Leafy intro

Welcome to the 280th 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.

I was not able to publish much (relatively speaking) last week due to work, but I still have some new articles and short posts to share along with our regularly scheduled links from around the web and other news and notes from the week that was.

Leaves from the week that was

I published two new NLJ articles since posting Newsletter 279.

First, I conducted some on-the-ground reporting in Sliwa for NYC Mayor Lawn Signs Seen in May 2026 about my discovery of discarded but pristine New York City mayoral election paraphernalia half-a-year after election day. Because I came across the Curtis Sliwa for Mayor signs on Mother's Day, I took the opportunity to right about the interesting life of his mother and her role in his Guardian Angels community safety organization, Frances Sliwa.

On May 12, I published part three of six of the NLJ birthday project blogging "wisdom" series, Blogging Promises, Schedules, and Burnout.

Over on ECS, I published daily links posts on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Between the latter two links posts, I published a new thing I learned post in Weighing Large Owls.

Leaves from around the web

My publishing output could have been better last week (unless we count my work-related publishing output, in which case I was exceptional if we go by word count), so I suppose you may need the following 21 links from around the world wide web.

Combines and workouts

What drills are held at NBA Draft Combine? Here's a closer look
Brian Martin for NBA.com. May 8, 2026.

In case you were wondering.

You Got Mossed
Michael Weintraub. March 27, 2026.

Randy Moss was a generational talent such that I can't help but feel he did not quite live up to his potential despite having been the best receiver in the NFL for stretches of his career.

Law and disorder

Convicted Pedophile on the Run for Nearly a Year After California Judge Released Him on Bail
Lowell Cauffel for Breitbart. May 15, 2026.

El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, who opposed bail: “To expect that a person on $1 million bond, who has now been convicted, that merely adding an ankle monitor, which can be easily cut off, adds any real assurance to bringing him back to court, it’s kind of folly.”

Watching Porn on California’s Death Row
Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack for City Journal.

"As part of this transformation, the Newsom administration approved a $189 million contract to provide new digital tablets—generic, flat-screen devices in a plastic shell—to every inmate in the state prison system, at 'no cost' to offenders." (You'll never guess what happens next, where by "never" I mean "read this sentence without 'never.'")

Mob of rowdy teens storm NYC Scientology Church amid viral 'speed running' trend
Larry Celona, Marie Pohl, and Anna Young. May 2, 2026.

I have a feeling the man pictured wearing his underwear outside his shorts with a facemask and no shirt while making what looks like a gang sign is otherwise a well-adjusted youth who dreams about curing cancer someday.

Wrong worldism

Mental crisis didn’t cause airman to self-immolate in protest of Israel, Air Force found
Kyle Rempfer for Task & Purpose. May 13, 2026.

Good and correct overruling by Col. Noyes.

Netanyahu Says Israel Will Sue New York Times, Nick Kristof for 'Blood Libel' Rape Article: Times Takes More Heat for Relying on Widely Discredited Source
Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. May 14, 2026.

An important part of the editorial process is taking a step back when your columnist submits the essay-length version of a monetized X post from the Central Asia/Middle East region. May I humbly suggest Attending to Surroundings and Thoughts on Walks.

Third-Worldism, Islamism, and the Return of Global Struggle
Zineb Riboua. April 19, 2026.

Some people are maxed out on existentialism. I'm maxed out on third worldism. Unfortunately, the third worldism will continue.

Kings

First-grader on field trip finds 1,300-year-old sword
The History Blog. May 13, 2026.

Welcome back, King Arthur.

Forecasting LeBron James' next contract: How much will The King make if he returns? (HT Mike Klinzing).
Sam Quinn for CBS Sports. May 14, 2026.

I have trouble seeing LeBron James take the minimum, but he is ever the student of the history of a certain Michael Jordan and Mr. Jordan did take the veteran's minimum and then donated his salary to charity in his two-season stint with the Washington Wizards in 2001-02 and 2002-03. Of course, Mr. Jordan also selected Doug Collins as Coach and was functionally the team president, so caveats apply.

Updates to my reportage

24-year-old councilman elected mayor of NJ town after incumbent fumbled response to warehouse fire
Caitlin McCormack for the New York Post. May 14, 2026.

A follow-up to my across-the-river reporting on the Belleville warehouse fire in New Jersey. The article does not make clear how the soon-to-be-former mayor "fumbled" the response to a massive fire that resulted in no deaths or serious injuries (granting of course that the hard work to contain the fire was done by many firefighters). Of course, I know nothing about the outgoing mayor or the incoming 24-year old mayor, so my insight is limited.

Is Vanderbilt Avenue Cursed?
Chris Crowley for Curbed. August 6, 2025.

It was a slippery slope from the traffic cone shortage to all the restaurants going belly-up.

A-planes

A-10 Warthog Being Tested With Aerial Refueling Probe
Tyler Rogoway for The War Zone. April 7, 2026.

Can you teach an old hog new tricks?

Argentina Retires Its A-4 Fightinghawks
Thomas Newdick for The War Zone. May 15, 2026.

But they still fly in Brazil.

Spreading

Arms deliveries and Africa Corps training: How Russia is bolstering its presence in Madagascar
Lise Liennemann for France 24. May 6, 2025.

At least whatever Russia is doing in Madagascar will be limited to an African island instead of leading to large swaths of the continent being run by Al Qaeda.

Latvian PM Siliņa resigns after coalition collapses over Ukrainian drone incursion
Brussels Signal. May 14, 2026.

I could have done something fun if the headline was less descriptive. Darnit, Brussels Signal!

Friends with bots

ChatGPT Is Not Your Friend (guest post by Grace Helton)
Grace Helton at The Splintered Mind. May 13, 2026.

Try telling that to the star of last week's newsletter links.

I got stood up by an AI agent, and tracked down its human owner in China
Viola Zhou for Rest of World. April 29, 2026.

I am reasonably confident that I receive NLJ emails from China-based "AI agents." But I have never been tempted to track down a person in China behind said AI agents.

It's Not AI. It's FOMOnetization. (HT Jeremy Keith).
Matt LeMay. April 23, 2026.

I only learned what "FOMO" stood for last year. When you think about it, that makes me sound kind of cool.

Essential minerals

How a Norwegian chemist defeated lead paint
Alfie Robinson for Works in Progress. October 24, 2025.

You had to have been pretty metal to take on lead paint.

40 Years Later: Is Milk Still Radioactive?
Kate St. John at Outside My Window. April 6, 2026.

Look. If it's on the periodic table, you probably need it.

Links from a blog I Shared in our featured article of the week

His Year: Jon Kitna 2003
Robbie Marriage at Gridiron Deep Dive. March 24, 2025.

A journeyman quarterback had his moment.

QB Skill Addendum: Adjusted Net Yards Per Attempt
Robbie Marriage at Gridiron Deep Dive. May 19, 2025.

A very interesting attempt to devise a statistical formula which fairly rates quarterbacks across eras.

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 May 9-15 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: 20 appearances and 18 top placements.
   Cumulative: 47 appearances and 39 top placements.

2. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine
   N.A. Ferrell. January 21, 2026.
   This Year: 17 appearances and 2 top placements.

3. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   N.A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   This Year: 12 appearances.
   Cumulative: 31 appearances.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
   N.A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
   This Year: 11 appearances.
   Cumulative: 21 appearances.

5. Umineko When They Cry Red Truth Guide
   N.A. Ferrell. December 7, 2022.
   This Year: 3 appearances.
   Cumulative: 4 appearances.

Analysis

We posted our best week of 2026 for the second consecutive week, thanks to near-year best performances by our firmly-entrenched top-two. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow returned to the top-five for its 12th appearance while How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name is currently on pace for its first-ever top-three month-end placement (the race for third in May is close, however). This week's notable was my short 2022 leaflet post Umineko When They Cry Red Truth Guide, which I wrote to share a link to a useful guide for one of the better-known visual novels. Umineko is punching above its weight in weekly ranking terms. It ended the week as our 17th most-visited article (or "post" in this case) of 2026, but it is just one of seven articles with at least three weekly ranking appearances in 2026.

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.

Today was a somewhat short newsletter for a light week, but I hope to have a bit more to share with you next week.

Until May 23,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.