Vernal Intro

Welcome to the 272nd edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal ("NLJ") and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social ("ECS"). This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.

Spring has sprung, but most of today's post features links to articles I published to bring winter to a close. We have many links in this issue, so let us move from the intro to the "content" (as the kids and marketers call it).

Leaves from the week that was

I brought winter to a close by publishing seven new NLJ articles since mailing Newsletter 271. None of the articles were of the blockbuster variety, but let no one say that we do not have a variety.

I began the week with February 2026 at The New Leaf Journal. This one comes to you as advertised. You can catch up on any articles and posts you may have missed last month and see our top-24 most-visited articles for February (a few surprises in the ranking).

The NBA's Atlanta Hawks had scheduled a strip club promotion for March 16, 2026. I thought about writing about it when I read the story, but I decided to hold off, working under the assumption that it would eventually be cancelled.¹ I was right about the cancellation, but I did not let that stop me from marking what would have been the questionable event in Atlanta Hawks’ Cancelled “Magic City” Night.

Back on September 28, 2025, I photographed a new BLOB Dylan² in Williamsburg. You can learn about it in the aptly-named BLOB DYLAN Board in Williamsburg. About an hour after photographing BLOB Dylan, I captured an example of my friend's heroism, which you can read about in Sharing a Stuffed Bird Rescue Story.

I transited through Houston Hobby Airport in May 2025. That trip already led to two articles.³ On March 18, 2026, I published a third article in the Houston Hobby layover series: Jackie Harris’ Fruitmobile Seen at Houston Hobby. Here you can see and learn about what is apparently the world's most famous "art car."

Speaking of cars, I wrote about a three-wheeled Happy Cleaners laundry delivery and pick-up vehicle last summer. Not long after I published my first article, I encountered the Happy Cleaners "trike" in a different location.⁴ That photograph prompted an article about Gowanus, Brooklyn, in Happy Cleaners Cargo Trike in the Rain. I published a tangentially related ECS post titled Carroll Street Bridge Proposals.

I have an idea for an NBA research article centered on Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo's 83-point performance on March 10, 2026. However, I cannot complete that article until the current regular season is over. To hold everyone over, I shared My Recollection of Kobe Bryant’s 81, which leads into a brief story about a day in my life in high school. Right before I began drafting my 81-point retrospective, I published a short ECS post on my memories of watching then-Boston Celtics (now Houston Rockets) forward Jeff Green pour in a career-high 43 points against the Miami Heat on March 18, 2023 (see Jeff Green's Career-High 43 on 03-18-13.

Thinks were even busier on ECS, where I published 18 new posts (including the two linked above) since mailing the previous Newsletter. Fortunately, they are a bit easier to summarize.

• Daily Pook-Emu Bee Links: I published daily links with commentary from Sunday-Friday. See March 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

• Learning: I learned about crispy bacon in Japan, alienation of affection laws in 2026, MSN dial-up internet in 2026, and the heaviest (4 lb) owl in North America.

• Tech: I wrote about search engine shortcuts in Firefox, troubleshooting an issue with the Nemo file manager on Linux, and a Sega Genesis stock ticker.

• I offered brief thoughts on the announcement of the 3rd Anime Season For The Dangers in My Heart.⁵

Finally, I published two photos on Pixelfed. First is my photograph of a Robert F. Kennedy memorial bust in the snow and second is a snowy scene seen through my window. Both of these photos were featured in NLJ posts (links in the descriptions), but the Pixelfed versions are higher resolution.

Links from around the web

Given how many new articles I published, one would think that I would only share the normal 21 links from around the web. However, we sadly and unexpectedly begin with the multi-link celebration of a life well-lived, so I ended up sharing 24 links instead of 21 (we must make progress on the backlog, after all).

The Chucktator gave winter one last roundhouse kick

Martial Arts and Film Legend Chuck Norris Dies at 86
Nick Arima for RedState. March 20, 2026.

"But we can think fondly of all that he's shared with us to help make the world a little brighter."

My top 10 NEW Chuck Norris jokes
Chuck Norris for WorldNetDaily. August 7, 2023.

"The reason these 'Facts' are so hilarious is that everyone knows I'm as human as anyone else. I know that might be hard for some of you jokesters to imagine! But it's true."

Working out your gratitude muscles
Chuck Norris for WorldNetDaily. November 20, 2023.

"It’s no coincidence that God prescribes giving thanks in the Bible: 'Give thanks in all circumstances.' God knew far in advanced of researchers today that giving thanks was great for us and the best way to overcome tough times, especially considering how we are hardwired for negativity."

Veterans Day: My family’s and my military service
Chuck Norris for WorldNetDaily. November 11, 2024.

"Please, pass along your contagious patriotism by educating others (and especially your posterity) about U.S. veterans. Whether you pass them in the streets or airports, as often as they are in your presence, shake the hands of those who are serving or have served our country as you say with enthusiasm and sincerity, 'Thanks for your service!'"

Spring has sprung

A Springtime Reader
Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. March 21, 2021.

Perennially vernal, today marks five years since I published my comprehensive spring-time reader.

Japan’s submerged forest gets even more beautiful with Lake Shirakawa spring light-up event
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. April 13, 2025.

That "submerged forest" photographs well.

Episode 49. It's March. It's Madness. It’s Bracketmania!!!
Brigitte Smith for The Authentic Voice of Sports Branding. March 19, 2026.

The ubiquity of the March Madness bracket.

Spring cooking

Tulip Bulb Stamppot
Max Miller at Tasting History. January 14, 2025.

I will stick to looking at tulips.

Tulip Bulb Soup: the Dutch Dish Born From Tough Times
Diana Hubbell for Atlas Obscura. June 11, 2021.

This has a wider selection of tulip recipes but not enough to persuade me to abandon my tulip apppreciator position for a more tulip consumer posture.

Chanko Nabe (Sumo Stew) ちゃんこ鍋
Namiko Hirasawa Chen at Just One Cookbook. March 4, 2026.

The second grand sumo tournament of 2026 is winding down, but the window for making chanko nabe remains wide open.⁶

Disappearing images

Unfriending Before the Internet: The Vintage Way of Erasing People from Your Life and Photos
Rare Historical Photos. September 7, 2025.

Friendships are more durable when erasing them is time-consuming.

Gamers react with overwhelming disgust to DLSS 5's generative AI glow-ups
Kyle Orland for Ars Technica. March 17, 2026.

Am I the only one who notices that the "AI glow-up" Nikolai Yezhov'd the background characters from the “enhanced’ image?

Everything's fine

I’m a Furry. My Community Has a Violence Problem.
Black Stag for Reality's Last Stand. March 16, 2026.

Last week, I wrote about the abomination that is Labubu. I ended with a positive aside: "[A]t least they are not 'furries' (yet)." Perhaps I was tempting fate. This furry essay showed up in my feed reader. I regret to inform Mr. Stag that "violence" is just one of many hairy problems with the furries.

The AI child exploitation crisis is here
Bruna Horvath for NBC News. February 28, 2026.

I hope you were sitting down for this one.

Security Clearance Denied for Past Child Porn Downloading; Hearing Officer Unmoved by Claims That Behavior Stemmed from Since-Resolved Gender Dysphoria
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. February 18, 2026.

I think we skipped a few legal procedures even before getting to "should you have a security clearance?"

Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don't rewrite an Iran missile story
Emanuel Fabian for The Times of Israel. March 16, 2026.

I'm not sure if I have yet addressed the prediction markets in this humble newsletter. I appreciate that some people got together and thought "wow society doesn't have enough degenerate gambling and degenerate gambler behavior" and stepped in to fill the void. Thank goodness.

Olden planes are new again

A-10 Warthogs Are Prowling For Iranian Boats In The Strait Of Hormuz
Joseph Trevithick for The War Zone. March 19, 2026.

The Warthogs are at it again.

Iranian F-14 Tomcats Meet Their Doom In Israeli Airstrikes
Joseph Trevithick for The War Zone. March 11, 2026.

2025 and 2026 have not been good to the F-14 Tomcat.

B-52 Re-Engining Plan Comes Into Sharper Focus
Joseph Trevithick for The War Zone. March 13, 2025.

"The resulting bombers, which will also get an array of other upgrades and are currently expected to serve into the 2050s, will be redesignated as B-52Js. The B-52Hs were the last of these bombers produced and the final example rolled off the Boeing production line in 1962. The aircraft have received various improvements and updates already since then."

Problem and non-solution

Lawyers Citing Nonexistent Cases Ordered to Pay Opponents' Attorney Fees, Double Costs, $15K Fine Each
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. March 14, 2026.

I'm sure there's persuasive fictitious authority supporting a frivolous argument against the sanctions.

"The Quality of Counsel's Filings Further Deteriorated"
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. February 14, 2026.

One danger when you get in trouble with AI is that you may have fried your ability to solve problems without AI. Thus, you get the shovel and keep digging.

Popular products

The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K
Scharron Harding for Ars Technica. January 30, 2026.

Bad news for the non-existent 8K media owners out there.

Amazon may be working on a new smartphone (for some reason)
Brad Linder for Liliputing. March 20, 2026.

"I suppose there is one tidbit in the article that suggests Amazon was at least aware that its limited app selection was a problem: the new phone would use AI to let you interact with services without the need to install specific apps." (I smell a huge success here.)

Ubuntu TV - A Bold But Unfulfilled Vision for the Living Room
The Axis of Bozz. March 27, 2025.

I had never heard of Ubuntu TV. For whatever it is worth I use KDE Plasma instead of GNOME on my TV PC.

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. Below, you will find our most-visited articles for the week of March 14-20 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

2026 Newsletter Week 12 Top-Five

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   N.A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   This Year: 12 appearances and 10 top placements.
   Cumulative: 39 appearances and 31 top placements.

2. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine
   N.A. Ferrell. January 21, 2026.
   9 appearances and 2 top placements.

3. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   N.A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   This Year: 9 appearances.
   Cumulative: 28 appearances.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
   N.A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
   This Year: 4 appearances.
   Cumulative: 14 appearances.

5. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2
   N.A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
   This Year: 8 appearances.
   Cumulative: 71 appearances and 4 top placements.

Analysis

The full top-five from Newsletter Week 11 return in Week 12, with the only change within the group being positions 3 and 4 trading places. The race for the top spot was mildly competitive this week, with Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search falling off a bit from its best-ever week in Week 11 and Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine posting its third-best week, but the former ended up carrying the week with a good gap after a strong Friday performance. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search tied *The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei* for the fastest to 10 Newsletter Week Top-Placements in a single year (12 weeks).

Notable Leaf Journal

Winter has "officially" given way to spring. With the change of seasons, I plan to introduce my Spring Season 2026 Theme in the next couple of days. But that does not mean that my Winter Season 2026 project is over. I will also keep publishing Winter Season articles for a few more weeks, and I have a few Spring-Winter Season Theme crossover articles in mind.

Speaking of the Winter Season, I will be launching the new version of a New Leaf Journal Blogroll not long after this newsletter hits your inbox (or feed reader). The Blogroll will be integrated into future editions of this newsletter, as you will see in Newsletter 273.

Taking Leaf

There is certainly no such thing as too many links, but having included many links, I think it is best to leave things off here and take my leave to enjoy the sunny spring weather I see outside.

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.

Until March 28,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell