Relative Something

If you are even a vague fan of actor/comedian Martin Short, I highly recommend the documentary, “Marty, Life is Short,” now streaming on Netflix. What a wealth of home movies they had to work with for this chronicle of his life and career. And what a treasured variety of other successful, hilarious actors and comedians he has maintained a friendship with throughout so many years of home movie-making.

At the risk of revealing a spoiler, there is a gem of a scene that I find priceless and worth the viewing, even if you hesitate to sit through a review of someone’s life. Martin, as his character, Ed Grimley, and Tom Hanks, performing as the character, Forest Gump, reenact a moment from the movie, “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.”

It doesn’t get any better than that. I must say.

I wasn’t up to anything funny yesterday. Wielding a string trimmer, I did a 2-battery shift in the woods, clearing trails.

While trying to watch videos on YouTube, I was forced to wait through an ad for an aftermarket attachment for string trimmers that replaces the plastic line with sections of twisted metal wire. Everything about it radiated “gimmick,” but it did trigger a lightbulb moment where I suddenly became aware of how much microplastic debris we must be creating with our trimmer use.

The ad came across as being “too good to be true” and left me wishing I could see how long the metal lasts and what they look like after hours of use. I’m always interested in reducing our use of plastic, especially in this case, where the spinning plastic line is getting constantly vaporized into microscopic shrapnel.

I hate falling for these kinds of product pitches, but I will admit to being in the target audience they are attempting to seduce.

If anyone reading has seen or used a replacement cutting head of twisted steel cables for string trimmers, I’d love to learn from your experience, good or bad.

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