Welcome to the 289th 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”).

I once again did not have a busy week due to the same factors I noted in the introduction to Newsletter 288. But unlike last week, I did publish a few articles for your amusement. Below, I present my new articles and short posts along with our regular collection of links from around the world wide web and other news and notes.

Leaves from the week that was

I published three new full articles on NLJ.

First, Refilling Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser comes as advertised. If you happened to read about My Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser last December, this is the follow-up you have been waiting for.

My second NLJ leaf of the week, Facts About the Full and Semi Centennial Presidents, also comes as advertised by the title. Who are the five Presidents we cover? John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald Ford, and Donald Trump.

I wrapped up the week at NLJ with another "as-advertised by the headline" entry in Broken Bench in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Here, I documented a broken bench in Red Hook (it may or may not have been there for artistic purposes). This article came into being for much the same reason as my March article Sharing a Stuffed Bird Rescue Story.

While my NLJ output was moderate, I dare say I had a solid week over on ECS. I published two editions of “daily” (not so “daily” of late) Pook-Emu Bee links for the 13th and 14th. The rest of my posts were “reply” posts, which are all part of my participation in the JulyReply project.

In Nagoya Basho Predictions, I predicted which sumo wrestlers would reach 10 wins at the Nagoya Basho tournament, which will cross the half-way point this evening (in U.S. time). Through six days (technically seven days, but I have not watched day seven yet), only one of my eight picks looks like a total dud, while a couple will need to pick up the pace to reach double digits by the end of day 15.

In The Sinking of Victory Chimes, I offered my thoughts on the sinking of a ship I wrote about (and which was cited to by Wikipedia).

In reply to a prompt, I published Favorite Summer Songs. While I have noted music is not my area, I chose three songs, from an anime movie, TV show, and visual novel respectively, that I think capture summer. Links are of course included.

My most “useful” post of the week may have been DRM-Free Ebook Sources, wherein I offered some additional suggestions in reply to a short list. Here, you may learn for the first time that the Kobo store has a full DRM-free section (I only learned that recently).

An article about the luckiest NBA champions (due to the bad luck of their playoff opponents) inspired me to publish Fortunate NBA Champions (2001-2016). I am proud to say that I drew all six examples from memory (I am most proud of my 2004 selection).

I read an article stating that I may not have known that AOL’s iconic AIM instant messenger was active until 2017. Not so. As I note in Using AIM Until the Bitter End, I was on AIM in the final hours of its service.

Finally, I share with some approval reports of cold Cup Noodle offerings in Japan.

Leaves from the week that was

Having reviewed my output from last week, I think I gave you plenty to read. But never being satisfied, I offer 15 links from around the web.

Classic video games

(1) Shigeru Miyamoto x Kenji Eno (1996) (Shumplations. July 15, 2017.)

In July 1996, Kenji Eno visited Nintendo HQ to speak with Shigeru Miyamoto as the first of his ‘cross-talk’ series, later to be published (alongside several other interviews) in a special edition of Game Hihyou titled The Book of Kenji Eno. Though always cordial, Eno is bold enough to ask Miyamoto several pointed and even confrontational questions, and gamers today may be surprised at the criticism of now-sacred games like Mario 64.

A translation of a fascinating 1996 discussion between the late Kenji Eno (who may or may not have been responsible for the Dreamcast logo) and the iconic Shigeru Miyamoto. There is some article fodder for me in here.

(2) Here’s How The Sega Master System Got Its Name (Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. October 17, 2025.)

“As part of our chat, Lowry was kind enough to share some of the details about what it was like preparing to launch Sega’s Master System console against the NES in 1986, revealing an interesting story in the process about how the console first got its name.”

Fun fact: I have a Master System. Future article!?

(3) The Origin of Mario’s Trademark Death Animation (Drew Mackie at Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games. October 19, 2025.)

“Each time Mario dies … it’s like he’s looking at you and asking why you let this happen. This pose is especially odd because in most of these games, Mario exists in profile, facing to the left or to the right, presumably looking at whatever is going to kill him next.”

I will confess that I never thought much about Mario’s death animations until stumbling upon this deep-dive.

Cheating (or the appearance thereof)

(4) Brown Professor Suspects Most of His Class Used AI to Cheat (Emma Whitford for Inside Higher Ed. July 8, 2026.)

“Dozens of students in the class likely used artificial intelligence to cheat and earn perfect or near-perfect scores on their midterm, he said. Serrano in turn made the final exam in-person, which led more than a dozen students to drop the course and even more to fail it.”

The worst part to me is the idea of having to read all of those AI answers.

(4) ‘If I switch it off, my girlfriend might think I’m cheating’: inside the rise of couples location sharing (Leah Harper for The Guardian. July 24, 2025.)

“The ability to share your location on your mobile phone has become a common way to keep tabs on friends, family and romantic partners. For some, it has become the signifier of a serious relationship…”

I remember way back when changing Facebook status to “in a relationship” was a thing (is that still a thing?). Now you have to share your location 24/7? Wow.

Let’s check in on the pigeons

(6) Pigeon destringers strike again (Rachel M. May 31, 2026.)

“Ben and I untangled the toe of another urban pigeon today.”

I take this opportunity to remind you that I wrote about helping Victor V. Gurbo “de-string” a pigeon. We did well enough but perhaps it would have been better had we known we were supposed to cover the pigeon’s head like we were doing a TV counter-terrorism interrogation.

(7) Firefighters in California give oxygen to pigeon (Dillion Fuhruman for KYMA. July 15, 2026.)

“After stopping a vehicle fire Tuesday, a crew from Oakland Firefighters Local 55 noticed a pigeon having some difficulty breathing due to suspected smoke inhalation.”

The pigeon teaches us that all you need to do is ask for help.

(8) Pigeons Beat Humans at Solving ‘Monty Hall’ Problem

“Pigeons might do better than humans at game shows, at least on ‘Let’s Make A Deal.’”

Yeah yeah. Tell me when they know precisely when to buy a vowel from Vanna White.

Others doing president facts

(9) 47 Heartbeats Away from the Presidency (Robert F. Graboyes for Bastiat’s Window. June 4, 2026.)

“Eighty individuals have stood a heartbeat away from the U.S. presidency. Seven did so twice. They were vice presidents or, when that office was vacant, Presidents Pro Tempore of the Senate, Speakers of the House, Secretaries of State, and Secretary of the Treasury. On three brief occasions, there was no one at all in the line of succession.”

The Act of 1886 > Act of 1947.

I appreciate that stretch in 1850 when the Speaker of the House was too young to serve as president.

(10) Benjamin Harrison Gravesite in Indianapolis (Carol Bouchard for Atlas Obscura. January 20, 2026.)

“Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) was the 23rd President of the United States (POTUS) and grandson of 9th POTUS William Henry Harrison. His tombstone says he was a ‘lawyer and publicist.’ He was also a grizzled war veteran, ending up as Brigadier General of the US Army. He then became an Indiana state senator, then POTUS…”

Ever modest and well-documented in not one but two NLJ articles.

Taking on water

(11) Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds (HT Clive Thompson) (Jennifer Chu for MIT News. April 22, 2026.)

“Some seeds may come alive to the sound of rain. In experiments with rice seeds, the team found that the sound of falling droplets effectively shook the seeds out of a dormant state…”

Very neat. But some would consider it neater if they could anticipate rain.

(12) The 13 worst men’s college basketball coaching hires of this century (HT Neil Paine).
Craig Meyer at The Front Porch. April 27, 2026.

On number two on the list, former Louisville Coach Kenny Payne: “In what would be his final postgame press conference, he chided critical fans by comparing them to passengers who fled the Titanic, a literal sinking ship.”

I laughed.

Unsorted long-reads

(13) ‘The devil’s child’: the rise and fall of the only female yakuza (Sean Williams for The Guardian. May 21, 2026.)

“In almost 40 years, Mako Nishimura never lost a fight. She told me this as if it were as obvious as night following day. Nishimura is 5ft-nothing and slight of build. She is also probably the only woman ever to have been a full-fledged yakuza, a member of Japan’s feared and rule-bound criminal underworld.”

Much more “fall” than “rise” here. It’s an interesting read in conjunction with a visual novel I reviewed a few months ago.

(14) The Scourge of Teen Takeovers (Heather Mac Donald for City Journal. Summer 2026 Issue.)

“None of these explanations withstands scrutiny. The idea that Covid created a generation of lost youths whose longing for connection drives them into rampages runs up against an inconvenient reality: such mob lawlessness predates the pandemic.”

Ms. Mac Donald dispenses with many unconvincing excuses (masquerading as explanations) for youth criminality. Too long to easily summarize, but well-worth reading and considering.

(15) The China Tech Canon (HT Clive Thompson) (Afra Wang for Asterisk Mag. October 2025.)

“As the host of the popular tech podcast Bg2 observed: ‘Every founder and VC in China studies the West to a nauseating degree. They listen to all the podcasts, read everything, study every talk, and comb the financials. The West doesn’t do that for China.’”

Consider that payback for TikTok, Chinese Communist Party (funny enough we do hear from the “old guard” in the article and some in China may agree with my assessment.)

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

1. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine (NAF. Jan. 21, 2026.) 26 appearances and 10 top placements.

2. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search (NAF. April 17, 2025.) 29 appearances and 19 top placements in 2026; 56 appearances and 40 top placements overall.

3. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name (NAF. March 11, 2026, 2026.) 16 appearances in 2026; 26 appearances overall.

4. Misleading ARRIS Modem Login Instructions (NAF. June 12, 2024.) 5 appearances in 2026; 18 appearances and 1 top placement overall.

5. Finally Solving My HDMI ARC Problems (NAF. December 5, 2025.) 3 appearances in 2026 and overall.

Analysis

After a brief intrusion by others into the top-two last week, Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine and Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search took the top-two positions for the 25th time in 26 weeks, with the former securing its 8th consecutive top-placement and 10th overall. Positions 3-5 were well back in the rear-view mirror. The notable is third-place How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name, which is staying ahead of pace to make half of the weekly top-fives 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.

I will wrap things up here since this newsletter has a good word count as it is. Despite continuing to work against some headwinds, I have some good in-progress projects (including a “surprise”) in the works, so I hope to have a strong week based largely on some yet-unpublished, but not un-started, articles in my draft folders.

Until then,
Cura ut valeas – Nicholas A. Ferrell.