Sunday, December 22, 2013

A Sting-Along For The Holidays


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Hey, readers! The Broo's "November BHM," Scott Sonnon, found his way to my blogpost and linked it on his facebook page! So lemme take a minute here and pay tribute to another celebrity whose art I've loved and whose actions I've admired my entire adult life. Maybe he'll find his way over to my blog, too.

Hello Sting. Remember me?

Of course, I'm kidding. I just wanted to take a festive moment to share Sting's Christmas album, which isn't very well known among non-hardcore fans. Most everyone on the planet is familiar with at least one of Sting's solo or Police songs, and he has millions of admirers. But, I feel that the music produced by him over the years has particularly mirrored the events in my life and captured my life-experiences in a serendipitous timely manner. Each album he released over the years seemed like a personal musical gift that picked up where the previous soundtrack (of my life) left off. From love gone bad and breakup songs, to political messages and religion. This parallelism continued to the point that soon after my son was born in August 2009, Sting released his first "Christmas" and lullaby album, If On A Winter's Night.  Just like that, out of the blue, after 30+ years, he produced a lullaby album right when my son was born! I once ran into Sting at a club in Beirut after meeting him the night before post-concert. I asked him jokingly, "are you following me around?" He will never know how much I meant it!

I remember being home with my infant son in his first winter of life with this album often playing in the background, and we've enjoyed it every holiday season since. A favorite song on that record is "Soul Cake," which my son also has a fondness of, probably because I used to dance with him in the carrier to it's music when he was my infant soul cake! The album is truly a masterpiece and captures the magical character of the winter season.  The compositions in this record further prove that Sting is not just a popular musician, he is a serious and dedicated  artist with an open heart and a wide-open spirit for the breath of life. If you're tired of the same old Christmas music you have, you might want to add this one to your collection.

I've met Sting on several occasions (though I'm sure he still doesn't know who I am) from concerts in Beirut to fundraisers for Arab-Americans in Washington DC. He is truly a remarkable human being, (but not as remarkable and understanding of my 'Sting thing' as my amazing husband, who some say has a resemblance to the man). But what makes me such a huge fan, is the added admiration I have for him on many other levels aside from his musicianship --yoga, pro-marijuana legalization, anti-war messages, and support for Palestinian kids, for starters.

As I listen to these songs again this year, I want to wish all ye wonderful Broo readers health, happiness, love, peace of mind, and much much soul cake throughout the season!


As for us, we'll be moving to a new place in the new year, so expect the Broo to get a little more quiet until we move into our new hOMe.


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Crochet Bits: Brooversible Sweaters


I present to you two broo-versible sweaters I recently made for my son from scrap and left-over yarn. They are not reversible in the sense that they can be worn on the inside out, as "reversible" clothing items usually are. These sweaters have no front nor back, so they can be worn with either color facing forward.

Again, T-shape, basic stitches, and easy as 1, 2, 3. Click on each image to enlarge.

Sweater #1

Brown Side


Blue Side

Sweater #2

Green Side
 Orange Side

Stay colorful...

I Don't < 3 NYC



Now that the flu vaccine has been rendered not only useless, but also harmful to consumers, the drug companies have nowhere else to turn but to their lobby-driven comrades in government to help them push their poison onto the youngest and most defenseless American citizens in order to make more money and stay in business.

If you haven't heard already, Nanny Bloomberg's city has voted to require ongoing flu vaccines for babies and children as young as six months old who are enrolled in city-licensed daycare centers and preschools. Every mainstream media article I've read on this news topic quoted officials who cited flawed statistics and mad science driven by propaganda. One indisputable fact is that the more we vaccinate, the more we damage our immune system over time. So New York wants to start them wee young, eh? Give them another "Head Start"--on the fast track to illness.

The Health Department is either selectively ignorant or guilty of outright lies when is states, “This mandate will help protect the health of young children, while reducing the spread of influenza in New York City.” There is absolutely no proof of this nonsense. 

When will this trending assault on the health freedom of Americans be stopped? When will medical dishonesty be stopped?

I want to first see the children and grandchildren of every government and medical official who approved this mandate in line for a jab of the mercury, antifreeze, phenol, thimerosal, formaldehyde, animal blood and viruses soup, before I'll agree to give it to my child.

This story sure cut short my high from the recent health and child freedom victory of the Hershbergers!

But I'm staying...hopeful.




Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Got Milk? It Gets worse.

In the recent blog post, Got Milk?," I told you about the developmental damage at risk with the iPad bouncy chair, made by Fisher-Crime, but I missed the iPotty!! I am not making this up, folks.

Can you imagine the additional butt deformations that will come out of this one?


What's next...baby Google glasses while babies sleep?

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December BHM: Anna and Andy Hershberger




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Beautiful Humans of the Month (BHM)

The Amish couple, Anna and Andy Hershberger, scored a huge victory for every American parent this month.  I wrote about them recently because I was concerned that theirs was a horrible example of the over-reach of government when it comes to parental rights and health freedom.

After an Ohio court ordered that 10-year-old Sarah forcefully receive chemotherapy (which was making her suffer more) and transferred her guardianship to a hospital nurse, her parents took her and fled the country. They found alternative therapies for their daughter's treatment and apparently, "the cancer is receding, and she is in excellent physical condition." The nurse resigned guardianship of Sarah, and now the Hershberger's are getting ready to come home. 

Here's the whole story.

This is also a Brootal loss for the chemotherapy-pushers. As thousands of people like the Hershbergers have proved, and are proving, there are other therapies out there that actually work without harming the patient. I hope that someday the Hershbergers will tell us what therapies they chose.

Stay Troo..(yes, "tuned" isn't working anymore, TS)















Monday, December 9, 2013

Got Milk?

All this kid is missing is a bottle of scotch, some cigarettes, and he or she will be on a speed train to early mental destruction and death.

I can't wrap my head around this story, folks The APA is "worried" and "weary?" They should be up in arms if they knew anything about the business of growing babies! Are they afraid to upset Fisher-Price with their cautious words? This iPad bouncy chair by Fisher-Price should be as illegal as heroin! ...Or come with a danger warning like cigarettes. In my eyes, this is no better than having babies stare at a loaded gun for entertainment!

Stay tuned? Never mind.


Not as good as the real world: Experts say toddlers belong in the real world, not the virtual one

Friday, December 6, 2013

These Are The Colorful Times

In the spirit of the season and leaving all politics and the Angelinas and Kims behind for now, this blog post will simply be a mixed update on some of the creative and not-so-creative "colorful" projects started and discussed in previous posts here on the Broo. Hope everyone had a grateful Thanksgiving and enjoying the festivities of the holiday season.  I regret not posting more frequently lately, but as you will see, my hands have been occupied.

On the crochet front:

Tea Cozies....and then there were three...and many admirers waiting for their garments to be made.


Then there was a birthday hat for Mayya. (actual Mayya wears it much more beautifully than my model here).


On Toe Color Therapy:

After getting a kick out of the rainbows, my son asked me to put planets on my toes, with specific instructions that Neptune should be on my second toe. This four-year-old is a huge fan of anything space or astronomy, so I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended) and paint the sun and the traditionally known nine planets in the solar system, one on each toe. As you can see, the results were pretty brutal. Can you guess the planets?


So you know what they say about not succeeding the first time. I decided to try again but to keep it simple, and just paint my son's favorite two planets on the big toenails, and on the rest of the toe nails paint nothing but star spots on top of the dark base.  Here are the results. Now can you guess the planets? 
(Excuse the remains of the spilled yellow and red nail polish on my feet.)

UPDATE: I got a compliment on my planetary pedicure the other day, in the middle of a jam-packed yoga class, from a male instructor! Apparently, yoga Toe Color Therapy is contagious and makes others smile, too.

On growing out the gray hair:

I finally got a good haircut to remove much of the tired colored hair I'm trying to get rid of. Of course, my hair stylist was aghast and tried to convince me not to let the gray grow out, but I stood my ground. I didn't do anything special with this cut. It's still long and very layered now, but the next cut will hopefully be short enough to be fully naturally colored. Right now, this is a hard (and sloooow) stage to be in, but to be honest, I'm not finding the "skunk" to be too offensive or unsightly. It's blending in an interesting way. I'm very excited about the gray peeking underneath!


And we end with some new holiday decorations:

As I've mentioned before, we don't live in a big space, so decorations are limited to a small tree and a scene drawn on the glass. Last year it was Santa. Here is the scene we painted on the sliding door this year. I used window markers, and drew it from the outside, so that it's less prone to damage from my son's wandering little hands on the inside. That way, he can also use the pens to draw anything he wants on the inside panels. I wipe it clean from the inside daily, so he can draw new images. This can keep him engaged for hours, giving me this kind of time to blog, for example.



It's wonderfully relaxing and therapeutic to work and play with color, even grey!

I hope you're staying cozy...