Posts Tagged ‘recommendation’
Too Good
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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World Within
I offer my highest recommendation for all who have the opportunity to view PBS programs to seek out Human: The World Within.
Cyndie and I will often default to our local PBS channel when we turn on our television, regardless of whether we know what is going to be on at any given time. The first time we stumbled on an episode of ‘Human,’ I assumed it was a one-time stand-alone program. It was very interesting, but I was simultaneously distracted by other work I was doing on my computer, and I didn’t give it my full attention.
A week later, we came upon the next episode and I found myself unable to turn away.
By last night’s episode 5, Cyndie had set an alarm to remind us when the program was going to be on.
The combination of superb animation showing blood cells flowing or electric signals jumping synapses, plain-speaking expert commentary describing the hows and whys, and the incredibly specific topic of our bodily functions provides the classic result of being both informative and entertaining. I lost count last night of how many times I verbalized exclamations of my wonder over some brilliant aspect of how the intricate details of our bodies function.
Take a deep-dive into the universe that’s inside each and every one of us, by exploring a shared biology that we often don’t take the time to appreciate, or understand. Heart, brain, eyes, blood, tears; “Human” uncovers not only the science behind how our bodies work, but how what’s inside powers every moment of what we do out in the world. Personal profiles of people from around the globe become entry points into deeper stories about how the body’s many systems function.
It feels a little strange to discover how fascinating our bodies are, while I go about most of my daily activities unaware of so much of it.
If you are able, pick an episode and check it out. Then, watch all the other episodes, too. There isn’t a single detail covered that doesn’t apply to every one of us somehow. It’s the human body, after all.
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Relative Something 