The New Leaf Journal
The New Leaf Journal
Nicholas A. Ferrell
The New Leaf Journal is a self-hosted WordPress-powered online writing magazine. I launched the site on April 27, 2020. I created the project to host my own writing and that of my friends, which (as of this date) includes Victor V. Gurbo.
Latest Posts
Last Christmas, I published a short article titled My Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser, which was, as the name suggests, about my gingerbread man soap dispenser. I had purchased him at a local discount store called Lot Less on December 20,...
America at 250, America at 50 On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate a special Independence Day marking the 250th anniversary of America’s independence on July 4, 1776. While much attention will be on America’s 250th, this...
Beginning with fall 2025, I started establishing seasonal themes at The New Leaf Journal. My fall 2025 and winter and spring 2026 themes were a bit catch-all and arguably under-utilized. But that changes with summer 2026, because I have...
I recently read an article by Adriane Quinlan for Grub Street titled Dark, Dense, and Disappearing How pumpernickel bagels became an endangered species. The headline concerned me. I am a fan of the pumpernickel bagel. While I like most...
[P]introduction Despite having “heard” about Pinterest in the past, it was not until 2020 that I came to (sort of) understand what it was. I created a Pinterest account for The New Leaf Journal in 2020 because our SEO plugin at the time,...
Introduction Prior to the start of the 2026 NBA Finals, I published NBA Finals Appearance Droughts, which was inspired by the Eastern Conference (and now NBA) champion New York Knicks making their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999,...
The Challenge of Finding Backlinks I recently stumbled upon blog posts by Herbert Lui (How to find people who link to your blog) and Maddy Miller (I wish reply articles worked better; see also my reply post) discussing some of the...
Back in 2016-17, I started kicking around ideas for a name and associated domain for what would become this perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. In so doing, I only checked for the availability of various...
On May 22, 2020, within one month of launching The New Leaf Journal, I published my first investigative expose: The Downed Stop Sign in Vinegar Hill. One report on a fallen street sign led to others. I subsequently covered two downed...
May Intro While The New Leaf Journal’s birthday falls on April 27, I like to consider May this project’s birthday month. That was part of why most of our sixth birthday celebration this year fell in May. With May now in the books, let us...
On May 30, 2026, the San Antonio Spurs won game seven of the Western Conference Finals on the road to advance to the franchise’s first NBA Finals since 2014. I just published an article on NBA Finals Droughts, which was inspired more by...
Last year, I was inspired to write an article about NBA championship droughts after the Oklahoma City Thunder won the 2024-25 NBA Championship, snapping a franchise-long drought that went back to their Seattle SuperSonics days in the...
Our Prompt: AI Replacements On May 28, 2026, Sixth Tone published a report by He Qitong titled He Quit Baidu. But First He Had to Build an AI Version of Himself. You can think of Baidu as China’s internal answer to Google, with “Google”...
Introducing Our Sixth Birthday Project Conclusion I celebrated The New Leaf Journal’s sixth birthday on April 27, 2026, by starting a sixth birthday project wherein I would share on a schedule six articles featuring my blogging wisdom in...
On May 22, 2026, TechCrunch published an article by Ivan Mehta titled Spotify’s AI bet: more of everything, less of what you want. I preface my thoughts by noting that I have never used Spotify—or is it now SpotifAI?—and nothing I have...