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The Don Quixote of Brooklyn, Tilting at Plastic Bags
His quest? To remove garbage from the branches of trees throughout our fair city.
Taylor Mali and his Snatchelator.Credit.Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times
By Gabriel Cohen
Jan. 7, 2021
Captain Ahab hurled his harpoon at the Great White Whale. Don Quixote tilted at windmills with his lance. Taylor Mali, a poet in Brooklyn, has become known for wielding a long and pointy weapon at city treetops.
His quest began two years ago, after his wife, Rachel, looked upon the Bradford pear tree out the window of their Carroll Gardens apartment. She found her view marred by a plastic deli bag caught in its bare branches. Dutifully, Mr. Mali went to the Home Depot and bought a yellow metal painter’s pole that could extend to 21 feet. Within minutes of his return, he had managed to tug down the trash and earn some husbandly karma.