Happy New Year and welcome to the 260th 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.

Our first newsletter of 2026 will come with the regular assortment of links to our new articles, links from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was and the week to come.

Leaves from the week that was

I published three new New Leaf Journal articles since mailing Newsletter 260. One of those articles was my long delayed September and October 2025 at The New Leaf Journal. My November-December review will soon follow.

I published both of my non-review articles on New Years Eve.

Before I share the first NLJ article of the week, let us first turn to The Emu Café Social. On December 29 on ECS, I published Seeing the “Snow King” on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue. I had read about an impressive snow sculpture on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue that morning. Of course, the news story was not news to me since I had happened to walk by the sculpture by chance the previous afternoon. Unfortunately, I did not document it, but I rectified my oversight in Weathered “Snow King” Sculpture in Brooklyn on The New Leaf Journal.

Later on the last day of 2025, I published Winter Season 2026 at The New Leaf Journal. Inspired by the snow, I decided that our theme for this winter will be shoveling, specifically publishing many articles that have been on my to-do list for some time and thereby clearing the slate for the spring. I happen to already know what our spring theme will be, but I will save the surprise for March.

Leaves from around the web

Last week I got a head start on our winter 2026 theme by sharing 21 of the best long-form essays from 2025 that were on my newsletter around the web to-use list. Today, we return to our regularly scheduled category-based link sharing. However, to celebrate the new year and trim my now very large link backlog, we begin 2026 with 27 links from around the web instead of 21 (I was going to post 26 but my last category demanded an extra link, so 27 it is).

South American Adventures

The F-117 Nighthawk First Went To War 36 Years Ago Today
Thomas Newdick for The War Zone. December 20, 2025.

Talk about "shock and Panama" (I'm sorry). But bad puns aside, Noriega was captured on January 3, 1990. Surely that will stand as the most dramatic January 3 event for the foreseeable future.

Venezuelan leader's capture comes exactly 36 years after U.S. arrested Panamanian dictator Noriega
Joe Walsh and Kerry Breen for CBS News. January 3, 2026.

Or not.

Related?

Iran Designates Canada’s Navy as ‘Terrorist Organization’
John Hayward for Breitbart. December 31, 2025.

Far be it from me to advise the mullahs but I think they have more pressing things to concern themselves with than the exploits of the Canadian Navy as of the mailing date of the instant newsletter.

On Iguanas and Cardinals

Florida cold snap sends iguanas tumbling from trees on New Year’s Eve
Ariel Zibler for the New York Post. January 1, 2026.

Florida missed a "green Christmas" by one week.

So Many Sports Teams Are Named for Birds—Here's Why (and Where to Find Them) / All About Birds
Frederic J. Frommer and Matt Smith for All About Birds. December 23, 2025.

If you want to know the origin of any MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL bird team names, this long article will have you covered.

Meet the Frozen Iguanas
Palm Beach Cardinals press release.

"This alternate identity was inspired by this unique quirk and how prominent iguanas are in our South Florida community. Palm Beach Cardinals fans can look forward to seeing them transform into the Frozen Iguanas for 12 Saturdays in 2026. This identity will be a 2026 season EXCLUSIVE so get your merchandise now and join the party!"

Cause and effect?

Japan's Cabinet OKs record defense budget that aims to deter China
Associated Press (via NBC News). December 26, 2025.

While this is good news, maybe we should keep an eye on things around the Philippines just to be on the super safe side.

U.S.-Palau agreement shows new National Security Strategy in action
Cleo Paskal for The Sunday Guardian. December 28, 2025.

See? We're already hedging our bets.

Failing Child Safety Systems

NYC puts social justice over child safety with deadly results: ACS caseworker
Hannah E. Meyers for the New York Post. December 1, 2024.

An anonymous employee at New York City's Administration of Children's Services joins a long list of whistleblowers -- that list too will grow.

N.Y. State Police Attempt to Get "Red Flag" Gun Ban Order Against 11-Year-Old Girl Was "Legally Frivolous," "Needlessly Risk[ed] Further Injury"
Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy. December 22, 2025.

Equally impressive is what the police didn't do while unsuccessfully trying to secure the Red Flag order.

When “Kin” Means Anyone
Naomi Schaefer Riley for City Journal. October 22, 2025.

"Only a few weeks earlier, the woman had been driving on San Mateo Boulevard in Albuquerque—an area plagued by crime and drugs as well as human trafficking. She spotted the teen and suggested that she come to an event she was hosting to help girls in the foster-care system. Within a few days, Beck’s friend said, the teen’s caseworker from the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department had contacted her. Would she take the girl in?"

Detecting Counterfeits

Comparing a genuine Casio F91-W with a fake
Andy C. July 2018 (updated June 2025).

Having recently dealt with stripped screws in a laptop, I appreciate Mr. Andy C's analysis of high and low quality watch screws.

My first bootleg manga (that I returned)
Ruben Schade. December 18, 2025.

Buying manga on Ebay is an unsurprisingly risky proposition.

For the Greater Good

Pouring one out for Crucial
Ruben Schade. December 5, 2025.

Crucial exited the consumer memory business to focus on supplying the AI companies. While this hurts me as a consumer, I found some examples which establish that it's for the greater good...

ChatGPT-Generated Poster of U.S. Presidents
Eugene Volokh for The Volokh Conspiracy. January 1, 2026.

It was a big adjustment when President George W. Bush (who looks more like non-President Donald Trump than I remember) left the White House in 2021 after serving for a record 20 years.

ChatGPT-Generated Poster of Supreme Court Justices Since 1900
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. January 2, 2026.

My first thought was to note that current Justices Roberts, Thomas, Barrett, and Jackson apparently don't exist (granting that it is possible Justice Thomas has been merged with the second Justice Gorsuch and Justic Kagan appears to have been merged with Justice Barrett), but then I noticed that Justice Thurgood Marshall was apparently a woman. At least it got former Justices Ruth Borton Cluckirg and Stophon G. Broper correct.

There Go My Vacation Plans

Mali and Burkina Faso announce reciprocal travel ban on US
Reuters. December 31, 2025.

There goes my plan to get kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda-aligned group in 2026...

Merry Christmas!
Roger Pearse. December 25, 2025.

You wouldn't expect this post to lead with a cautionary tale about eating in Egypt.

We Were Once a Country

Cardvaark was once dreamed up as the MTA's MetroCard mascot
Katherine Donlevy for the New York Post. December 25, 2025.

I'm old enough to remember using Subway tokens before Metro Cards, but I have no recollection of Cardvaark. I approve of Cardvaark though. He's very "90s" like the (now former) MetroCard aesthetic and a retired cow parade cow I covered on NLJ.

Disposable Camera Viewfinder Becomes 3D Printed Lens
Lewin Day for Hackaday. December 24, 2025.

The first thing you think when you ask yourself "what can I do with a 3D printer" is "remember the disposable cameras everyone used to use at the zoo?"

Ancient Tools

A 65,000-Year-Old Hearth Reveals Evidence That Neanderthals Produced Tar for Stone Tools in Iberia
Alexa Robles-Gil for Smithsonian Magazine. December 2, 2024.

Maybe this is where it all went sideways.

Archaeologists find evidence of world’s oldest arrowheads at an Uzbek grotto
Alexander Thompson for Eurasianet. December 9, 2025.

Somewhere in the Central Asia area does sound about right.

Top Dog Owners in New York City

NYC Trader Joe's has dogs licking food as owners ignore 'no pets allowed' signs
Katherine Donlevy for New York Post. April 30, 2025.

Since 2020, I've seen people take dogs into grocery stores, restaurants, and other places they don't belong, so this checks out.

Pit bull attacks 1-year-old on crowded Manhattan street and refuses to let go
Steven Vago and Joe Marino for the New York Post. December 23, 2025.

At least New York City bans the real threat (ferrets).

Things Are Looking Bright

Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States
Pew Research Center. November 20, 2025.

Pretty shocked that I of "ban TikTok yesterday fame" is not in the prime TikTok demographics. (See also a social media use survey)

Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025
Michelle Faverio and Olivia Sidoti for Pew Research Center. December 9, 2025.

These stats aren't great, not the best.

You can’t trust your eyes to tell you what’s real anymore, says the head of Instagram
Richard Lawler for The Verge. December 31, 2025.

Certainly not after frying your brain on Instagram.

Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week

I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics (see my 2025 article) to track page visits. 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.

Although the majority of last week's Newsletter Week fell in 2025 (Dec. 27-Jan 2), this is our first Newsletter Week Ranking of 2026, so I have re-set our in-year stats. For each of our top-five articles, you will also find their cumulative weekly ranking stats going back to 2021.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   28 appearances and 22 top placements.

2. The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 30, 2021.
   6 appearances and 1 top placement.

3. Misleading ARRIS Modem Login Instructions
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 12, 2024.
   14 appearances and 1 top placement.

4. Fixing Refresh Rate Issue on 4K TV Monitor
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 26, 2024.
   7 appearances and 2 top placements.

5. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   20 appearances.

Analysis

There was no surprise at the top of the ranking with Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search picking up right where it left off in 2025 in dominating the first weekly ranking of the new year. However, The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum had a notably strong week which would have been for good for the top spot in many more normal weeks in a strong runner-up position. Notably absent from our first 2026 ranking is Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn, which had made the top-five in 35 of the 37 full weeks it was online in 2025, but begins 2026 on the outside looking in.

News Leaf Journal

Consistent with my Winter Season 2026 theme, I am working on clearing my project backlog in early January. Our next article (there is a decent chance it will be online by the time you are reading this) is my November-December review.

Next, I will publish our traditional year-end review for 2025 with a comprehensive ranking of our most-visited articles. I am happy to report that despite having had to cobble together statistics from multiple sources due to my having twice switched between Koko Analytics and Statify (both entirely local page-hit trackers for WordPress), I was able to put together our complete ranking on New Year's and already have a first draft of our year-end review article. I will also publish a separate Justin and Justina dialogue reviewing the year. Once 2025 is fully wrapped up, I have a couple of completed drafts waiting to be published (fans of snowmen will approve) and my focus in January will be on prioritizing projects I had started but not yet finished. We should also see our first visual novel review of 2026 (Christmas Tina) go live in the next week or two.

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.

Until January 10,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.