The Newsletter Leaf Journal LV 〜 The newsletter recipes
Welcome to the double-nickel 55th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid and growing online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. As always, this newsletter is brought to you from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal,, Nicholas A. Ferrell. Today, we have our normal assortment of content to review from the last week, recommendations from around the web, and assorted news, notes, and rankings (with all appropriate leaf puns).
Table of Contents
- New Leaves From the Week That Was
- Leaves From Around the Web
- The Old Leaf Journal
- Most-Turned Leaves From the Newsletter Week
- News Leaf Journal
- Taking Leaf
1. New Leaves From the Week That Was
I published five new articles in the last week. You will find links to the articles with brief notes for each below.
“Applying Coolidge’s Remarks on the Home to the Digital Home”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 17, 2021.
This article was originally supposed to be part of the previous newsletter, but I delayed its publication from last Saturday to Sunday. I considered some of the themes in Calvin Coolidge’s 1922 Better Homes remarks in the context of the concept of “home” in the digital world. The article includes links both to Coolidge’s full Better Homes remarks and my article on the remarks themselves.
“College Football Coach Salaries and Buyouts and Colleges as Institutions”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 18, 2021.
I consider the implications of a public university paying its football coach $17 million to go away on the institution’s ostensible mission as a place of education.
“Halloween Cooking and Decorating Tips From 1913”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 20, 2021.
For those of you struggling to decide what to do with Halloween, I found a selection of recipes and decoration tips from an October 1913 magazine that I revisited in a second article two days later.
“Justin and Justina 〜 Sitting Cross-Legged in a Stroller”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 22, 2021.
We return to The New Leaf Journal’s favorite (and only) fictional dialogue duo, only to find Justin genuinely upset about an oversized child crossing his legs in a stroller.
“American Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Home Menus From 1913”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 23, 2021.
As promised, I returned to the magazine that gave us Halloween tips to review a recipe competition it announced results for in the same 1913 issue. I chose the best menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the 50 women from 48 states, Washington D.C. and Canada, who boldly submitted their menus. “Best,” we should note, is entirely subjective in this case.
2. Leaves From Around the Web
Per usual. I present six recommended articles for your reading enjoyment from around the web.
Catholic Education Resource Center: “All Hallow’s Eve”
Mary Reed Newland. Originally published in 1956.
I came across this article while working on my piece about Halloween cooking and decorating tips from 1913. It reprints an excerpt from a 1956 book discussing the Catholic history underlying modern Halloween.
SoraNews24: “Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe becomes YouTuber”
Master Blaster. October 21, 2021.
Thank goodness the former Prime Minister of Japan did not opt for TikTok.
Techlore: “The BEST Private Notetaking Apps of 2021”
Techlore. October 22, 2021.
A short video listing five privacy-friendly note-taking applications covering a variety of devices.
Eurasianet: “New Uzbekistan holds old-style election”
Eurasianet. October 21, 2021.
My seventh New Leaf Journal article was about a speech by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Now he is up for reelection. It looks like he is going to squeak out a new term.
Daily Mail: “Take THAT! Iranian politician SLAPS new regional governor on stage because he is ‘furious that his wife had to get her Covid jab delivered by a male doctor’“
Chay Quinn. October 23, 2021.
There is nothing I could possibly add to this very descriptive headline.
Jerusalem Post: “Israel, UAE sign historic space agreement”
Jerusalem Post Staff. October 21, 2021.
An interesting story about the benefits of opening ties in a new Middle East.
3. The Old Leaf Journal
Now for an article from our archives…
“Halloween and the Pumpkin with a Mask”
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 23, 2021.
I published a number of Halloween decoration photo articles in October 2020. The most successful of the bunch was published one year to the day I am sending this newsletter. A Halloween pumpkin with a mask. Fitting for our times. I was most interested in the fact that it had hands and the mask was attached to its face by its arms.
4. Most-Turned Leaves From the Newsletter Week 42
In each issue of the newsletter, I recap our most-visited articles since the previous newsletter (Saturday-Friday, inclusive). The statistics come courtesy of our privacy-friendly analytics solution, Koko Analytics. The period from October 16 through October 22 was the 42nd such “Newsletter Week” of 2021. Below, you will find our most-visited articles from Newsletter Week 42 along with stats and information about each article.
-
“The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei” (No Change)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
Weeks in top five: 26 (15 in first) -
“Installing Ubuntu Touch on an Asus Nexus 7 (2013)” (Change +4)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 5, 2021.
Weeks in top five: 10 -
“How to Find Substack RSS Feeds and Other Notes” (Change -1)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 19, 2021.
Weeks in top five: 9 -
“A Follow-Up Post on the Meaning of ‘Blob Dylan’” (Change -1)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 12, 2021.
Weeks in top five: 10 -
“Reviewing the HALOmask and är Mask” (Change +5)
Victor V. Gurbo. December 2, 2020.
Weeks in top five: 34 (10 in first)
Analysis
My post on Tsuki ga Kirei led the ranking for the sixth week in a row and for the fifteenth time overall in its 26th consecutive appearance in the top four. We saw a bit of movement well behind the Tsuki ga Kirei article in the ranking. My article on installing Ubuntu Touch on a Nexus 7 tablet returned to the top five with what I believe was its best single-week performance - taking second in the rank. After a couple weeks outside the top five, Victor’s protective mask review returned to the top five for the 34th time in 42 weeks in 2021.
Notably, the second and fourth place articles on the rank - Ubuntu Touch and Blob Dylan - will be receiving sequels in the very near future (depending on when you read this newsletter, they may already have sequels).
5. News Leaf Journal
I decided to rename the penultimate section of our newsletter in a way that is clearly in line with our leaf pun name structure.
I am in the process of working on a Blob Dylan follow-up article incorporating new information about the tag. That article will be recapped in the next newsletter - to be released on October 30, 2021. There are two other projects in the works on my end. First, I am working on a full review of Ubuntu Touch on the Nexus 7 - that should be expected in very early November. That review will be accompanied by a review of another Android-alternative for mobile devices, /e/ OS. Finally, I am working on a few visual novel reviews that will be appropriate for the Halloween season.
I discovered an app that may be of interest to Linux users. Linux Mint created a very smooth IPTV streamer called Hypnotix. After I tried it on a different computer running Mint, I found it in the Manjaro repositories on my main work computer. Among its many channels is NHK World, which I often like to run in the background.
6. Taking Leaf
This concludes a relatively short issue of the newsletter. It is short in part because I am in the midst of working on fuller New Leaf Journal content. Despite the brevity, I hope you enjoyed this issue of The Newsletter Leaf Journal and the numerous links to New Leaf Journal content and articles from around the web. I have some big projects planned for the end of October, so I hope that you look forward to those articles and the next newsletter if you are reading this contemporaneously, or search our archives for the upcoming content if you are reading this newsletter after October 2021.
Until next week,
Cura ut valeas.