On October 1, 2026, I (being N.A. Ferrell) published a new article on The New Leaf Journal titled 86 Days Until Christmas: Seen in Carroll Gardens. On September 29, I had come across an inflatable Christmas countdown clock on the Carroll Gardens side of Degraw Street (Degraw is the border between Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens). The clock correctly indicated that there were 86 days until Christmas. As I photographed it, I recalled that I had published an “early” Christmas countdown clock article in the past. Only when I got home and checked did I realize that (A) I had published the article I was thinking of in 2025 and (B) I took the photos for the 2025 article exactly one year prior (September 29, 2025) and almost certainly at the same residence. Fortunately, the 2026 clock is different than the 2025 clock, so I had material for a new story. Photos are of course included in the articles.
Tag: carroll gardens
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-26-26
I have a rough three-day work-stretch ahead of me, but the weekday Pook-Emu Bee links streak must continue (I will however compromise on feature images today).
1. Brainless TikTok trend causes $2,000 in damage to SoCal home (Daniel Farr for the New York Post. August 26, 2026.)
States and localities should consider sentence enhancement provisions for crimes committed for social media consumption.
2. EXCLUSIVE: US Investigators Have Proof That UNRWA ‘Social Worker’ Caught on Tape Dragging an Israeli Body Into an SUV on Oct 7 Was an Active Hamas Operative (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. August 25, 2026.)
It’s always who you least expect… except for those times when it’s the most obvious suspect.
3. $3 Specialty Coffee Is Back In Brooklyn (Ainsley Martinez for Patch Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill, NY. August 25, 2026.)
I seldom buy coffee when I’m out (firmly in the DIY coffee camp) but $3 for a cup of any size is cheap around these parts. Maybe I’ll find a reason when out with a friend to give it a try.
4. I switched from Android’s default keyboard to an open source alternative to eliminate my constant typos (Oluwaniyi Raji for Android Police. August 25, 2026.)
I also use Heliboard. It’s good. I turn autocorrect off because autocorrect is a war crime. The predictive suggestions are solid but I tend to forget about them. I need to make myself remember because typing on touchscreens is not a strong area for me.
5. Roblox applies restrictions to games featuring “reward-driven media feeds” available in Roblox Kids and Select (Sophie McEvoy for Games Industry.biz. August 26, 2026.)
The fundamental problem with Roblox is that its ostensible target demographic should not be playing social online games, period.
6. NYC’s borough-based jail boondoggle is nearly $8B over budget and years behind schedule (Matthew Fischetti for the New York Post. August 24, 2026.)
It’s already casting a long shadow.
7. NYers say Citi Bike has gotten too expensive, can a new advocate-led campaign make it cheaper? (Ethan Stark-Miller for amNY. August 18, 2026.)
Hear me out. Instead of stealing my tax money to subsidize City Bike rides for my betters who will then violate traffic laws and threaten to run me over, what if we at least banned the electric City Bikes and made everything more expensive?
8. Smithsonian affiliate AANM gets federal funds, criticized 9/11 response (Robert Schmad for Fox News. August 25, 2026.)
Score another one for team taxation is theft.
9. Taliban facing constant challenge to authority in provinces bordering Central Asian states (Eurasianet. August 25, 2026.)
Economic ties aside, I’ll note that Uzbek and Tajik police don’t take kindly to men having beards, so the Taliban would probably be well-advised (granting I don’t think they’re much into taking advice) to keep their various militants from causing cross-border problems.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-19-26
Keeping the Pook-Emu Bee weekday streak going on this sunny (here in Brooklyn, at least) August 19, 2026.
1 | Vindman Vaporizes $16.2 Million in Loss, Spends 36X DSA Candidate on Ads (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 18, 2026) & Rep. Cory Mills Unseated in GOP Primary, Ryan Elijah Wins Nomination (Olivia Rondeau for Breitbart. August 18, 2026.)
Both of these Florida primary results made me chuckle in their own ways.
2 | Minnesota’s “Nudification” Ban Repeats Unconstitutional Errors of Early Revenge Porn Bills (Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. August 18, 2026.)
I haven’t thought much about the legal particulars but interesting article and caution about crafting laws carefully.
3 | After Europe ditched Windows, China follows suit with its own home-grown Linux distros (Rianne Schestowitz for Tux Machines. August 19, 2026.)
I was originally going to comment that while I am a proponent of Linux, I will respectfully stop short of celebrating the Chinese government’s Linux uptake. But then I saw the quote from the XDA Developers article includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents.” I checked the original article. Sure enough, the page source for XDA’s AI summary includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the article contents.” I’m not an expert on WordPress AI summary plugins but that strikes me as subpar.
4 | Cheap USB-C chargers are actually fine—these 4 specs are all that matter (Ismar Hrnjcevic for How-To Geek. August 17, 2026.)
I have the little UGREEN robot charter pictured in the last image in the article, but in a different color. It’s endearing. I never measured it but I think it charges well enough for all normal charging purposes.
5 | How to Crown — or Deny — a Champion (Neil Paine. November 4, 2025.)
To start: Don’t do what NASCAR has done for most of the last quarter century.
6 | Caputo’s Bake Shop Owner Is Back—This Time in Park Slope (Grand Army Gazette. July 31, 2026.)
This certainly raises some questions given his shifty explanations for the unsanitary demise of his previous endeavor, which I covered in the May 27, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee.
7 | Is this Billboard Hot 100 hit AI slop? (Terrance O’Brien for The Verge. August 1, 2026.)
I had no prior knowledge what “Fenix Flexin” was and I have no interest in investigating further, but I will submit that if you have to ask whether his “work” is AI slop, the fact you have to ask should probably call into question whether it is worth discussing at all. My Basquiat forgery article remains evergreen.
“Moments Away”
Located moments from Court Street, the building is surrounded by local favorites including Gersi, Nabila’s, Le French Tart, and Poppy’s Brooklyn, alongside cultural destinations like Congress Bar and Cobble Hill Cinemas.
I added a significant number of Google News feeds for specific Brooklyn neighborhoods to my feed collection (future article topic?). I then went through the initial set of articles that came up. I decided to read Timeless Brooklyn Reimagined: Minerva Development Unveils 263 Sackett in the Heart of Carroll Gardens since I know the area. While the sure-to-be-affordable residence looks nice, something else caught my attention. “Located moments from Court Street…” Moments? I do not think I can learn how to speak like a realtor.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 08-13-26
I was working late into the night (unfortunately not on articles), but I am back for another Pook-Emu Bee link (one away from Sunday-Friday perfection before we yield the floor on Saturday for The Newsletter Leaf Journal).
1 | Some Claude users are mad that Anthropic’s new watermarks will catch them using it at their jobs, classes (Lucas Ropek for TechCrunch. August 12, 2026.)
The thought that these people may be too lazy to paste the output into a text editor and sanitize it is almost as concerning as how lazy they are in using Claude.
2 | Twenty-Five in Blog Years (Dave Peck. August 11, 2026.)
I offer my congratulations to Mr. Peck on his blog’s quarter-century anniversary. What was I doing 25 years ago? Elementary school.
3 | Koei Tecmo releases 90-minute Atelier Ryza ASMR featuring Klaudia, picnics, bathing, and ear-cleaning (Amber V for Automation West. August 13, 2026.)
I think it may be time for “Ryza” to join “Palworld” on my gaming-related Miniflux global block list.
4 | Houston Man Charged For Terroristic Threat Over Anime (Rafael Antonio Pineda for Anime News Network. August 13, 2026.)
His rant raises many questions. I don’t think I want the answers.
5 | Bob Iger, Josh Kushner shockingly purchase Lakers months after Mark Walter became majority owner (Ryan Morik for Fox Business. August 12, 2026.)
I went on record when the Lakers went for $10 billion last year noting that the price struck me as high. To be sure, I was not expecting the Lakers to be flipped for $12 billion just over one year later. Perhaps it has something to do with the report’s note that Mr. Walter is under investigation for tax fraud.
6 | Clicks have killed the Inverted Pyramid (Gordon Meyer. August 8, 2026.)
I have more than 200 feeds in my feed collection and many feed items, so I have more than enough to read to allow me to check out when I see what appears to be a rambling SEO introduction. My bigger problem lately has been seeing obvious indicia of AI junk in articles, which also leads to a quick close.
7 | Rite Aid-Replacing Tower for Corner of Smith and President? (Cate Cocoran for Brownstoner. August 11, 2026.)
That is not the nicest stretch of the Carroll Gardens section of Court Street (it looks better from the air than the ground), so this could be an improvement provided that they do not make it too tall. While I cannot say that I am optimistic, I would agree that Carroll Gardens survives pretty well without the benefit of the historic district designation that neighboring Cobble Hill has.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 05-27-26
I have a busy day ahead of me, but not too busy for Pook-Emu Bee links. Before getting to links from around the web, I note that I just published the sixth and final part of my New Leaf Journal sixth birthday project, Be the Blogger You Want to Be (Or Read). Now watch me follow my own advice.
1. Government says 5.7 trillion yen of Japanese media was pirated last year, thinks AI could help (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. May 26, 2026.)
I assumed by “AI could help” that the Japanese government was thinking that AI could help track down copyright infringement. Not so: “However, one of the ideas being floated by the researchers is to promote the use of AI in production to lower costs and secure profits.” Well… depending on the uptake, I suppose that could also reduce piracy.
2. Magnifica Humanitas (Peter’s Path. May 26, 2026.)
It’s on my reading list, and perhaps my future article list.
3. Zubac remembers the shock of his first NBA paycheck being cut in half (Bruno Feliks for Basketball Network. February 9, 2026.)
A star NBA center on how he learned about California tax rates.
4. Freedom 250 Announces Free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on National Mall (Jasmyn Jordan for Breitbart. May 20, 2026.)
This isn’t what General Washington fought for.
5. Linux On Android Provides Inexpensive, Powerful Computing (Aaron Beckendorf for Hackaday. May 26, 2026.)
I should really mess around with Termux at some point.
6. Beloved NYC bakery faced stomach-churning issue before suddenly closing (Nicole Rosenthal for the New York Post. May 24, 2026.)
I’m glad I didn’t buy anything from there before it closed (it was right by my favorite spot for buying coffee beans).
7. DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being ‘force-fed’ Google’s AI Search (Rebecca Bellan for TechCrunch. May 26, 2026.)
Google’s AI search push is working very well for me so far. I have not seen a dip in Google traffic to NLJ, but I have seen a big uptick in the last week and a half in DuckDuckGo traffic. While Google is my biggest referrer by a good margin, DuckDuckGo has always been second and clearly sends much more traffic relative to the size of its user-base.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 04-13-26
There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Saturday because it was newsletter day (22 links in issue 275!). There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Sunday because I failed. But today is Monday. Monday is a fun day. I will not fail. In fact, I may even have some bonus links (either to make up for yesterday or to keep my link list under control).
1. 420 Court’s Façade Takes Shape in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (Michael Young and Matt Pruznick for New York YIMBY. April 13, 2026.)
Carroll Gardens is next to Cobble Hill, which is one of Brooklyn’s historic districts. The line between Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill is easy to miss. Yet, as I noted in 2020, Carroll Gardens is not a historic district. With that in mind, this new construction is not bad.
2. Placard Abuse Clogs Downtown Brooklyn Bike Lane (Brooklyn Today. April 13, 2026.)
Placard abuse is a well-known problem. But must everything be about the struggles of bikers? The bikers in the area behave terribly even where the bike lanes are unimpeded.
3. Investors Juice BlackBerry as the SaaS-y Company Racks Up Contracts (Jamie Wilde for The Daily Upside*. April 13, 2026.)
Making QWERTY phones offered more value.
4. Morgan Library (I Love Beets. April 13, 2026.)
I have not been to the Morgan Library in a long time, but these photographs indicate that it is as aesthetic as I remember it.
5. ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI (Andrew Deck for NiemanLab. April 9, 2026.)
I reached the “choose your fighter” screen between ProPublica and big AI. Then I left the game on and went for a walk.
6. Doki Doki Literature Club Removed from Google Play Store Following Policy Violation or Is This Just Another Attempt by Monika for Our Attention? (It’s Not, They Really Delisted It) (Azario Lopez for Noisy Pixel. April 9, 2026.)
While I never “reviewed” Doki Doki Literature Club, I referenced it in my review of a freeware visual novel called Save the Date in expressing my hope that Save the Date would be published on Steam, Itch, and other places where more people could find it. I never played the “paid” version of Doki Doki Literature Club, but from my knowledge of the free version, this decision strikes me as odd. It certainly deserves an “M” rating (which I presumre age-gates downloads/purchases) but I am sure there is more objectionable “content” on Google Play Store. Of course, I use F-Droid, so what do I know?
7. The Death of the Small Point Guard? (James Barlowe. April 10, 2026.)
Is there really a “death”? How many instances in NBA history have we had where the undisputed best player on a championship team was a “small” point guard? Off the top of my head: 2014-15 and 2022-23 Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry), 1988-89 and 89-90 Detroit Pistons (Isiah Thomas), and 1972-73 New York Knicks (Walt Frazier). You could argue for a few additional cases in the 1950-51 Rochester Royals (Bob Davies), 1969-70 Knicks (Frazier). 2003-04 Pistons (Chauncey Billups), and 2016-17 and 2017-18 Warriors (Curry). I suppose one could try to include Dennis Johnson since he was “small” and add the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics? But if this is all we can come up with, it does not seem like building a team “around” a small point guard has ever been the best path to an NBA championship.
8. Ascendance of a Bookworm anime studio acknowledges gen AI use in opening, promises to replace offending scenes with hand-drawn art (Dorde P for Automation West. April 10, 2026.)
I never watched the first few seasons, and I doubt I will ever catch up. Were I planning to catch up, this would not encourage me. With that being said, I have 2.5 seasons worth of anime to catch up on. Every news article reminds me.
9. Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Monopoly (Dan Lewis for Now I Know. April 3, 2020.)
I never played Monopoly. No one ever tried to convince me to play Monopoly. Now I know that Dan Lewis does not think I should play Monopoly.
Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 03-10-26
I missed publishing a set of Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday. But that just means I have more links saved for today. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.
1. Qatar Wants to Bolster Security Partnership with US After Iran’s Strikes (Reuters [via gCaptain]. March 10, 2026.)
If so they should explain this to their local international TV outlet.
2. The joys of data centers: Debunking the backlash against the $7 trillion AI building boom (Christian Britschgi for Reason. April 2026 issue.)
The rest of us should be able to see the tremendous upsides of the country’s data center boom. Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics could liberate humanity from boring, backbreaking labor
The libertarians at Reason are smug now but I am not entirely convinced that AI cannot exude a smug sense of self-satisfaction while achieving nothing in the real world.
3. New All-Day Cafe LeTish Opening Soon in Williamsburg (Jennifer Rosini-Gentile for Greenpointers. March 9, 2026.)
I seldom eat or buy coffee “out” and have not been to Williamsburg in several months. Granting the foregoing, this place looks good.
4. Mamdani Condemns ‘White Supremacy’ Protest But Not Radical Islam After ISIS-Linked Bomb Attack (Jasmyn Jordan for Breitbart. March 9, 2026.)
All fair complaints. But imagine how insufferable he would have been had the two terrorists not explicitly spelled out their alleigance to ISIS. (Glass half-full take!)
5. Renovations on Carroll Gardens Library drag on (Mary Frost for Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 9, 2026.)
I wrote about the library renovations back in 2024. My skeptecism about the timeline was well-founded.
6. Hobby Airport warns of 2-hour TSA wait due to government shutdown (Briahn Hawkins and Jillian Hartmann for Fox 26 Houston. March 8, 2026.)
I had a two hour wait at Houston Hobby last May. I used that time to wander around the airport Learning About William P. Hobby at Houston Hobby Airport and Failing to Try Airport Illy Coffee Vending Machine. Of course, my 2-hour wait was scheduled and everything was running on time. It sounds like things are going less swimmingly for travelers this March 2026.
7. How Usable Is Windows 98 In 2026? (Maya Posch for Hackaday. March 8, 2026.)
I would put this one in the “mileage may vary” category. With that being said, let it be said that I did several high school assignments on my Windows 95 in 2004 and 2005 and brought them to school on floppy disks.
BPL Renovations in Gerritsen Beach and Carroll Gardens
I read an article about the completion of the renovation of the Brooklyn Public Library in Gerritsen Beach. Although I am a life-long resident of Brooklyn (NYC) and can point out Gerritsen Beach on a map, I have never stepped foot in the neighborhood, which has its own volunteer fire department owing to its relative isolation and narrow streets.
While I had not been previously aware that Gerritsen Beach has a public library, I wrote about the renovations of the Brooklyn Public Library branch in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, back in January 2024. According to my reporting (i.e., photographing the relevant signage outside the library), the renovations were projected to be complete within 18-24 months of July 23, 2023. We blew through the outer-limit of that projection nearly five months ago. I have noted on my walks that the Library is still closed, but I did not look into the reasoning. Fortunately, a syndicated copy of the report about the Gerritsen Beach library on Brownstoner included an update about the Carroll Gardens library in the related posts (plus-one for related post links). According to the May 27, 2025 report in Brownstoner:
Additional funding allocated by state Senator Andrew Gounardes last fall ensured all the required work would be done at once, and officials said the library would be finished in summer 2025. But crews from the city’s Department of Design and Construction recently determined that the building would need additional structural enforcements to support the weight of new high-energy HVAC units.
My original report noted that one goal of the renovation was to install a new HVAC system in the library. The new HVAC system proved to be more burdensome than originally expected. The report continues:
Now, according to BPL, DDC plans to wrap up in November 2025, at which point BPL will take over for some additional sprucing up — pushing the reopening date to summer 2026.
As I noted, I can confirm that the permanent Carroll Gardens Library (there is a temporary library in neighboring Cobble Hill) has not yet re-opened. We will see if the new summer 2026 estimate turns out to be accurate.
Bike Lanes and D’Amico
I recently wrote about ordering Copper Moon’s “White Christmas Blend” coffee beans. In my first article (I noted the arrival of the beans in a second article and can now confirm it is good), I noted that I usually buy my coffee beans at D’Amico in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (which has its own White Christmas blend). Earlier today, I read a November 11 NY1 report titled Division grows in Carroll Gardens over new Court Street bike lane. As the headline suggests, the report is on a {very stupid for reasons noted in the report, signed person who has seen it first-hand) bike lane running along a largely commercial stretch of Court Street in Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens. The article includes a quote from Joan D’Amico, the owner of D’Amico, complaining that regular customers have nowhere to part and business has been down 10% to 20% since New York City’s bike lobby rode roughshod over another neighborhood (I may have added the last part).