We are now starting April (and approaching this humble perennially virid online writing magazine’s sixth birthday). When a new month comes, an old month goes. Or in the case of March, it came in like a lion and went out like a lamb.
Or did it? Below, I recap the month that was at The New Leaf Journal, The Emu Café Social, and The Newsletter Leaf Journal in March 2026.
New Leaves at The New Leaf Journal
I published 16 new NLJ articles in March, which is unusually busy by modern NLJ standards. One of those articles was February 2026 at The New Leaf Journal. But the other 15 covered “new” material.
I began the month by picking up where I had left off in February: Snow in New York City. Both Geese in the Snow in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Snowy Statues in Brooklyn (February 2026) covered snow scenes from February. The snow came from different snow-falls (it was a snowy winter). One of my goose photos was quite noble.
I went on to publish several more “photo” posts in March, albeit without the snow. First, I turned back the clock to September 28, 2025, publishing BLOB DYLAN Board in Williamsburg and Sharing a Stuffed Bird Rescue Story. One may wonder why I am grouping these articles together. The photos which prompted these articles were taken an hour apart, and the second article, which tells the story (with evidence) of how my friend rescued a stuffed baby bird, incorporates by reference my having photographed BLOB DYLAN on the same walk. While I sat on the BLOB DYLAN photo for some time, I was much quicker to press with proof of my new “Uncle Susan” graffiti tag sighting in Uncle Susan Graffiti in Carroll Gardens. I published that on March 22, just one day after I took the photograph.
I went back in time for two more photo articles. First, Jackie Harris’ Fruitmobile Seen at Houston Hobby is centered on a photograph I took at Houston Hobby Airport while traveling in May 2025 (this is my third Houston Hobby article). I not only shared photos of the “Fruitmobile” (apparently world-famous), but also dug into the story behind the car. It is good that I “dug” because the information provided at the airport appears to have been inaccurate in several respects. Happy Cleaners Cargo Trike in the Rain covered a less famous vehicle based on a photograph I took on August 13, 2025. I had previously covered the same cargo trike at a different location in a June 2025 photo. I used my second three-wheeled laundry vehicle to offer some thoughts and observations about Gowanus, Brooklyn.
I looked back further than spring and summer 2025 for several articles. By “further” I mean high school and college. First, in The Steak Debate: Quips and a Life Well-Done, I shared some anecdotes from life as a well-done steak enjoyer, prompted by an admittedly good line from a rare steak enjoyer. In another high school anecdote, I shared My Recollection of Kobe Bryant’s 81. I was inspired to share this small story after Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo erupted for 83 points on March 10, 2026. Finally, an article about Axe body spray inspired me to share an Axe memory from my high school days in Axe, Enchanting Musk, and Muskrats.
There are dark forces in the world, and I covered two of them. It may not be clear how The New York/California Post “Metro Section” RSS Feed deals with dark forces since I am a proponent of RSS/ATOM feeds and subscribe to the New York Post Metro section, which now includes news from California. But what if I told you that my prompt for this article was a story about Labubu. In early March, I read with some concern that the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks had planned a strip club promotion night. I decided to hold off on an article because I predicted that the night may be canceled. After the cancellation was confirmed, I published Atlanta Hawks’ Cancelled “Magic City” Night.
I re-introduced a Blogroll at NLJ in Introducing N.A. Ferrell’s NLJ Blogroll. The Blogroll is still sparsely populated because I am writing an article, short post, or section about each entry, but you can see what we have so far on our Blogroll Page. Speaking of external blogs, I came across Max Glenister’s blog a couple of weeks ago and began following it. That led me to publish Looking at Moji, an Emoji-only Chat App, wherein I reviewed his new app (a weekend project) for emoji-only messaging. I ended the month on the subject of blogs with The Proper Place For Articles and Blog Posts, where I seconded a take that articles and blog posts belong on writing websites, not in pieces on social media platforms and servers.
The Emu Café Social
I believe I published 65 short posts on The Emu Café Social in March (the number has been greatly increased by my new daily Pook-Emu Bee links. You can see all the posts in our March archive. I encourage you to peruse the archive and find posts that interest you. I especially encourage this since I am not sharing all of the posts here. But I will pick 12 highlights to give readers an idea of why they may want to go check out the rest.
I…
- …learned about The Oldest Known Mallard.
- …concurred with an argument Against Linking to Instagram.
- …covered Mid-March Snow in Brooklyn (2021 and 2026).
- …looked forward to the 3rd Anime Season For The Dangers in My Heart.
- …learned and listed the six U.S. States With Alienation of Affection Laws (HT to former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema).
- …discussed Search Engine Shortcuts in Firefox.
- …learned that you can still subscribe to MSN Dial-Up Internet in 2026 (and for how much).
- …learned about The Heaviest Owl in North America (and how much it weighs).
- …published my first Blogroll short post: NAF Blogroll Entry: Joel Chrono.
- …replied in four parts to Re; On AI in response to: A Positive Technologist Identity (see parts 2, 3, and 4 after having agreed that the state of Internet Reply Posting leaves much to be desired.
- …discovered that there are people out there doing (and documenting) Seadra Pokémon Cosplay Photography.
- …rejoiced that 2026 is the Year of the Windows Desktop(TM).
(Ok I “cheated” on the “12” thing.)
Again, this is just a small sample of my publishing on Emu Café Social, so you can peruse all five pages of the March archive to read more. If you are looking for a reason to follow, I have been publishing daily Pook-Emu Bee link collections every day except Saturday. Why no Saturday? Talk about a segue…
The Newsletter Leaf Journal
Four Saturdays fell in March. I published our regular Saturday newsletter on all four days. Each newsletter includes 21 links from around the web (sometimes a few extra) with commentary to go along with a recap of my newest articles and our most-visited posts, so there will always be something “new” to read even if you are all caught up on NLJ and ECS. See our four March newsletters below:
- Snow camera 〜 Newsletter Leaf Journal CCLXX (3/7)
- White Day Present 〜 Newsletter Leaf Journal CCLXXI (3/14)
- Verily vernal 〜 Newsletter Leaf Journal CCLXXII (3/21)
- Enchanting email 〜 Newsletter Leaf Journal (3/28)
I was on my newsletter naming game in March. I probably could have done a bit more with the March 7 newsletter name, but the other three were top notch if I do say so myself.
NAF’s Pixelfed
I also published six posts to Pixelfed in March. These posts feature higher quality versions of photos I have used on The New Leaf Journal with unique descriptions and links to their corresponding NLJ articles. See my photos of headlights at night in Brooklyn Heights, snow bears, a goose in the snow, RFK statute in the snow, a snowy tree from my window, and a large Moon seen from Downtown Brooklyn.
Most-Visited Articles of March 2026
I use an entirely local, open source, and privacy friendly tool for tracking page visits called Koko Analytics (see my 2022 Koko Analytics review and five-year retrospective). In each month-end review, I list our 24 most-visited articles. Below, you will find our 24 most-visited articles of 2026 next to their cumulative 2026 ranking at the end of February (referring to January-March 2026).
Analysis
I present some bullet-point notes analyzing this month’s top-24.
- March produced about as many page views per day as February, running a tick behind our January pace but on par with the big uptick in visits that began in the last third of 2025.
- Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search broke the record it set in January for the best-ever “unassisted” month (meaning that its views came from ordinary traffic and not a sharing event) and led its eighth consecutive month-end ranking, which ties the longest streak (The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei (September 2021-April 2022)). It is the prohibitive favorite to stand alone with nine consecutive month wins at the end of April, barring a different article gaining a flood of views from an unusual source. Of course, Hacker News ended The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei’s streak back in May 2022, so we will see if anything similar happens in April 2026.
- Three 2021 articles posted their best-ever months in terms of rank and page visits in March 2026. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name tied its best-ever month ranking of fourth but easily posted its best-ever months in terms of page-views. Usagi Drop: A Complicated Anime Pick about doubled its previous record for most page-views in a month while posting its best-ever ranking of 6th. Finally, Futaba Igarashi’s Hair Is Naturally Green? narrowly posted its best month in terms of visits and its best ranking of 8th (previous best was 9th).
- The biggest surprise of March 2026 was not three 2021 articles posting their best-ever months, but instead our 12th best article, Citizenship Rules for Running for President of Egypt. I published this article on October 8, 2023. I never noticed it in any ranking (month, week, day, or otherwise) prior to March 2026. It had received very little traffic in 2026 prior to March (evinced by the fact that it sits in 60th for 2026 despite its March performance). What explains the surge? Who knows… but it will be interesting to see if it remains a factor like our February surprise, Follow The New Leaf Journal Pixelfed Atom Feed, which remained strong in March with a solid 15th-place finish.
- Not every article had a good March. 2025 runner-up Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn finished a disappointing 7th, which dropped it from 3rd place to 4th in the 2026 ranking thus far.
- Two articles beyond the Egypt surprise made their debut top-24s. Using a Small Paper Clip as SIM Tray Tool checked in at 19th for its first placement after going live in October (I doubt that it will be the last). Presidents Who Went By Middle Names surged at the end of the month to sneak into the top 24 at 23rd (it has not yet lived up to my hopes and dreams for it when I published it, but perhaps that is changing).
- None of my new March 2026 articles ultimately threatened the month-end ranking, but Uncle Susan Graffiti in Carroll Gardens debuted with a Newsletter Week top-five (see Newsletter Leaf Journal 273) and The New York/California Post “Metro Section” RSS Feed and Jackie Harris’ Fruitmobile Seen at Houston Hobby performed fairly well. I have some hope for the Fruitmobile article over the long-haul and it is always possible that there could be some renewed BLOB DYLAN interest down the line.
March had a good mix of stability (our top-six articles of the year took positions 1-5 and 7) and surprises. While I have no prediction in this area, it would be fun to see a NLJ article of some historical significance make a splash on our birthday month of April.
Looking Ahead to April
I am publishing my March review in early April, so it is not too late for a month preview (unlike it was in my mid-March February 2026 review).
I will announce my new “Spring Season Theme” which will be eerily similar to my “Winter Season Theme” (we will have a more exciting Summer Theme). I will continue to focus on publishing some long-pending projects in an effort to clear my idea-backlog. Outside of long-pending projects, I have some specific game and book reviews in mind for April. Our site’s sixth birthday falls on April 27, so you can expect some birthday-themed articles in the last week of the month.
Conclusion
March was a good month at The New Leaf Journal, but I think I can make our “birthday month” even better. Will it ultimately be better? You can decide for yourself when I publish my May-end review (although I hope you will be following along in the interim, of course).
