Welcome to the 161st edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. We have a solid week of publishing, so I look forward to sharing our new articles, links from around the web, and other news and notes to hold you over through Thanksgiving. Leaves from the week that was I published five new articles since mailing newsletter 160. "I Voted" Sticker Appears in Pocket I am going with the "magic" explanation. On Coach Jimbo Fisher's Buyout I could not pass on the opportunity to write about Texas A&M paying a man $76.8 million to not coach its football team. Hair Color in t…  ( 9 min )

I dare say Newsletter 161 is one of my finer newsletter efforts. Links to our 5 newest articles, 21 links from around the web, and a Thanksgiving-themed walk through our archives. Come for the new New Leaf Journal content, stay for external links to articles about birds looking at birds. https://buttondown.email/newsletterleafjournal/archive/161/ #newsletter #buttondown #links #aroundtheweb #thanksgiving

After capturing an impromptu piano recital in my home featuring at least two Danbo and two stuffed chicks, I decided that I had accomplished everything I could as as a photographer. https://thenewleafjournal.com/hatchling-and-danbo-have-a-piano-recital/ #photography #danbo #piano #chick #stuffedanimals #kokeshi

I just published my article on Grenada’s annual October 25 Thanksgiving. As I explain in that piece, Grenada’s Thanksgiving commemorates the date of the commencement of the 1983 U.S.-led intervention to restore order on the island after a palace coup. It occurred to me right after publishing the article (somehow only after) to check whether […]

Examining Greanda's annual October 25 Thanksgiving, which commemorates the beginning of the 1983 American-led intervention to restore order in the small Caribbean nation. Possibly related posts... History of Thanksgiving Proclamations in the Philippines Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation Calvin Coolidge's 1923 Thanksgiving Proclamation Return to Shironagasu Island Review When President Coolidge Spared a Raccoon From… "Coffee Fruit Punch" - A Cookbook Abomination Justin & Justina: Most-Read NLJ Content of 2020 Fallen Inflatable Thanksgiving Turkey Justin and Justina review 2022 at the NLJ  ( 15 min )

Running The New Leaf Journal takes me interesting places. For example, it has taken me to Grenada over the last few days. Not literally, mind you. I am not much of a traveling guy (nor am I a big fan of planes or other vehicles). I am researching Thanksgiving in Grenada for what promises to […]

Last year, I published a history of Thanksgiving proclamations in the Philippines from the U.S. colonial era through the first President Marcos's significantly changed take on the holiday. https://thenewleafjournal.com/history-of-thanksgiving-proclamations-in-the-philippines/ #thanksgiving #philippines #history #ushistory #holiday

I have written a number of articles about hair color in Japanese anime, manga, novels, and games (usually visual novels) -- because why not become the internet's leading resource in something? I finally got around to creating a collection page for this very important 2D anthropology project. https://thenewleafjournal.com/collection/hair-color-in-japanese-anime-manga-and-games/ #anime #manga #visualnovels #haircolor #dresscodes

Examining the significance of Liu Shouxe's naturally silver hair in the Raven of the Inner Palace anime series. Possibly related posts... The Best of Anime in 2022: Year in Review Hair Color in The Apothecary Diaries Anime Additional Best of 2022 in Anime Awards Hair Color in A Dream of Summer Tokyo High Schools Change Hair Color Dress Code Policies Brown hair and dress codes in Ippon Again! Understanding Hair Color in the Kimi ni Todoke Anime Series Hair Color Dress Code Rules in Japan Iroha Isshiki's Hair is Brown, as Expected?  ( 10 min )

Examining unusual hair colors in the main characters of Ming China-inspired The Apothecary Diaries. Possibly related posts... Hair Color in A Dream of Summer Tokyo High Schools Change Hair Color Dress Code Policies Brown hair and dress codes in Ippon Again! Understanding Hair Color in the Kimi ni Todoke Anime Series Hair Color Dress Code Rules in Japan Iroha Isshiki's Hair is Brown, as Expected? Hair Color and Albinism in Red Shift Visual Novel Kaori Orimoto's Hair is Blacker than I Expected Hair Color in Japanese Anime, Manga, and Games  ( 8 min )

It has been a rough year for search engines I reviewed. Peekier went offline and turned into a Kagi redirect last February. But again, my review lives on. https://thenewleafjournal.com/peekier-search-engine-review/ #peekier #searchengine

Elephind, a newspaper search engine that I used for a number of projects, has been taken offline. For those who are curious about what it looked like, my review lives on. https://thenewleafjournal.com/reviewing-elephind-a-powerful-newspaper-search-engine/ #elephind #searchengine

I have published a growing collection of articles on hair color in Japanese anime, manga, and games (usually visual novels). My […]

Texas A&M's decision to pay Coach Jimbo Fisher $76.8 million to not coach the school's football team raises questions about its priorities as an institution. Possibly related posts... College Football Coach Salaries and Buyouts and… Should the Pistons have drafted Carmelo? The Japanese Citizenship Requirement for Sumo Stablemasters 1997 Otis Thorpe trade and the 2003 NBA Draft Sega of Japan's Yukawa Dreamcast Commercials Brown hair and dress codes in Ippon Again! Imagination in Pokémon Red and Blue Playing Through Cancer in Silence: Shawn Respert's NBA Story CUNY Un-Persons A Successful Alum  ( 10 min )

Re-printing "Pumpkin Pie," a seasonal early 20th century children's poem by Mary Mapes Dodge. https://thenewleafjournal.com/pumpkin-pie-a-childrens-poem-by-mary-mapes-dodge/ #poem #poetry #pumpkin #pumpkinpie #autumn #thanksgiving

I was surprised that no one gave me an "I Voted!" sticker when I voted in November 2023... then I checked my pocket. Possibly related posts... 1897 Magazine Offer - Pocket Kodak and Kodak No. 4… One Man, One Vote, Two "I Voted!" Stickers You Can't Fix Stupid - King Baby On Finding Money In Your Coat Pocket 〜 A Justin and… The "King Baby BKF" Sticker in Gowanus, Brooklyn Spare "I Voted" sticker for 2023 An Unpleasant Voting Odor The Downed Stop Sign in Vinegar Hill Card Hero and games on limited hardware  ( 7 min )

Welcome to the 60th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. After a brief unplanned hiatus, we returned to our ordinary publishing pace last week. Below, I share our newest articles, links from around the web, and news and notes about The New Leaf Journal. Leaves from the week that was I published five new articles since mailing the previous newsletter. October 2023 at The New Leaf Journal No one said these months in review had to be published in the month of review. Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2 The anticipated results of good article planning. Upgrading Pixel 3a XL …  ( 8 min )

SoraNews24 published an entire article about making a recipe released by 7-Eleven in Japan. I think the recipe looks good (“to die for” is probably excessive, however). But regardless of whether you think 7-Eleven’s sausage-butter-rice dish looks appetizing, I am sure you can join me in praising the convenience store chain for fully embracing open […]

Re-printing the first U.S. Veterans Day Proclamation, written and issued by then-President (and prominent veteran) Dwight D. Eisenhower 69 years to the day: https://thenewleafjournal.com/eisenhowers-1954-veterans-day-proclamation/ #VeteransDay #Eisenhower #veterans #ushistory #history

On October 11, 2023, Nintendo Life cited to reports that Disney is looking to purchase a video game company. This sounds very ominous so I am crossing my fingers that they do not buy a company that makes good games. Go for one of the companies that makes those terrible free-to-start mobile games!

I use a low-end Beelink mini-PC as a TV box (this will be a New Leaf Journal article eventually). I run Fedora on the mini PC and switch between GNOME and Kodi sessions depending on what I am doing. Yesterday, I upgraded from Fedora 39 to Fedora 40. The upgrade went smoothly. Everything appeared to […]  ( 2 min )

A friendly Halloween ghost scarecrow seen in America's first suburb, the New York City neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights. https://thenewleafjournal.com/brooklyn-heights-halloween-scarecrow/ #nyc #brooklyn #brooklynheights #halloween #ghost #scarecrow #brickwall #pixel3axl #thenewleafjournal #newleafjournal

A friendly Halloween ghost scarecrow seen in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Possibly related posts... Economical Halloween Scarecrows Halloween Cooking and Decorating Tips From 1913 The Trick-Or-Treating Halloween Daycare Ghost Flying 12-Foot Witch in Carroll Gardens A Trick-Or-Treating Halloween Ghost Among Gourds in… Return of the Happy Halloween Daycare Ghost The Happy Halloween Ghost The Wicked Car of the Gowanus - Car with Hat Carroll Gardens Halloween Snake Skeleton  ( 5 min )

From Mr. Heinrik Karlsson’s “A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox” Having idiosyncratic interests that grow in complexity means that if you pursue them too far you will end up obsessed with things that no one else around you cares […]

Seen in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, a Halloween snake decoration protecting flowers on a front lawn. https://thenewleafjournal.com/carroll-gardens-halloween-snake-skeleton/ #halloween #brooklyn #nyc #carrollgardens #snake #skeleton #flowers #lawn #sign #pixel3axl

A Carroll Gardens household puts a Halloween snake skeleton decoration to good use on their front lawn. Possibly related posts... A Walk Across the Hamilton Avenue Footbridge Flying 12-Foot Witch in Carroll Gardens Justin & Justina 〜 4th of July Grill Sacrifices to… A Trip Across Brooklyn's Summit Street Bridge Historic Districts and Looming Tall Buildings Flexible Hose Halloween Snake Creature Halloween Cooking and Decorating Tips From 1913 Balancing Bear Topiary in Carroll Gardens American Beauty Pasta Mural in Brooklyn  ( 6 min )

The Russian government is appropriating Soviet humor. (I dare say that this is a better example of Russia’s questionable Iran-coddling commentary than the one I used for an October 14 article at The New Leaf Journal.)

I return from a brief and unplanned publishing break with an important story (“important” is the operative word here). I use a MikroTik hAP ac3 internet router. However, I disabled its wi-fi functionality and use a low-end tp-link access point for wireless. The access point is right in front of my computer. I turned on […]  ( 2 min )

The original Mario Party for Nintendo 64 had some poorly-conceived mini games that required players to rapidly spin the delicate Nintendo 64 joystick. I remember them for destroying joysticks. Others claimed terrible injuries. This is the story of Nintendo's offer of gloves as a result of a settlement with New York State (I note the gloves would not have saved any controllers from harm). https://thenewleafjournal.com/history-of-the-mario-party-gloves/ #nintendo #n64 #marioparty #law #videogamehistory

On upgrading my Google Pixel 3a XL from LineageOS 19 to LineageOS 20. Possibly related posts... Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a From Murena Teracube 2e to Pixel 3a XL with LineageOS Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) Review of /e/ - An Android Alternative For Mobile Phones The BunnyPress Chronicles: Story and Review A Segmentation Fault and a Peculiar Ghostwriter… Review of the Teracube 2e Smartphone Justin and Justina review 2022 at the NLJ New Computer, New Leaf  ( 8 min )

I would say that the announcement of a second season of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten was a surprise... but I expected it when I wrote my review of what is now season one. Possibly related posts... The Enigmatic Life and Death of Emperor Otho The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten - Anime Review Anime Recommendations of the Decade (2011-20) The Best of Anime in 2022: Year in Review ACE Academy - Visual Novel Review Should the Pistons have drafted Carmelo? The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations The Best Anime Series of 2021 Four May Issues of The Nursery Magazine (1873-81)  ( 8 min )

We ended up only publishing nine articles in October 2023 due to some unexpected events, but our month-in-review structure is very aesthetic. Possibly related posts... The New Leaf Journal Celebrates Its First Birthday The Newsletter Leaf Journal at 100 The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations Justin & Justina: Most-Read NLJ Content of 2020 Justin and Justina review 2022 at the NLJ A 2021 List of Alternative Search Engines and Search… The story of our Bing blacklisting Oldest Golfers to Contend for Majors Between the… The Newsletter Leaf Journal LXIX 〜 The Move(d) Leaf Journal  ( 9 min )

Welcome to the 159th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perenially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. As always? I should say except for last week. Two factors caused a lapse in New Leaf Journal publishing. Firstly, middling health commencing on October 24. Secondly, I had a decent amount of work for my law job to do while I was feeling sluggish. As a result, I did not publish any articles. Because I had no articles to share and I still had work to do last weekend, I let October 28 pass without a newsletter. While I have a few article drafts in the pipeline, I still have not published a new piece since October …  ( 9 min )

No content preview

No content preview

No content preview

Welcome to the 158th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal (the previous one had a Roman numeral title typo -- sad!), the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. I am a bit pressed for time this week, so this newsletter will only cover our most recent posts, links from around the web, and our most-read articles of the week. Let us get straight into the content. Leaves from the week that was I published two new articles. On Russia’s and China’s Self-Awareness Russia's and China's statements about restraint and justice ring just a bit hollow. Analyzing BIA Decision in Matter of Salama An in-depth study of an interesting 1966 U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals decision with my original legal analysis. I wrote it in a way that should be acc…  ( 6 min )

I wrote a detailed analysis of a 1966 Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Salama, 11 I&N Dec. 536 (BIA 1966). In that post, I worked through the decision and examined the small number of citations to it in precedent decisions. I opined that although I first came across the decision while researching […]

A post reviewing Halloween cooking and decorating tips from a 1913 magazine. https://thenewleafjournal.com/halloween-cooking-and-decorating-tips-from-1913/ #halloween #cooking #decorating #owls