Leafy Intro

Welcome to the 276th 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.

We had a sporty week at NLJ and a good number of articles on ECS. Without further ado, let us begin the recap.

Leaves from the week that was

I published four new articles since mailing Newsletter 275. We will go in reverse chronological order.

On April 16, I published (very late) Spring Season 2026 at The New Leaf Journal. Let us hope the "spring cleaning" theme will inspire me to finally get my work area in order. I introduced the spring theme so late that it came after I had already tagged a few articles as being part of Spring Season 2026. Aside: The featured photo is from a set of photos I took at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in April 2007.

In AI Today, Calculators Back in the Day, I used a short blog post on AI-usage having potentially deleterious effects on one's ability to generate creative output as a prompt to share an anecdote from my last year of high school about requiring a middle school student to do some math by hand instead of by calculator.

My first two articles of the week were both NBA stats related. I had foreshadowed Bam Adebayo’s 83 and Scoring Averages in 60+ Point Game Seasons a few weeks prior in My Recollection of Kobe Bryant’s 81, noting that I needed the 2025-26 NBA regular season to conclude before I could complete the Adebayo piece. The regular season has concluded, and so did my research project. While the story "NBA player scores 83 points in a game" is surprising no matter who the NBA player is, it was especially surprising that the player was Bam Adebayo, who, while a multi-time All Star and perennial contender for the Defensive Player of the Year award, is not an elite scorer. For my survey, I looked at every season in NBA history wherein a player scored 60 or more points in a game at least once and then looked at the player's points per game and points per 36 minutes in the season in question. Mr. Adebayo stands out as expected.

My other NBA survey was a bit more "random." Jason Caffey played eight seasons in the NBA from 1995-96 through 2002-03. He was a member of three Chicago Bulls championship teams from 95-96 through 97-98, although he was traded mid-way through the 97-98 season, and he was then a member of the 2000-01 Milwaukee Bucks, which made the Eastern Conference Finals. I read that Mr. Caffey opined that the 2000-01 Bucks were actually more talented than the Bulls (the framing suggested he meant better on offense). I decided to take a simple statistical look at the Bulls vs the Bucks to evaluate his first-hand take.

I published 14 new posts on ECS. As usual, we can break the posts into categories.

• Daily Pook-Emu Bee links: 04-13, 04-14, 04-15, 04-16, and 04-17.

• Things I Learned: Asian Carp and Gefilte Fish, Google Verbatim Mode Custom Search Shortcut, Learning About Bonbon Drop Stickers, Learning About Zespri RubyRed Kiwi, Unique Individual Scoring Games in NBA History (spinoff from my Adebayo article on NLJ), and Yellow-Capped Passover Coca Cola.

• Commentary: AI Can’t “Lie” and On Vertical vs Horizontal Tab Hot Takes.

Finally, Victor V. Gurbo (see his NLJ posts shared with me that he had appeared on Charles Zona's "Seeing Them Live" podcast. He shared this with me because he had recounted on the podcast the story of the time he went to a Jack White concert, only for Jack White to leave early. I heard the story when it happened, and I submit for the record that it is the only reason I know who Jack White is. I read the podcast transcript and saw other good stories, including the saga of Victor's eagle head guitar order, which was always slated to be done by the end of the month. NLJ readers will also hear Victor discuss his first guitar-build, which he wrote about back in 2020. After reading the transcript of the interview, I shared it on ECS in New Victor V. Gurbo Podcast Interview. You can go straight to the podcast page to listen to (or read) Victor Watches Jack White Hit the Eject Button.

Leaves from around the web

Last week was not my highest-output publishing week, especially for readers who are not interested in high-scoring NBA games or random statistical NBA surveys centered on the late-90s and early-00s (although I trust that all readers will enjoy my calculator anecdote and weekly learning). But fear not. I present additional reading material in the form of 21 links from around the world wide web, accompanied as always by my beloved link commentary.

Baby animals in California

Lost sea lion pup found wandering streets of San Francisco
Katie Jenkovich for the New York Post. April 17, 2026.

Smart sea lion pup. Look at it wait at the corner on the sidewalk instead of in the middle of the street. That kid has a bright future.

Baby owls are falling from Redondo Beach palm trees — here’s what to do if you see one
Nikki Dobrin for the New York Post. April 16, 2026.

I respect what the police are doing but I am not sure that having one of the owls look into the camera with its big eyes is going to convince people to not "rescue" them.

Speaking of animal rescues and eyes

Destringing a pigeon
Rachel M. April 5, 2026.

This is similar to what Victor V. Gurbo (with a small assist from me) did back in 2023. Minor differences. She didn't use a nail clipper and we didn't cover the pigeon's head. I told Victor that he should cover the pigeon's head next time like a good bird napper.

The Eyes Have It
Sarah Gilman for bioGraphic. January 23, 2026.

Proof that not all red eyes are associated with albinism.

Well done good sir

‘Not the End of the Story’: Dakota Meyer is Now a Recon Marine
Gidget Fuentes for USNI News. April 7, 2026.

He won the Medal of Honor but still had some military career goals on his to-do list.

Dramatic moment Oklahoma principal Kirk Moore tackles Columbine-obsessed school shooter while being shot
Chris Bradford for the New York Post. April 15, 2026.

Principal Kirk Moore is the front-runner for 2026 "MVP"

Time-sensitive links

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman On Artemis, Budget, And Establishing a Lasting Space Vision
Jacqueline Feldscher for Payload. April 14, 2026.

An interesting interview with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.

The most catastrophic Masters meltdown never aired on TV
James Colgan for Golf Magazine. April 13, 2026.

A golfer never wants to see the word "quintuple."

Stat Inflation is Bigger Than Any of the NBA's (Many) Other Problems
Freddie DeBoer. March 23, 2026.

I respectfully disagree. The issue with stats that Mr. DeBoer describes is downstream of the mid-2000s rule changes and analytics revolution, which affected the style-of-play in the NBA and led to teams employing similar approaches on offense. Focusing on stat inflation first would make more sense in baseball, because the numbers in baseball are a bigger part of the common fan discourse than in basketball.

Boys on TokTok, Girls on TikTok

TikTok influencer’s daring new stunt is a mad dash through LA’s Scientology HQ
Zain Khan for the New York Post. April 13, 2026.

"One of the most-watched clips — posted by TikTok account swhileyy — has already pulled in more than 35 million views in a single week, showing the creator bolting into a Hollywood location before being intercepted." (Is there going to be a moment when it dawns on those 35,000,000 people that their hobby is soul-crushingly worthless?)

Stressed Gen Z is carrying around ‘anxiety bags’ with tools to calm their nerves
McKenzie Beard for the New York Post. April 9, 2026.

Noting that all of the purportedly anxiety-afflicted women (with very Instagram-ready photos) come with TikTok links, I must ask – assuming arguendo you are looking for advice on how to deal with stress or generalized anxiety – should you take advice from people whose life and money depend on being publicly anxious?

You Become What You Give Your Attention To
The Daily Stoic. November 4, 2022.

Unfortunately, this applies to the foregoing links.

Different kinds of flowers

Seen This Week: More Flowers and Leaves
Kate St. John at Outside My Window. April 11, 2026.

Very vernal.

“Flowered carpet” mosaic re-emerges after 62 years
The History Blog. December 23, 2025.

Despite being flowered, it probably does not need much sun or water.

Problem and April solution

Pumas Are Snacking on Penguins in Argentina—and the Abundant Birds Are Changing the Prowling Cats' Behavior
Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. December 18, 2025.

It's possible that flightless birds are not well-adapted for dealing with mountain lions.

April Fool: Making Penguins Fly
Kate St. John at Outside My Window. April 1, 2026.

This BBC flying penguins April Fools joke from 20 years ago strikes me as familiar...

I provide the best crime story analysis

‘Evil’ NYC kingpin who allegedly ran drug empire claims he’s a ‘protected class’ — because he’s Sicilian
Kathianne Boniello for the New York Post. March 28, 2026.

How charmingly old school New York. Very nostalgic.

Japanese politician arrested on charges of accepting bribes to reduce number of monkeys in park
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. April 10, 2026.

"At the meeting, the councilman allegedly accepted a bribe of one million yen (approximately US$6,500) in exchange for advancing a specific agenda within the city council." (Politicians go for bargain rates in Japan...)

Wrapping things up by making everything about me

Email Newsletters as a Source of News
Michael Lipka, Katerina Eva Matsa, and Emily Tomasik for Pew Research Center. February 19, 2026.

I trust all of you responded to this survey. Thank you.

The Health Benefits of Looking at Beauty
Gregg Levoy for Psychology Today. February 28, 2026.

Thank you for the endorsement of The New Leaf Journal.

The Psychology of Sales. To Discount or not to Discount?
Philip Hesketh. April 3, 2019.

You can pretend you got a special discount on this newsletter if that makes you feel special.

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 April 11-17 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   N.A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   This Year: 16 appearances and 14 top placements.
   Cumulative: 43 appearances and 35 top placements.

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

3. Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn
   N.A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   This Year: 8 appearances.
   Cumulative: 43 appearances and 8 top placements.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
   N.A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
   This Year: 7 appearances.
   Cumulative: 17 appearances.

5. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   N.A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   This Year: 11 appearances.
   Cumulative: 30 appearances.

Analysis

Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search posted one of its three-best weeks on record in the week covering its one-year date-of-publication anniversary, easily taking the top position for the 14th time in the first 16 weeks of 2026. For the 13th consecutive week, Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine joined it in the top two, although its views have dipped a bit in the last 3-4 weeks from its peak. After having four new articles in the previous two newsletter weeks, 2026 Newsletter Week 16 was a "chalk" week. The five articles are, as of this writing, the five most-visited articles of 2026, and they would be in the "correct" order were one to swap this week's 4th and 5th place finishers.

Notable leaf journal

I recently came across an interesting new project called Bubbles. Bubbles is an independent blog aggregator which, as of the moment I am writing this, includes 4545 independent blogs. I discovered that The New Leaf Journal is included, and I will submit this newsletter and The Emu Café Social in the near future. Bubbles picks up new posts from blogs in its index and it offers a number of RSS feeds that can be used without an account. If you sign into Bubbles, which you can do with many ActivityPub accounts (see e.g., Mastodon, Pixelfed, etc), you can up-vote posts you enjoy. I have found a few interesting posts on it thus far. It looks like a worthwhile project to follow.

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.

I hope to publish some interesting articles next week as we approach NLJ's sixth birthday on April 27. Will I succeed? We will see next week...

Until April 25,
Cura ut valeas – Nicholas A. Ferrell.