Leafy intro

Welcome to the 279th 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.

The first full week of May saw the true beginning of my NLJ sixth birthday project. Below, we review that beginning along with other news and notes from the week that was.

Leaves from the week that was

I published four new NLJ articles since mailing Newsletter 278.

Last week, I shared NLJ Sixth Birthday Project. I had decided for our site's sixth birthday that I would publish six posts featuring my blogging "wisdom" -- with the first post coming on May 2, and then posts following every fifth day through May 27. While I have not always stuck to my posting schedules, I am happy to report that our birthday project is proceeding as scheduled. On May 2, I published Some Benefits of Blogging and Writing Online and on May 7 I followed that with Blogging and the Niche Question. I trust that all of my newsletter readers will start publishing online. I like to think that both posts (especially the first) also have some interesting food for thought for those undertaking creative non-blogging creative endeavors.

On May 5, I published a "journalism" article of sorts in Belleville (NJ) Fire Seen From Red Hook (Brooklyn). I had been walking with a friend in Red Hook, a waterfront neighborhood in Brooklyn, when she noticed smoke rising from across the river in New Jersey. It turned out that we came upon our river view just as a massive fire broke out in a mattress factory in Belleville, New Jersey. Fortunately, as I learned the next day, there were no deaths or apparently serious injuries resulting from the 12-alarm fire, although there was obviously serious property damage. I share my photo and news about the fire in my article.

Finally, on May 4, I published Inflatable Mother’s Day Flowers in Brooklyn. I spotted this inflatable decoration in front of the same building in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, which has given me many decorations to photograph for articles. However, I had actually taken this photo last year and then forgotten to publish it before Mother's Day 2025. Better late than never. I will note that the bouquet has been re-inflated, so that stretch of Hicks Street is once again festive for Mother's Day.

Between my day job and putting together two lengthy blogging "wisdom" articles, my ECS output was a bit lacking last week. But I still have a decent number of new posts to share.

• Daily Pook-Emu Bee links: 05-04, 05-06, 05-07, 05-08.

• Historic milestones: Justice Thomas Moves Into Second

• Quoting writing takes: Writer’s Take on Not Wasting Readers’ Time

• Thing I learned: Learning About Preserving Strawberry Freshness

Links from around the web

Both of my blogging "wisdom" essays are full of links. They are practically "links from around the web" selections unto themselves. But I will not let that or my Pook-Emu Bee link posts on ECS stop me from offering our regular assortment of 21 links from around the web with my world-famous link commentary.

Touching grass and making friends

When Dawkins met Claude
Richard Dawkins for UnHerd. May 2, 2026.

Richard Dawkins' great AI leap of faith could challenge the faith of his adherents, albeit not in the way he may hope.

AI with Chinese Characteristics
Henry McCabe for Geopolitical Monitor. May 6, 2026.

I fear that Richard Dawkins is going to read this and create an AI foreign exchange program.

AI crawlers destroying websites in hunger for content
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for The Register. August 29, 2025.

This has been a problem. But now I see that every time I block an AI vacuum bot, I could be blocking an evolutionary biologist from making a new friend.

A new tool lets medical students practice on AI-powered patients
Patrick Kulp for Tech Brew. November 21, 2025.

This sounds cruel now that we know the AI patients are conscious (all jokes aside -- this sounds like a decent-enough AI use-case).

Cause & effect?

Xi’s Forever Purge
Neil Thomas and Shengyu Wang for Foreign Affairs. May 4, 2026.

The wholly unexpected consequences of choosing as dear leader a guy who watched the ruling party he now runs purge his own parents when he was a child and took it as a learning experience.

Beijing Argues Japan’s Rearmament is Illegal
Sense Hofstede for Jamestown Foundation. May 5, 2026.

"The most striking new argument made by PRC officials is that Japanese 'remilitarization' (再军事化) is illegal under international law." Contra the linked article, I'd describe China's argument as adorable, precious, and countless other things before reaching striking.

Cause & effect 2?

Airstrikes may have destroyed Iran's last F-14s, ending a long, strange saga
Scott Neuman for NPR. March 24, 2026.

Iran's remaining F-14 Tomcats may be gone (unclear), but you can read the story of how they got there in the first place.

My God... The F-14 Tomcat May Actually Fly Again Over The United States
Thomas Newdick and Joseph Trevithick for The War Zone. May 7, 2026.

My sources are telling me The War Zone was a war zone when it was time to call dibs on this story.

Kitty

Le Chat-Rivari Café: a vegan restaurant in Paris (with adoptable cats) (HT Strange Comppany)
Vanessa for Traveling Cats. April 27, 2026.

That's nice but I hope they have a non-vegan menu for the cats.

New York family reunited with cat 10 years after escape
Ariel Zilber for the New York Post. November 21, 2025.

Kitty played the long game but the microchip was a longer game.

(Orange) kitty

How I was cured of my Garfield attachment
Bojdar Marinov. April 29, 2026.

And you thought paywalls were bad.

Mom asks to borrow orange cat for dinner with 'Garfield-loving' kids
Cydney Henderson for USA Today. April 7, 2018.

Proof that all you have to do is ask.

Where you have an uneasy feeling but hope against hope that I'm just playing dumb

South Africa Rejects Israeli Water Assistance to Carry Water for Hamas
David May for FDD. February 9, 2026.

Dumb move by South Africa. Long way from Pretoria to Gaza to carry water. They could have used the assistance.

Why Kim Jong Un Won't Pick Up the Phone and What to Do About It
Jonathan Corrado for War on the Rocks. May 4, 2026.

Don't ask me. I lost touch with him after AIM was discontinued.

I've been lied to and I'm not happy about it

Yoshie Shiratori’s Remarkable Prison Escapes
Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet. October 7, 2025.

I knew Shiratori as a character in the Golden Kamuy anime. From reading this article, I came to understand that the timelines do not match up. Golden Kamuy's Shiratori was escaping prison well before the real Shiratori became a real-life legendary prison escape-artist. If I can't trust historical fiction anime, what can I trust?

Hummus Made From Moon-Grown Chickpeas Might Be on the Menu for Future Lunar Residents
Margherita Bassi for Smithsonian Magazine. May 1, 2026.

"They" told us it was made of cheese!

Conflicting messages

Adorable video shows sea lion pups released back into the ocean
Zain Khan for the New York Post. April 28, 2026.

One result of the New York Post expanding into California is that you get more inspiring sea lion stories.

Don’t Want That Goldfish Anymore? Don’t Put It Outdoors!
Kate St. John at Outside My Window. May 4, 2026.

Everyone is trying to prevent Fluffy the goldfish from growing to his full potential.

Links about links

On Permalinks and Paradigms…
Tom Coates at plasticbag.org. June 11, 2003.

A (very) early look at an important part of the web now taken for granted -- permalinks for individual posts.

Do links hurt news publishers on Twitter? Our analysis suggests yes
Lauren Hazard Owen for Nieman Lab. April 8, 2026.

Weird the journalists missed the news that Twitter identifies as "X" now (for the record I agree that downgrading external links is subpar).

Now Unwelcome: Why I Left OzBargain & The Link-Hostile Nature of Internet Discourse
Lui Gough at Gough's Tech Zone. April 22, 2026.

I usually assume everything is link-hostile (or certainly self-link hostile). Assumptions validated.

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 25-May 1 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: 19 appearances and 17 top placements.
   Cumulative: 46 appearances and 38 top placements.

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

3. Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn
   N.A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   This Year: 11 appearances.
   Cumulative: 46 appearances and 8 top placements.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
   N.A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
   This Year: 10 appearances.
   Cumulative: 20 appearances.

5. Japanese Environment in PoL, Lutris, and Bottles
   N.A. Ferrell. June 16, 2022.
   This Year: First appearance.
   Cumulative: 4 appearances.

Analysis

We had our best week in terms of total visits of 2026 thus far, with much of the credit going to our top-two articles. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search had its best week of 2026 in becoming the first article to post two separate streaks of 10 consecutive newsletter week top placements (granting that The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei had a single streak of 25 consecutive top placements in 2021-22). Way back in third and fourth, Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn and How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name returned in the same positions as last week. The latter article, which was published on March 11, 2021, has crossed the 10 weekly ranking mark in a single year for the first time. Our ranking was rounded out by Japanese Environment in PoL, Lutris, and Bottles, which makes its first appearance of 2026 after posting two placements in late 2025. My new articles Belleville (NJ) Fire Seen From Red Hook (Brooklyn) and Some Benefits of Blogging and Writing Online narrowly missed notching debut week rankings, coming in sixth and seventh respectively.

Natsu leaf journal

Tomorrow (EST) is the beginning of the Natsu basho, the third Grand Sumo tournament of the year. Unlike many sports these days, you can watch all of the top-level matches -- albeit in highlight form -- on NHK World TV and its YouTube channel. Tim Edwards offered his pre-tournament predictions on Sumo Stomp! in 2026 Natsu basho predictions!. While I would not consider myself yet competent to offer full pre-tournament predictions, I will second his Yokozuna Hōshōryū prediction for this tournament. I may offer some daily tournament thoughts on The Emu Café Social.

Mother's Day leaf journal

Tomorrow is Mother's Day (happy Mother's Day, Mom). To commemorate the occasion, I share with you some relevant links from our archive.

• Anna Jarvis and the Origin of Mother’s Day in the United States (May 9, 2021): As advertised, my history (with original sources) of the origin of Mother's Day in the United States (as well as Australia). Recapture the spirit of the original occasion like Anna Jarvis would have wanted. (See also Newsletter Leaf Journal 32).

• Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria (March 13, 2021): Then-former President Calvin Coolidge's melancholic and eloquent recollections of his late mother, Victoria, who we can tell he loved dearly.

• Duck and Duckling Rescue Stories From Around the Web (May 16, 2021): Sometimes Mom needs help when the kids get themselves in trouble (e.g., falling into a storm drain).

• 1914 Moral Story For Children on Responsibility (March 1, 2021): Or, a lesson about listening to Mom.

• The Letter (Tegami) – Visual Novel Review (June 16, 2023): While The Letter, a freeware visual novel, gets its title from a letter the protagonist has from his late father, another theme of the story is about the protagonist returning home to visit his mother. I dare say it is a good (free) read for both Mother's and Father's Days.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers who may be reading this humble newsletter. If you are in the market for a gift for your Mom, please pick a good gift but consider attaching this newsletter to the gift.

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.

While I have some work deadlines coming up, I hope to publish some good articles between now and Newsletter Leaf Journal 280 day. Until then...

Happy Mother's Day Eve,
Cura ut valeas – Nicholas A. Ferrell.