Did you catch the 60 Minutes interview with the Hero on the Hudson? Very absorbing, what with new details from US Airways’ Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and his crew.

But what interested me even more were some behind-the-scene details, that we didn’t learn from the interview – that I present to you now (and thanks, Gawker).

• Heroic Feat #1: Our hero kindly granted an interview with a high school kid before the CBS show – and believe me, news shows don’t like getting scooped by anyone – even a kid. But clearly the Capt. wants to “save journalism”
• Heroic Feat #2: After the crash, Our Hero went to the trouble of calling his local library to ask for an extension on a book he’d taken out – because it was in the hold of his sunken plane. Tell me honestly – would you bother? Naturally, the book was about “professional ethics”

This makes sense: the NTSB is examining the black boxes from US Airways Flight 1549 – the one where the plane crash landed in the Hudson earlier this month. And this makes sense, too: the sleuths at the Smithsonian are getting a feather found on one of the plane’s wings – so they can ID the birds believed to have been sucked into the engines.

And why not: the Smithsonian Institution (which is actually a group of 19 different museums) has a collection of 620,000 bird samples – including feathers. And they’ve been collecting them long before there were airplanes – contributors include Charles Darwin and Theodore Roosevelt.

And if the Smithsonian can’t ID the birds in question — via feather –museum officials say they have an avian DNA database that should do the trick.

Personal aside: if you ever get a chance to see the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, do not pass it up. Actually, don’t pass up a chance to see any of these museums.