Leafy Intro

Welcome to the 297th 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 was hoping to publish more last week than the week before with less “day job” work on my plate. Unfortunately, I ended up with more day job work, but I still found time to publish enough to share an exciting 297th issue of The Newsletter Leaf Journal.

Leaves from the Week that Was

I published two New Leaf Journal articles since mailing Newsletter 296.

In RSS Amplifier Re-Publishes 19 Full NLJ Articles Without Permission, I shared the story of how a third-party site effectively re-published 19 articles from my full-text ATOM feed before I saw what was happening and blocked its feed fetcher. Consider this one a public service announcement for any webmasters who may be reading this newsletter.

My second and final NLJ article of the week was Charles Barkley on Scottie Pippen’s Aborted 2007 NBA Comeback. I once referenced in the pages of the NLJ a story I recalled about Charles Barkley offering a humorous take on the then-41 year old Scottie Pippen’s plan for an NBA comeback in 2007. I returned to the story to try to learn more about the quote I remembered. My internet archaeology was somewhat successful.

Over on The Emu Café Social, I published Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 09-10-26.

Leaves from Around the Web

I admittedly did not produce a big word count last week, but many words were published around the web. This week’s links will begin with articles related to the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York City and Washington DC before moving into other topics in the next half.

(1/15) ‘I relive 9/11 every single day,’ hero custodian William Rodriguez, the last man out of WTC’s North Tower, says (Chris Nesi for the New York Post. Sep. 10, 2026.)

“I relive 9/11 every single day. There’s not a day I don’t think about it. Mostly because I lost 200 friends, and the emotional inventory losing so many friends is devastating.”

Mr. Rodriguez contributed to saving the lives of many people in the North Tower: “He led police and firefighters up to the 39th floor, unlocking emergency doors along the way so that countless workers and visitors could escape.”

(2/15) NYC students look back on 9/11 25 years after the painful day — and how their lives changed in an instant (Asia Grace for the New York Post. Sep. 10, 2026.)

“The administrators [at Stuyvesant] told us to leave the school. They sent us out onto the West Side Highway, and just yelled ‘Walk!’”

Many people rose to the occasion on September 11, 2021, including this woman, 16-17 years old at the time, who was left to walk about 10 miles from her high school near the World Trade Center to her home in Forest Hills, Queens. The administrators at Stuyvesant, however, most certainly did not rise to the occasion.

(3/15) How the Private Sector Rebuilt Ground Zero (Steven Malanga for City Journal. Sep. 7, 2026.)

Though [Larry] Silverstein knew he would not have much control over rebuilding the Twin Towers site, which government had effectively taken over, he quickly committed to replacing 7 World Trade. As soon as debris removal at Ground Zero was completed in May 2002, he began construction, despite efforts by the redevelopment commission to stop him until a comprehensive master plan was in place.

This article brought back memories about the early debates over what to build around the area of the former World Trade Center after 9/11.

(4/15) The Day My World Changed; A Personal Story About September 11, 2001 (Dennis A. Mook at The Wandering Lensman. Sep. 11, 2026.)

Today is the 25th anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Twenty-five years seems like a long time, but that morning is still very clear in my mind. I can remember the confusion, the disbelief and then the realization that what I saw on television was not something happening somewhere else. It was happening to us. It was happening in our own backyard. I was the Chief of Police in Newport News, Virginia and that day changed everything I thought I knew about being a police chief, law enforcement and about what it meant to protect a community.

Memories of 9/11 from the perspective of the then-police chief of a medium-sized city.

(5/15) What Are We Teaching Children About 9/11? (Dana Strangel-Plowe for City Journal. Sep. 11, 2026.)

A generation of students has grown up with no memory of that day. What they understand about it depends on what we choose to teach them. Judging by some of the materials available, Americans should be concerned.

The problem in many places in the United States (including my own New York City) is what the teachers would be, or are, teaching, an issue Ms. Strangel-Plowe reaches in her article.

(6/15) ‘Merchant Mariners Delivered’: Remembering the 9/11 Boatlift 25 Years Later (Mike Schuler for gCaptain. Sep. 11, 2026.)

Through the chaos, crews began taking on passengers and moving them away from Manhattan. In just nine hours, the flotilla carried nearly half a million people to safety, according to Carmel, in what became the largest sea evacuation in world history.

I was on the Brooklyn side of the river on 9/11, so I don’t have boatlift memories, but the work of the Merchant Marine that day is well worth remembering and celebrating.

(7/15) Department of Justice Removes Alien Terrorist in First Use of United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court (U.S. Department of Justice. Sep. 11, 2026.)

In the first-ever case before the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC), Nazira Haji Zada, 47, an Afghan national previously residing in Fort Worth, Texas, was removed from the United States after conceding that she is an alien terrorist. As the matriarch in her family, she supported a plot to commit an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024 for which her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously arrested and convicted. The ATRC issued an order of removal on Aug. 20 that was unsealed earlier today following her return to her country of origin. This was the first case ever brought before the ATRC, which Congress established decades ago, and which no previous administration had used. Zada is now permanently inadmissible to the United States.

Back in February, I wrote an article wondering whether the Board of Immigration Appeals had published a precedential decision about marriage fraud on the last business day before Valentine’s Day for a reason. Here, I have no suspicions. It is surely a coincidence that the Department of Justice completed the first-ever Alien Terrorist Removal Court case on (checks notes) the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

(8/15) Anthropic Just Threatened to Kill Billions of People. This Is Not Okay. (Cal Newport. Sep. 9, 2026.)

Multiple representatives of an American company are publicly claiming that they’re building what they believe to be a weapon of mass destruction that they likely can’t prevent from accidentally deploying. They then declared that they have no interest in stopping.

I think these people need to stop talking to their chatbots for a week, go outside, and try eating real food instead of chugging Soylent.

(9/15) ‘Oh, Your Intelligent Creations Are Trying To Kill You? That’s Interesting,’ Says Jesus (The Babylon Bee. Sep. 9, 2026.)

As tech giants continue to bicker back and forth about the dangers of A.I. becoming powerful enough to kill all humanity, Silicon Valley CEO Raymond Paul reported experiencing a divine vision in which a voice, which he alleges belonged to Jesus, said, ‘Oh, your intelligent creations are trying to kill you? Interesting.’

My headline organization game is still top-notch.

(10/15) The Yokozuna: A History, Not-a-Yokozuna Raiden Tameemon (Fantasy Basho. Sep. 11, 2026.)

Raiden also has a career record, but everything about him seems more like the mythical proto-Yokozuna than Tanikaze or Onogawa. Even his career record is absurd. He won 254 of 285 career matches. That’s underselling it, because the late 18th century was still a time of holds and no contests. He only ever lost 10 professional matches.

The story of a legendary (but real) 18th century sumo champion.

(11/15) Double amputee from Canterbury completes seven highest peaks challenge (Nathan Bevan for BBC. Jan. 8, 2026.)

The veteran, who lost both legs in 2010 while serving with the British Army in Afghanistan, had spent years training in order to prepare for the record-breaking attempt.

No one has any excuses left for not going outside.

(12/15) Time has started serving ads to AI agents (Sara Guaglione for Digiday. July 30, 2026.)

[T]he publisher is working with AI-powered ad tech platform Mobian to convert its pages into markdown and generate the agent ads. The ads themselves are formatted as FAQs with a brand’s information and messaging, and labeled as sponsored content.

Maybe it’s time for Time to ride off into the sunset.

(13/15) A Bull Moose Amid the Bison (Michael M. Rosen for The Washington Free Beacon. Sep. 6, 2026.)

Built at the gaudy cost of $450 million, the layout, architecture, and content of Teddy’s temple ably capture the spirit and achievements of the man himself. Seemingly carved out of a hilltop that commands a panoramic view of the canyons where Roosevelt built his legend as a hunter and conservationist, the 93-acre compound seizes the visitor’s attention even from a distance.

Even if you can’t make it to the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, you can still enjoy this museum review.

(14/15) The Golden Age of Running Backs Ruined the Running Back (Neil Paine . August 31, 2024.)

However, it could also be argued that this mid-2000s heyday helped set the stage for running backs to struggle with their place in the game ever since.

Very nostalgic article. These running backs were all big stars back when I followed the NFL closely. Moreover, they were also the fantasy football stars back in the 2000s.

(15/15) Robots seen roaming Universal City sidewalks. Here’s why (Melanie Love Salazar for MYSA. Sep. 10, 2026.)

Residents in a local Reddit group are curious about the tiny, vest-wearing machines spotted on sidewalks in Universal City. A post published on Wednesday, September 9, read, “Have y’all seen these in your neighborhood? What exactly are they for?” Dozens of people left guesses in the comments, ranging from a new version of Flock cameras to Wall-E wannabes.

These San Antonio area residents would not have needed to turn to Reddit for answers had they read issue 296 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal.

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 September 5-11 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine (NAF. Jan. 21, 2026.) 34 appearances and 15 top placements.

2. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search (NAF. April 17, 2026.) 37 appearances and 22 top placements in 2026; 63 appearances and 43 top placements overall.

3. altogether Visual Novel Reviews and Posts (NAF. May 22, 2023 [updated July 26, 2026.) First appearance.

4. RSS Amplifier Re-Publishes 19 Full NLJ Articles Without Permission (NAF. Sep. 6, 2026.)

5. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name (NAF. March 11, 2021.) 19 appearances in 2026; 29 appearances overall.

Analysis

We had what may have been our weakest week of 2026 (perhaps owed to my lack of publishing of late). The top-two separated themselves as usual, but we had new entries in positions three and four. Firstly, my al|together collection post came in third with a big Friday. I had never thought about whether to include “Collection” posts in the rankings because they are not standard articles (for example, they are not part of our article archives), but I decided to count it. In fourth was my new report on RSS Amplifier, which started the week strong before trailing off.

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 be able to publish a bit more this coming week. Will I succeed? Time will tell.

Independence Forever! Nicholas A. Ferrell.