The Newsletter Leaf Journal XI 〜 Snow

N.A. Ferrell:

This week saw Winter Storm Gail descend on New York City.  With the abundance of snow, I could have hardly passed up the opportunity for seasonal content.  Below, I will go over our articles from the past week.

New Content

I began the week with a post titled "Kaga no Chiyo Autumn Haiku on Unrequited Love."  Winter officially begins tomorrow, although it decided to start early over the past week.  I thought that there was no better way to send autumn 2020 off than with a haiku from one of the masters of the art-form, Kaga no Chiyo.  "No autumn colors tint that side of the mountain: a one-sided love."  My post includes an aesthetic sketch of Mt. Fuji and additional seasonal thoughts on the haiku.

During the past week, I started and finished Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's book, "The Secret Garden."  The book inspired my second post, "Mary Lennox and Winter Walks."  I used a passage from early in The Secret Garden (before entrance into said secret garden) to tout the benefits of venturing outside when it's cold.  The post may fall flat for New Leaf Journal readers in warm climates, but walking outside is good and healthy for them too.

Shortly after the snow ceased falling in Brooklyn, I took a walk (per my own advice the day before) to see what things look like.  I found, among other things, a snowman built on a planter, an unusual tree-pit plant standing strong in the snow, and Rudolph the Snow-Covered Red-Nosed Reindeer.  These scenes are all documented in "Brooklyn Snowman and Winter Storm Gail Sights."



Trying to avoid slipping on slick surfaces after the heavy snowfall this week reminded me of one chapter of Epictetus's Enchiridion.  Therein, the great stoic philosopher advised students to watch their ruling faculties just as carefully as they watch their steps.  I posted my discussion of the chapter along with my thoughts about how walking through the snow illustrates Epictetus's advice perfectly in "Walking with Epictetus in the Snow."

Finally, I posted my fourth entry in the Justin & Justina dialogue series "AD vs CE."  The idea came to me the day before when I pulled up the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry for Epictetus to use as an external link reference for readers.  I noticed that SEP uses "BCE" and "CE" instead of "BC" and "AD."  My views are in accord with Justin's in the dialogue - at least insofar as he argues that "BC" and "AD" are the proper terms, not "BCE" and "CE."  What is "common" about this era?  Consult "BC" and "AD."  I also agree with Justin that it will be hard to recapture Constantinople if people are using "BCE" and "CE," but that's a separate matter.

Sunday Content Recommendations from Around the Web

In the previous newsletter, I noted that Victor and I would post weekly content recommendations from around the web.  We did so last week and earlier today.  This week, I added a book recommendation from the books I read during the past week - the Tuttle Classics edition of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's “Rashomon and Other Stories.”  The collection includes six short stories and spans just over 120 pages.  For 99 cents on Kindle, it is a great value.  You can expect to see some references to it here at The New Leaf Journal in the near future.  I think this new project is worth keeping, so you can look forward to another set of content recommendations next Sunday.

Most-Read New Leaf Journal Articles of the Decade

As I argued in an earlier post, 2020 marks the end of one decade, 2021 marks the start of a new decade.  Because a decade is concluding, I took a look at the most-read New Leaf Journal content of the past decade.  Please disregard the fact that our website has only been live for about 8 months.  All jokes aside, I will post the list of our most-read articles on site by the end of the month, but I thought that I should offer a preview for the newsletter.

One difficulty in making the list was that I switched from using Google Analytics to using Koko Analytics in mid-July.  While they count page views similarly (Google had significantly more detail, however), the counts are in separate places.  In order to be ready to write my year-end post, I retrieved our pre-July view counts from Google and combined them with Koko.

Below, you will find our top-10 articles in total views today, but the order and the bottom of the list could shift by the end of the month.

1. The Last Stand of Constantine XI
N.A. Ferrell.  May 30, 2020.

2. Reviewing The Great Suspender Extension
N.A. Ferrell.  August 28, 2020.

3. An Early Review of Pixelfed - Instagram Alternative
N.A. Ferrell.  November 13, 2020.

4. The New Leaf Journal Twitter
N.A. Ferrell.  June 10, 2020.

5. The Quarantine Sessions:  "Love Henry"
V. Gurbo.  May 6, 2020.

6. Remembering Second Lieutenant Carleton Burr for Memorial Day
N.A. Ferrell.  May 25, 2020.

7. Some U.S. President Birthday Facts
N.A. Ferrell.  June 14, 2020.

8. Against Chinese Government Propaganda
N.A. Ferrell.  May 24, 2020.

9. Halloween and the Pumpkin with a Mask
N.A. Ferrell.  October 23, 2020.

10. Setting Up SoloKeys with Peppermint OS
N.A. Ferrell.  October 1, 2020.