The Newsletter Leaf Journal LX 〜 Not Thanksgiving dinner
Welcome to the 60th of edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. 60 is a nice round number, and we have a nice newsletter with new content, article recommendations from around the web, and news and notes as we put Thanksgiving behind us and look toward the final month of 2021.
Table of Contents
- Leaves From The Week That Was
- Leaves From Around The Web
- The Old Leaf Journal
- Most-Turned Leaves Of The Newsletter Week
- The News Leaf Journal
- Taking Leaf
1. Leaves From The Week That Was
I published five articles since I reported to you last. Even by New Leaf Journal standards, we covered a wide range of topics.
"Review of /e/ - An Android Alternative For Mobile Phones"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 21, 2021.
After I published a review of the phone I use /e/ on, I published an article reviewing the /e/ operating system itself. If that sounds like Greek to you, I explain what /e/ is in the article. In short, it is a free and open source fork of the Android mobile operating system with focuses on privacy and usability.
"'Pumpkin Pie' - A Children's Poem By Mary Mapes Dodge"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 22, 2021.
Pumpkin Pie is a short Thanksgiving-themed poem that was likely written in the late nineteenth century. After reprinting the poem, I discussed in brief the life of the poet, Mary Mapes Dodge, who was one of the preeminent children's authors and editors of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
"Futaba Igarashi's Hair Is Naturally Green?"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 23, 2021.
It had been a couple of months since my last anime hair color post before I covered the curious case of Futaba Igarashi's green hair. Futaba is the main character of My Senpai Is Annoying, a currently airing anime series that can be best described as a workplace comedy. While it is a bit goofy, nothing about the show suggests that it takes place in a world unlike our own. It was for that reason that I was surprised to find that Futaba's hair is naturally green.
"When President Coolidge Spared a Raccoon From Thanksgiving Dinner"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 24, 2021.
For my main Thanksgiving article, I covered the story of a raccoon that was sent to the White House to be consumed as Thanksgiving dinner in 1926. Not keen on the culinary idea, then-President Calvin Coolidge declined to eat the raccoon. Instead, he and the First Lady adopted the raccoon and named her Rebecca. This is Rebecca's story.
"Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 26, 2021.
My review of /e/ OS reminded me of a project that I have had on the back-burner since last summer. Almost all of the applications that I use on my Android and Android-based devices come from F-Droid, a repository of free and open source applications. In this article, I explain F-Droid and recommend some of my favorite free and open source Android applications.
2. Leaves From Around The Web
Now for some articles from around the web...
History: "Did Benjamin Franklin propose the turkey as the national symbol?"
Christopher Klein. November 26, 2016.
While the answer to the question is "no," Franklin did in fact have a humorous take on the superiority of turkeys over bald eagles.
New York Post: "Striking portraits of rare and endangered birds capture their unique personalities"
Alex Mead. November 23, 2021.
Speaking of the bald eagle, it makes an appearance in this avian portrait series.
Derek Kedziora: "A Gentle Intro to RSS"
Derek Kedziora. May 30, 2021.
Exactly as advertised.
France24: "Ethiopia PM reaches front line to fight rebels: state media"
AFP. November 24, 2021.
"Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, 'is now leading the counter-offensive' and 'has been giving leadership from the battlefield as of yesterday,' Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported."
The Telegraph: "Notre-Dame interior faces woke 'Disney' revamp"
Henry Samuel and Tim Stanley. November 26, 2021.
"Under the proposed changes, confessional boxes, altars and classical sculptures will be replaced by modern art murals, and new sound and light effects to create 'emotional spaces'"
Some of these people seem intent on finishing what the fire started.
SoraNews24: "Amori tourism council makes super-hard tile-matching game using different apple varieties"
Master Blaster. November 25, 2021.
The puzzle game does look "super-hard" since the apples that one is supposed to match look quite similar. The backstory behind the puzzle game is interesting.
3. The Old Leaf Journal
Now for a Thanksgiving article from the archives...
"Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 25, 2020.
Last year, I reprinted George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation as my Thanksgiving article. In addition to including the full text of Washington's proclamation, my article discusses the events that led to be it being issued over the objections of members of Congress who felt that there was no Federal role for such proclamations.
4. Most-Turned Leaves Of The Newsletter Week
Each week, I list our most-visited New Leaf Journal articles since the previous newsletter. The statistics come from our privacy-friendly local analytics solution, Koko Analytics. The rankings cover the period beginning with Saturday and ending with the next Friday. The previous week was the 47th Newsletter Week of 2021. Below you will find our most-visited articles of the week along with additional information about each article.
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"The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
Last Week: 1. Weeks in Top Five: 31 (20 in first). -
"Installing Ubuntu Touch on an Asus Nexus 7 (2013)"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 5, 2021.
Last Week: 5. Weeks in Top Five: 15. -
"Persona 4 Golden Digital Artbook Review (Steam)"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 15, 2020.
Last Week: 3. Weeks in Top Five: 37 (6 in first). -
"How to Find Substack RSS Feeds and Other Notes"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 19, 2021.
Last Week: 2. Weeks in Top Five: 15. -
"'King Baby' Graffiti on a Truck in Gowanus"
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 11, 2021.
Last Week: 13. Weeks in Top Five: NEW.
Analysis
My Ubuntu Touch and Persona 4 Golden artbook reviews each saw boosts this week, the former due to a new Ubuntu Touch release and the latter due to a Persona 4 Golden sale on Steam. My post on RSS as a Facebook alternative also performed up to its recent standards, but fell to fourth due to other articles having strong weeks.
The surprise of the week is the debut of my very short article, published more than five months ago, about a photo of "King Baby" graffiti making its first appearance in the top five. King Baby has generally performed well despite not previously having made a weekly top-five until now. It is, as of this mailing, our 15th most-read article of 2021 despite also being one of our least substantive articles of the year. What explained its having its best week more than five months after it was first published? I have no idea - did something happen with Mr. King Baby? In any event, it is almost assured of a spot in our November top 10 with its strong performance over the last seven days.
5. The News Leaf Journal
The last week was a productive one at The New Leaf Journal. The /e/ OS review is a project that was haunting me since I acquired my new phone. Now that this project is out of the way, I can shift my focus to two other tech review projects that watch me while I sleep - my Ubuntu Touch and Pocketbook Color reviews. The F-Droid app review project was one that I had been thinking about on and off since last summer, so that was also nice to resolve.
I will go into more detail about my December plans in Wednesday's November Review article, but I plan to publish several significant projects to end 2021 strongly as we look forward to 2022. I will add more than one visual novel to my visual novel review series, cover the best anime series of 2021, and try to publish some interesting essays on other subjects - lest this turn into a review site. Finally, I have a backlog of photos that are amenable to being turned into articles.
I became aware this week that we are having some issues regarding Google not indexing some of our recent articles. While I would love to not be wholly dependent on Google, it is our number one external traffic source by a wide margin (according to Koko Analytics). While the vast majority of our articles are properly indexed, there are a few that I prioritized that are not. I am investigating how to rectify the situation.
6. Taking Leaf
This concludes our 60 Newsletter Leaf Journal. I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving and enjoyed our latest newsletter. I look forward to sending our first December newsletter - accompanied by summaries of interesting new articles - next week.
Cura ut valeas.