead in the middle of the 31 al|together visual novel localizations--but it is a well-constructed piece. For further reading, I published At Summer's End vs A Dream of Summer, which was a humorous piece on inadvertently starting A Dream of Summer, a visual novel I by the same developer that I would also review, when I had meant to start At Summer's End. Earlier this year on ECS, I wrote about stumbling across a review of a different visual novel called A Summer's End.
On November 6, 2020, I published The Bees of October. Summer may end, but summer can still hang on. But I have also written more forward-thinking posts. I invite our women subscribers to get their wardrobes in order after studying the newest current fashions in Nineteenth Century Autumn Dress Trends.
If you feel somewhat melancholic about the changing season, “Solitude” – An 1899 Poem By William Thomas Saward will remind you that autumn is a season of life.
Finally, I conclude with High School Newspaper Microsoft Publisher Memories, my high school anecdote which begins in earnest one summer and culminates in as the season changes from summer to fall.
Leaves from the week that was
Because I shamefully published no articles last week, allow me to present 30 articles from around the web instead of our customary 21. Please be advised that I am doing this solely for your benefit and not because I want to take the opportunity to put a dent in my link backlog.
On theme
How to return from a newsletter hiatus in style
Ryan Farley for Buttondown Blog. July 29, 2025.
I usually have a few extra links around the web for weeks when I do not have many new articles to share.
I Tried Every Todo App and Ended Up With a .txt File
Alireza Bashiri. August 11, 2025.
My newsletter link to-do list is written in markdown. Markdown is a plain text format. Thus, my newsletter to-do list is close to a .txt file, but the file name is atw.md.
Don't tell me what to do
Meet the Hamas Leaders Running UNRWA Schools
Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. September 19, 2025.
I'd rather not. Sometimes you never know until you meet someone but I don't think we'd get along.
Starbucks asks customers in South Korea to stop bringing printers and desktop computers into stores as workers transform cafes into remote offices
Sasha Rogelberg for Fortune. August 11, 2025.
I would have blown past this headline if not for printers.
Fix That Old Remote With Graphite
Danie Conradie for Hackaday. November 1, 2024.
Interesting fix but I do not recall having had this specific issue.
Spirit Airlines Flight Warned to Move Away from Air Force One over Long Island
Sean Moran for Breitbart. September 17, 2025.
"Pay attention. Spirit 1300 traffic off your left wing by six mi– or eight miles, 747. I’m sure you can see who it is. Keep an eye out for him — he’s white and blue."
Everyone needs a hobby
You can have your hobby
Juha-Matti Santala. September 17, 2025.
For example...
100-year-old granny gamer in Japan plays SNES almost every day, sometimes with great-grandkid
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. September 16, 2025.
Super Nintendo is a great console so can't blame her for not "upgrading."
Current Affairs Magazine Demonstrates Paywalls Are Not Necessary for Publications to Thrive
Caralee Adams for Internet Archive Blogs. March 4, 2025.
I can teach them how to skip subscribers and making money.
Magnet fishing is supposed to be a wholesome hobby. Why all the beef?
Robbie Armstrong for The Bell. March 1, 2025.
Sounds like a messy hobby to me.
I see what others miss
Parents, students, teachers demand more charter schools be allowed to open in NYC in massive march across the Brooklyn Bridge
Haley Brown and Matt Troutman for the New York Post. September 18, 2025.
I'm sympathetic to the cause but did anyone consider that holding this march during school hours may be poor messaging?
Social Media's Highlight Reel
JCProbably. September 8, 2025.
I don't think I've been missing much on the social media.
Going back to nature
Girly Games: Harvest Moon BtN
aufdeutsch for Retro Junk. October 11, 2006.
I'll have you know that the video game I ranked second on a personal list of games which left the biggest impression on me is quite manly. I had a man's sweet potato harvest in autumn of my second year!
Retro gaming, minimalism, and digital snacking
Ruslan Osipov. September 15, 2025.
I instantly recognized that he was playing Harvest Moon: Back to Nature in the featured image. Has my vote.
My back
Mountain climber in Nagano reaches summit and throws back out tying shoelaces
Master Blaster for SoraNews24. September 15, 2025.
They say that climbing a mountain is more about the journey than the destination, but I think the destination will stand out in this case.
I Live For This
Doug Glanville. August 17, 2025.
Todd Jones, one of my funniest teammates, used to parody MLB’s 'I Live For This' campaign. After our teammate David Bell once collapsed to one knee on home plate from a bad back after an aggressive swing, Jonesy said: 'When you take a full swing and blow out your back at Dodger Stadium... I live for this!'
1980s consoles
How I Perpetuated an Internet Rumor About the Duck Hunt Dog
Drew Mackie at Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games. August 24, 2025.
If it makes Mr. Mackie feel better, I don't recall having been aware that people thought the dog in Duck Hunt was named Mr. Peepers. Unrelated: I prefer Shooting Gallery for Sega Master System to Duck Hunt.
The Master System Girl: A Console with Cooties?
Nicole Branagan at Nicole's Express. September 14, 2025.
It is more portable than my Master System. It would also go better with Barbie's Dream House.
Caveats
Beelink ME Mini Review: The mini PC maker's first NAS supports 6 NVMe SSDs
Iam W. Morrison for Liliputing. September 14, 2025.
This looks cool but would end up being expensive to outfit with six SSDs unless you are sitting on a stockpile.
How ‘sad’ bananas could help tackle food waste
Lisa Eckmann for The Conversation. December 30, 2024.
I'm all for helping sad lonely bananas. The problem is that they tend to be more expensive than bunches of bananas.
Things that will be climbed
MTA installs new metal shields on turnstiles at NYC subway station
Desheania Andrews and David Propper for the New York Post. February 12, 2025.
The important thing is that the MTA feels like it's doing something.
American tourist impaled while trying to climb over fence at Rome's Colosseum
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. May 6, 2025.
This directly follows from Emperor Honorius banning gladitorial combat in the early fifth century.
People don't want to know
Uzbekistan preparing to conduct first census in 37 years
Eurasianet. September 12, 2025.
Who wouldn't be sensitive about holding a census if the result were learning how many of their citizens were seeking greener pastures in... Russia?
Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters
Sarah Mcfarlane for Reuters. May 14, 2025.
Seems strange to say that there's "unexplained communication equipment" when you could just use it to ask the Chinese manufacturer directly to reassure you that there's nothing to worry about.
Question, answer, and other answer
Why American Men Think It’s Not Worth Going to College Anymore (archived)
Francesco Maglione for Bloomberg. April 21, 2025.
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc.
Northwestern's Contract With Qatar Forbids School From Criticizing Regime
Collin Anderson for The Washington Free Beacon. September 5, 2023.
I'm sure Northwestern makes sure that all students accepted to their Evanston campus are aware that joining the Northwestern community means subjecting themselves to the laws of Qatar.
As ‘Bot’ Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
Jakob McWhinney for Voice of San Diego. April 14, 2025.
Say what one will but the bot students always say something in response to a prompt.
The best and the brightest
Artificial Stupidity
Theodore Dalrymple for Taki's Magazine. September 12, 2025.
Sometimes stupid results are borne of stupidity. But not always.
Prosecutors: California Woman Registered Her Dog to Vote, Mailed a Ballot in Its Name
Lowell Chuffiel for Breitbart. September 6, 2025.
I can't decide whether the best part is that she was publicly bragging about it or that "Maya Jean Yourex" tried to vote from beyond the grave.
Kuwait arrests 67 over illegal alcohol production after 23 deaths
Reuters. August 17, 2025.
If you are bootlegging alcohol in Kuwait, you should probably make sure you're not creating a trail of death leading police to your door.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
In each edition of the newsletter, I share our five most-visited articles of the week. This week's list comes courtesy of Statify an entirely local and cookieless page visit counting solution for WordPress. Below, you will find the five most-visited articles of 2025 Newsletter Week XXXIX (September 13-19) with their 2025 and historic (dating back to 2021) weekly ranking information.
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Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
2025: 13 appearances and 8 top placements. -
Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
2025: 21 appearances and 7 top placements. -
Enabling Charging Optimization on GrapheneOS
Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 12, 2025.
2025: 2 appearances. -
Height differences in anime romances
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 22, 2023.
2025: 5 appearances.
Cumulative: 20 appearances and 7 top placements. -
Jim Walden’s Connecticut Plates
Nicholas A. Ferrell. September 12, 2025.
2025: First appearance.
Analysis
Our top three from Newsletter Week 38 returns in the same order. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search and Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn went 1-2 in that order for the sixth consecutive week. The former returned to a more normal good week after having two of the best weeks of 2025, but it still won the week comfortably and should be viewed as the favorite to extend its first-place streak to seven. Height differences in anime romances notched its 20th all time weekly ranking appearance with its 5th placement of 2025. Rounding out the top-five is my most recent article (as of this newsletter), Jim Walden’s Connecticut Plates. Like its predecessor, it made the weekly ranking thanks to NewsBreak App, and I suspect that it will be a one and done article for ranking purposes. Walden is the 44th article to make a weekly ranking appearance this year, extending a record we had set last week.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed this issue and have not done so already, you can follow this newsletter by signing up for our weekly email, adding our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or checking in on our archive page. You can also sign up for a separate newsletter which sends daily digests of our new posts here.
I took advantage of my lack of new articles to show what we can do with The Newsletter Leaf Journal as its own distinct publication. With that being said, I hope to return balance to next week's edition, mixing newsletter-exclusive writing with links to articles on my main projects. I still have several outstanding job assignments due in the first half of this upcoming week, but I should have some new things to share from NLJ and ECS in next week's newsletter.
Until the leaves fall,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.