What These Guys Said

Life With a Cat

I'm warming up your chair for you. Thank me. I deserve a treat.

Obey me human servant!

I Hate When This Happens

I prefer to know as little as possible about actors/musicians/performers whose work I admire. There's this risk lurking in the background that learning something awful about them will then make the movie/album/routine somewhat diminished, that it will no longer bring me joy. I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill human foible type of thing, I'm talking about serious failure here. Case in point would be Kevin Spacey, who was outed in more ways than one this last week. He appears in two of my most favorite movies, Rocket Gibraltar and American Beauty. He is such a terrific actor! But I know my awareness that he has been accused by two young men, who were minors at the time, of being accosted by Spacey, will diminish my future enjoyment of these films. I know, it's a small price to pay. Anyone who has experienced sexual assault deserves to be heard and believed and their perpetrators should be punished. To add insult as well as injury to the victims, Spacey made a rather late-to-the-table and unsurprising announcement that he's gay while issuing a lackluster apology for his drunken behavior. This casts aspersions on the whole gay community. One of the earliest and still lingering stereotypes of gay men is that they are all child molesters even though it has been repeatedly proven to be false. It looks like Spacey is going to have a difficult time finding work since the allegations surfaced, though, and that seems fair to me. Netflix has suspended production on the current season of their series House of Cards, and will not release the film Gore that he produced and starred in. Shame on you, Kevin Spacey, on so many levels.

The Dopey Quiz Results Are In

Sis Martine used the abbreviated, Americanized version of our surname for this quiz, but I thought it would be more fun to use the original. I now feel as though my writing should be measurably more clever on a regular basis. As far as successful goes, are they saying that earlier McBroomes were good at creativity, passion, and courage or merely at procreation? Pardon me while I ponder this. With a full complement of creativity, passion, and courage, naturally.

Please, guess my age lower than  my calendar age, thank you. I am half Scandinavian, Norwegian to be specific, so the ethnic guess is at least in the ballpark. Though based on my vocabulary I'm pretty sure I haven't used Swedish on Facebook, not even with forays into swearing in foreign languages. I wouldn't be surprised if a little Swedish snuck across the border and into the geneological mix, but my Mom would have found this disturbing and most certainly would have denied it vehemently. I like the Queen designation, but think I'll stick with Goddess for now. And honestly, I rarely wear my tiara out in public.

Feel Your Feels Without Guilt

What I Believe

Nothing like an educated, open-minded, practicing Catholic to out those who hide behind the Bible without actually reading or understanding it. I'm not what you could call a Biblical scholar, but I have read the King James version, both old and new testaments, and the New Testament again in the Revised Standard Version. I'm baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith, but it never really took on me, I always had too many questions that couldn't be satisfactorily answered by, you must have faith, you must believe. For me, the more I read the Bible and developed a greater understanding of its context in history, the less I was able to consider it as the be all and end all as a basis for religious belief. Knowing that it has been selectively edited, often for political reasons, over the 2700 years of its existence*, and that it was originally written in three different languages** and has been translated into English with varying degrees of accuracy, has brought me to where I am now. I am an Agnostic, meaning that I don't believe any side has the full and complete knowledge of what happens to us when we die. I have never believed in the concept of eternal punishment, Hell, or eternal reward, Heaven, as being a valid explanation. I respect all people who have other beliefs because there are truly many paths to enlightenment. The thing I dislike the most about most organized religions is that they set up an Us vs Them scenario, we are the chosen and you are not. I believe that it is more important to treat each other well, to never resort to violence, to always practice kindness without condescension, to allow others to fail and forgive them and hope the same will be extended to me in return, to respect and care for this Earth we live on, than to adhere mindlessly to any religious doctrine. I believe we should love fearlessly and fiercely. And I am always open to have a conversation on why and what you believe. Because the more I know, the more I realize how little I know.  

* The Dead Sea Scrolls, which contain most of the books of the Hebrew Bible, date to 408 BC to 300 A.D. 

**Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic

Tummy Trouble

Now that the nasty whatever is in the past, or more precisely, has passed, what the heck did I eat that made my tummy so upset? The answer would be a no-brainer for the day after trick-or-treat if I were a ten year old, but there is nary a scrap of candy in the house. I am most happy to report that I am feeling much better and may still accomplish a thing or two today. Packing up the spooky decorations is first on the list, followed by kitchen clean-up. Maybe all I need now is a little lime-in-the-coconut.