My Friend’s Stuffed Bird Rescue
Yesterday (March 16, 2026), I published an article about a BLOB DYLAN tag in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on September 28, 2025. To be precise, I took two photographs of the BLOB DYLAN tag in question at 15:40:45 and 15:40:46 that afternoon. I was out with a friend that day. Just over one hour after I captured the BLOB DYLAN tag, we happened upon a sad, solitary, and lonely stuffed bird on the ground. My friend thought this was sad. Perhaps inspired by my tales of great heroism, she picked up the stuffed bird and placed it on the poll base.
She was satisfied with her work. I was in awe of her heroism. We crossed the street. When we were about half-way down the next block, she began interrogating me about why I had not photographed the stuffed bird she had rescued, specifically referencing that I had stopped (editor’s note: for 5-10 seconds) to photograph BLOB DYLAN. She demanded to know whether her great deeds were less important or worthy of being shared than BLOB grafitti. In response, I told her that I would go back and photograph the stuffed bird. She tried to stop me, insisting that she was joking when she accused me of neglecting her heroic deeds due to my being too focused on documenting BLOB DYLAN. But this could not stand. Firstly, it was in fact a heroic story that deserved to be told. Secondly, I knew that I would not hear the end of it if I did not go back to photograph the stuffed bird.
My friend’s heroism has now been documented in the pages of The New Leaf Journal. She, like me, is now a hero. If you are wondering why she became a hero when I published proof of her heroism and told you about it and not when she did the heroic deed, remember that the most important part of being a hero is telling everyone about your heroism. Let us addend: It counts if you have someone else tell the world about your heroism.
(Heroism aside: That is an adorable stuffed bird. I hope against hope the parents of the owner returned to retrieve it.)
I am sure that readers will want to know where this great act of heroism was committed. I unfortunately failed to document the location of the BLOB DYLAN tag I shared in my previous post. Did I fail again? Rest assured: I only half-failed.
I captured one-half of the intersection. It was on South 3rd Street in Brooklyn. South 3rd and what? Unfortunately, we cannot see the other street sign, so the “and what” is a mystery. However, South 3rd is relatively short, so there are only limited possibilities.
The Related Origin of My Humorous Heroism Series
My heroism story has come full circle. I first covered “heroism” in a Justin and Justina dialogue titled The Dangers of Heroism, which I published on October 17, 2020. That article was inspired by a story involving the same friend from the 2014 area. It had snowed heavily in Brooklyn. The curb at one cross-walk was covered in snow. Instead of going around the snow, she tried to climb over the snow bank. She wobbled, so I grabbed her for a second to keep her from falling. As she made it over the snow bank, I realized that my right foot was on a patch of ice. By “realized,” I mean I hit the ground because my right foot came out from under me. I suffered a bruised shoulder and arm (the pain went away after about three days), a hole in my paints around my knee, and a bloody scrape on my hand (I did not notice the bleeding until about 20-25 minutes later when we sat down at a café). I had a scar on my hand for a good while, and I used that to remind her of my heroism. But suffice to say, my first Justin and Justina dialogue was inspired by the set-up wherein Justin did something heroic but then suffered an injury while contemplating his heroism.
(Do note however that my Justin and Justina dialogues are inspired by many sources, and the dramatic personae are not based solely on any single real person. For example, Justin references a “pitching injury” in the heroism dialogue which eventually became its own dialogue. The pitching injury dialogue is based on a real story, but Justin was not me, there was no injury, and there was no “Justina” involved in the inspirational event or after the fact.)
By the Way I Rescue Trees
I was reminded that I needed to clear this story (and, by extension, the BLOB DYLAN article) from my backlog because I did another act of heroism on February 13, 2026. My friend and I were walking in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO. There was a small potted evergreen-type bush or tree (somewhere in the 4-5 foot tall area) that had fallen over in front of a building. People were practically stepping over it. Right before we got to the tree, a woman and her dog walked around it. Without a moment’s hesitation, I reached down and righted the tree just as effortlessly as I had rescued a fallen trash can in Gowanus back in October 2020. My friend was impressed. Since my heroism was acknowledged, I really did not need to tell you about it. But I know that readers of The New Leaf Journal enjoy bragging to their friends that they read the work of a bona fide hero, so I share it for your sake.
Come to think of it, I have one more fallen plant heroism story to share with you. A few months ago (I want to say August, but in theory could have been anytime in the August-October range), I was walking up Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights in the late afternoon. For reference, I covered Love Lane in an article about a free desk in close proximity to my heroic deed. There, like in DUMBO on February 13, I saw a fallen decorative evergreen of a similar size to the one I noted above. In this case the rescue was complicated by the fact that the sidewalk on Love Lane is narrow and on this side of the street it is slanted down toward the street. But no matter, I righted the tree. Now I was out alone on this walk,but when I looked to my left a man across the street who had witnessed my heroism gave me a thumbs up. I returned the gesture. My heroism was acknowledged. But once again, I share it for the benefit and betterment of my audience.
Heroic Conclusion
Winter 2026 is winding down. My Winter 2026 Season Project is to clear articles from my to-do list. While I plan to continue that project into April, the story of my friend’s heroic deed could not wait. While I was in the area, I shared three hitherto unshared stories of my own, one of which I subtly previewed in my prior heroism article. While I share all these stories in jest and in the specious spirit of announcing mundane heroic deeds, I like to think there is a little moral. Many people could have picked up the kawaii stuffed baby toy like my friend did or righted the fallen decorative trees like I did, and many people evidently decided it was not worth the 5-10 seconds of effort. But New Leaf Journal writers and readers are a different sort. If you read this article, let it inspire you to look for opportunities to be a hero. Just make sure to tell all your friends and family about it after the fact.
