amarante

FWIW I have two DVR recorders from Spectrum. One is newer than the other but otherwise they should be getting identical cable information. However for HH (and no other shows) they record different programs although theoretically I have programmed for only "new" programs. I don't know why it does this - this isn't the same as the one hour repackages of older shows on Monday night.

Apartments in that building (3 bedroom) are about $3 million dollars. Whether that qualifies as luxury - at this point location near Lincoln Center is prime but obviously this isn't competing with the super luxurious new building where apartments sell for $10 or $20 million. When the building was built in 1964 it was built as a rental building for middle class people. It is the ubiquitous white "brick" building of that era. It is a massive building - 680 units. It is unclear when the building was converted to a Condominium - it could have been after 2009 (when the murder occurred) in which case the finishes in the bathroom would just have been standard relatively nice rental - that the bathroom had a separate shower and tub was already relatively upscale since such a large bathroom is not typical So they could have been renting in 2009 if prior to the conversion or didn't want to deal with the aggravation of remodeling when they moved in.

Generally - especially with the whole working from home thing - people can have home offices even if not zoned for commercial establishments like store front stores and restaurants. Generally it is for businesses like this woman's which don't have signage - don't attract significant number of people or cars etc. I live in a high rise condo which doesn't permit people to run businesses from their units. But no one objects to someone running their business from their unit - i.e. a lawyer or accountant who doesn't see many clients and doesn't advertise as a business to the public. Often having employees is an issue - i.e. having people coming every day for a full work day as that is much more of a commercial use that impacts other residents - or with OP would change the tenor of the neighborhood. I also thought the renovated older homes would have been a poor choice for a first time homeowner with tenant - although obviously the location in Jersey City is trendier. I think there is a train from Newark that gets to midtown fairly directly via Penn Station. And obviously having the large finished basement with separate entrance was a no-brainer. I would think that the actual value of having it was just as much as having an additional apartment. There was an episode which my DVR picked up last night - not sure if it was new but it was a Delaware couple who owned a food truck and wanted parking for the truck. They were also a delightful pair with realistic aspirations and they essentially liked all of the homes even though they weren't super trendy. However, they needed a basement room for their niece and NONE of the basements have window egresses which is super dangerous. I was surprised that the realtor didn't mention that/ I understand the concept of purchasing a home as a way of accumulating assets. For most people - of whatever race - it represents their most valuable asset when it comes time to retire. If you have paid down the mortgage, your living expenses are lower - you can obviously sell it and downsize and worst case scenario - you can get a reverse mortgage which enables you to stay in your home but have the benefit of the equity. However the specific term "generational wealth" seems to be much more prevalent among POC - at least on HH. I think it's great and I wonder if there are basic finance courses that are being taught in Black Churches or other similar community groups because it seems to targeted - at least on HH.

Vulture has a great recapped for this series (as some of the other housewives) I recommend this week's recap because of the recapper's explanation of how all of these ridiculous feuds and fights really have to do with bottom line considerations of salary and how fan base impacts that. It is my problem with a lot of the franchises where the women fight about ridiculous stuff and you know that it is code for stuff they can't discuss on camera. https://www.vulture.com/article/real-housewives-of-potomac-recap-season-7-episode-15-indecent-disclosure.html

Mia and Karen both were utterly ridiculous in their delusions. It must be exhausting to be around women who have such utterly absurd and inflated opinions of themselves. Of all the people who Wendy might be jealous of - an ex-stripper with a face deformed by too much bad plastic surgery and fillers married to an old unattractive man is the most ludicrous. I don't get the sense that Wendy would be jealous of anyone except someone like Michella Obama or the equivalent. And Karen insinuating that she is the object of lust. She is very well preserved and has had good plastic surgery but she is close to 60 and never had the same fresh faced beauty as Gizelle or Robyn had.

I am pretty sure it was a 48 Hours that did a recent update on the Melanie McGuire "Suitcase Killer". She is the Jersey wife who killed her husband - dismembered him and then tossed the three suitcases over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. There was a huge amount of circumstantial and forensic evidence - buying a gun with unusual bullets two days before he was shot - corpse had those unusual bullets; corpse was in the couple's matching suitcases; corpse was partially wrapped in a towel from the fertility center where she was employed as a nurse; EZ pass charges which she then had to come up with incredible excuses as to why she had driven to both Atlantic City and Chesapeake - others as well. They interviewed these two "forensic" experts who had a podcast in which they were trying to convince everyone that she was innocent - despite the massive body of evidence against her. This wasn't even a gray case. So I guess they do this because this whole niche of true crime podcasts in which a convicted person is found innocent are a thing?

I think the title on the previous show was Eyes Like Daddy or something similar.

I think it is because they want to drive viewers to sign up for Peacock - all of the broadcast networks (ABC/Hulu and CBS/Paramount+) are broadcasting premium stuff on their streaming networks. Some of it shows up later as think the Ultimate Girls Trip wound up being broadcast on BRAVO eventually. It's a good strategy because I signed up for Peacock for the UGT and have kept it. Even though I have DVR I will sometimes even watch the broadcast stuff on Peacock because it saves me from fast forwarding through the commercials on my DVR. So Nicole has thrown down the gauntlet and taken up the mantle of being a "real" Real Housewife. Admittedly I am judgmental and a bit of an elitist but Nicole certainly is leagues above someone who was married to someone famous - latched on to the Kardashians and now earns money by being somewhat of a sex worker. Larsa can spin it all she wants but she is a sex worker - you don't have to have physical sex in order to merit that classification.

There is absolutely nothing to prevent Jen Shah from doing an interview with anyone - including legitimate news reporters if she wants the real story out there. However she wouldn't be paid and no one is going to do an interview with her without providing context including probably interviews with the Department of Justice to explain the crime. As I posted above, while not perfect the Hulu documentary does an excellent job of explaining her crimes including interviews with a few of her victims. It was filmed before sentencing so it dangles a bit as there is no conclusion based on what we know. It is not secret how the reality shows operate. The producers do attempt to provide an arc based on what the women tell them is going on in their lives but it isn't scripted so how the women portray themselves is on them. Given the video that was filmed of Jen shrieking at her employees, I think that the *real* Jen Shah was portrayed on screen. None of the housewives with some possible exceptions are good enough actresses to be completely in control 100% of the time and present personas that are not like them at all.

FWIW the initial membership to one of the better country clubs in Los Angeles ranges from $185,000 to $275,000. The greens fees are $55 on weekdays and $75 on weekends. The one I am somewhat familiar with in Los Angeles requires you to provide a tax return as part of the application because they want members who donate a significant amount to charities - which is actually a nice way of enforcing philanthropy. There is also a significant monthly membership fee although I an not sure of the current amount.

Just wanted to clarify that I thought it was great - I had no problem with this rather unique way to earn a living. Some people upthread were questioning whether a religious person could be a mentalist or implying that in some way he was a con man. I just think he was putting on a fun show and not claiming that he was communicating with the dead or whatever. They seemed like a lovely family - just looking for a comfortable home. In perspective it is most likely in lieu of having a huge upfront country club fee so the $1000 monthly fee would be less expensive than someone not in that community joining the club and then also having monthly dues.

I found his website and as people have said he performs for corporate gatherings and also some specifically Jewish gatherings are in his list of events including fundraising type events, parties etc. I doubt he holds himself out to be anything other than a magician type of performer. My friend’s husband who is Jewish actually made money as a teenager performing as a magician for parties. He is now a lawyer but he would make an appearance at his kids’ birthday parties between Pin the Tail and Simon Says. 😂

Some Orthodox Jews have become much more stringent in how they interpret kosher. So having two sinks and two ovens and two dishwashers really makes life much easier in the same way as most people want at least two bathrooms in their home Can you survive without? Yes but everything is much more complicated in terms of keeping milk and meat cooking and utensils separate and making sure they aren’t treifed. My grandmother was an Orthodox Jew and had one sink and one oven. She had one stove. She baked butter cookies in the same oven that she cooked chicken - I don't know anyone of that generation of Orthodox Jews who had separate ovens or didn't use them for both meat and dairy. She had immigrated from Eastern Europe and I very much doubt anyone had two ovens back there - they were lucky if they had ONE indoor sink that ran cold water. The only stringency would have been to carry the cholent to the communal bakery on Friday night so it could be eaten the next day - the sheltl version of the crock pot :-). I think this Orthodox couple was a bit out of the box as they say. He would be family entertainment or clean corporate entertainment. Nobody is making raunchy jokes at the kind of gigs he would be working at.

I didn't think she was being mean - that was just their shtick - of course judging by the mother's suggestion of tchotchkes for the glass cabinets, I suspect I am just used to those kinds of mother daughter interactions. The maintenance is generally high in full service condos because of the services which require a lot of labor. Also the maintenance covered electricity which in Florida would be a huge amount just for air conditioning. The condo fee also covers insurance for the building as a condo owner only insures the contents of their individual unit.

I have a backlog of HHI episodes and I am starting to watch them. When you have 35 or so on the DVR it is really noticeable how there are some locations that have a lot of episodes - Costa Rica for one as I watched two episodes located there yesterday and Merida seems to be another. At any rate, according to the episode I watched which was a couple that was buying a home in the area, Costa Rica has the highest cost of living of any Latin American country and the area they are looking in is the most expensive. It has several good international schools plus a very good infrastructure and relatively stable government. The other show I watched was a couple who had $900,000 to purchase a home and even with that budget, it didn't get all that much as they wound up with a condo - relatively large but not waterfront or ocean view or super luxurious. This couple (plumber and teacher) said they had sold their house in Toronto after renovating it. He was a plumber so I suspect that he had some good construction skills as well so I bet they made a nice profit on the sale. They didn't strike me as having significant family money in terms of funding their life. Not to be classist but the children of extremely wealthy people generally don't become plumbers and not generally teachers as well. If the woman came from wealth and became a teacher out of passion I would assume she would have used that passion for some kind of volunteer work in Costa Rica with children rather than doing some kind of ridiculous social media.

Hulu has a great documentary on Jen Shah. All the best moments plus commentary from some pithy sources. Worth watching even if you know everything. 😂😂

I wonder if it also has to do with the Spanish custom of closing the shops for a long period in the middle of the day.

I remember when she claimed that she had spent $65,000 renovating the rental. Knowing Mia she was probably lying but if she actually did spend that money on a rental, she was a fiscal moron. While I don’t think renting a home is necessarily a sign if moral depravity, I do think that at a certain rent level, it becomes an incredibly stupid decision to spend $120,000 per year to rent a house in order to appear more affluent than one is. I suspect that the housewives are actually talking about someone fronting when they disparage housewives who are renting since the rentals are usually lavish and some of the owned homes were relatively modest.

Vulture (the cultural vertical by New York Magazine) has some excellent recappers. I think this "history" of the show is accurate and reflects both Charisse's casting of the first season as well as why she was let go Many moons ago, NBC Universal tried and failed to make a show based in Washington, D.C., courtesy of the infamous Salahis and their willingness to flout national security protocol to chase celebrity. A few years later, the network tried to start again in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, choosing the established upper-class African American social groups in Montgomery County, home of Jack and Jill of America chapters, cotillion classes, and debutante balls galore. Originally called Potomac Ensemble, NBC got to work casting, but no one with real money and influence wanted to be involved. But Charrisse Jackson Jordan, former NBA Wives Association Vice President and then-wife of NBA player and coach Eddie Jordan, gamely stepped up and reached out to her network of board members and charity participants in the greater Maryland and Washington area to help Bravo put together a cast that would make good television. This has always been the story behind how Real Housewives of Potomac came to be. Charrisse was the original center, like Mariah on Married to Medicine, who helped select cast members and identified the rhythms of the community. Different from Mariah, however, she never secured producer credit, nor did she ever make for good television. Charrisse never wanted to detail her personal life, knowing that Eddie wasn’t a big fan of the show. Her marriage fell apart, and she didn’t want to play out the particulars on camera. As a result, she was effectively written off the show without much fight from her end. https://www.vulture.com/article/real-housewives-of-potomac-recap-season-7-episode-14.html

Failure to act upon complaints of sexual harassment - you can google because this isn't part of what has been broadcast.

I guess Mia’s sole source of income now are her BRAVO checks As I posted, I think Mia’s Safeway comment was less about whether Safeway is déclassé and more implying that Mia never has to do such mundane tasks as grocery shopping. Like Jen Shah with multiple assistants who bought her tampons 😂😂

I don't know much about exactly how the casting was done but the first season seemed to focus on women who were of the black socioeconomic group that was involved with Jack and Jill of America and to a lesser extent the black female sororities. All of the women except Karen were college graduates. Karen was bragging about being married to the black Bill Gates which really had no basis of reality since her husband wasn't particularly wealthy - comfortable yes but that kind of comparison generally conjures up images of a fantastically wealthy individual who was a a visionary in the tech industry.

I thought Mia's remark about Safeway was her lame attempt to insult her by implying that Mia never did anything as lame as actually shopping for groceries so the actual grocery store wouldn't matter. I am in Los Angeles and there are different levels of supermarkets. There is certain stuff like produce or fish that I would never get at the "standard" stores because the quality is low but there is lots of stuff like milk or bread or packaged commercial brands which are the same wherever you shop. I really really really cannot stand Mia - I just can't stand the way she simpers - and simpers is actually the verb for her how she moves her face and body. And speaking of faces, her face is really hideous which I can snark on because it is hideous because of the awful plastic surgery she has had. There was a close up side view of her face and I just can't unsee her lips which look as if she has dinner plates inserted so they jut out unnaturally.

Any money she is paid would go towards restitution. I am not sure of the percentage that is taken from salary but she owes about $13 million dollars between forfeitures and restitution. She might also owe additional money under the so-called Son of Sam laws which require that all of the compensation paid for a criminal's "story" goes to the victims. Again not sure of how this applies to a Federal case that was tried in the Southern District

I think Shah was aware that Jen was doing illegal stuff - if his spidey senses weren't alerted that she and Stuart were being investigated by the FTC and having to answer questions - and then coaching them on responses - he is a fool and Coach isn't a fool - not to mention he is a lawyer. I do think that knowledge that your spouse is engaging in crimes doesn't make you guilty of the crime although it obviously shows that one's moral compass is not pointing in the right direction. I think the larger issue is whether Coach is civilly liable in terms of his assets also being subject to attempts to collect. As far as I know there is no reason that someone who was harmed by the scheme couldn't also sue Jen (and perhaps Coach) for their damages. The issue would seem to be the expense of collection since for most of the victims their actual losses aren't enough to make hiring a lawyer feasible. Of course perhaps a class action of some kind?