amarante

For a variety of cultural reasons, swimming is a skill that many POC don't acquire. Part of it is economic as middle class kids typically get swimming lessons of some kind as a kid. We didn't grow up with backyard pools but I did go to a day camp which had Red Cross lessons - I remember getting my "Tadpole" button which signified some level of ability. Suburban schools in more affluent areas often have better recreational stuff like an indoor pool and swimming might be part of the physical ed requirements. I went to school in an old high school building with no pool but oddly when I got to college there was a swimming test you had to take as a freshman and if you couldn't tread water and swim the length of the pool you had to do a semester of swimming. PE was a requirement - four semesters of PE of your choice. Some cities have municipal pools but those are very crowded and not necessarily where parents send their kids. ETA - I found this very sad statistic illustrating the ramifications of low rates of swimming among POC. Not that Caucasian children don't drown sadly in pools as well Between 2005 and 2009, the fatal unintentional drowning rate for African Americans was significantly higher than that of whites across all ages. The disparity is widest among children 5-14 years old. The fatal drowning rate of African American children ages 5-14 is almost three times that of white children in the same age range. The disparity is most pronounced in swimming pools; African American children drown in swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than those of whites. Also hair is a potential issue for many WOC because getting hair wet is more of a potential issue than for many Caucasian women. Obviously hair type varies but hair exposed to chlorine needs to be washed because it is damaging and it is generally easier for Caucasian hair to be wash and wear after it is immersed in a pool ETA Hulu and OWN just dropped a documentary featuring Oprah and other WOC. The subject is the history and cultural significance of black hair care ETA Further - Oddly the Talmud (which is an adjunct to the Old Testament for Jews) requires that a father teach his son to swim and teach him a trade. The trade seems self explanatory but the specific requirement to learn to swim seems strange as this requirements is at least a thousand years old and so far predates any swimming pools although there must have been lakes and rivers.

Ha - Reefer Madness. I watched that one day with my grandmother after I had smoked some reefer. I don't know where Link went to school - I am older than he is and I dropped acid in high school - and nobody I knew attempted to fly or had anything other than spectacular visual effects and thought they had uncovered the grand secrets of the universe. The whole Zoila thing is I suspect a plot device to explain why Meredith will be not appearing in episodes for the rest of the season. The whole Zoila plot line is ridiculous. She is intellectually gifted - why would that necessarily cause anxiety. It is such a myth that people who are smart are somehow mentally impacted. The issue is only if an intellectually gifted child is not recognized as such and is in a learning environment where they are bored. However, you go to a school with smart kids and the problem is solved because you are challenged and you are with other kids who are on your intellectual level. Most large school systems have a school like that especially if you are a rich doctor and can afford the best private school. Many of those have the ability to structure classes so that a child is with their social peers but still able to take whatever classes are necessary for their level - even college level if necessary or very esoteric specialized stuff. Ask me how I know as I went to Hunter High in Manhattan which is a public school for gifted kids.

Popcorn ceilings were done because they were cheaper and didn't require as much skill as a smooth ceiling. Most popcorn ceilings from homes built prior to the 1980's do contain asbestos because asbestos was commonly used in construction until it was banned. My ceilings had asbestos. Old vinyl tiles also commonly had asbestos Asbestos is fine as long as it remains intact and isn't disturbed but is a huge health hazard when disturbed so no one should remove a ceiling without having it tested for asbestos. And of course beyond health risk to yourself and workers, you are also creating an ecological hazard since asbestos should be sent to a hazmat site where it can't pollute versus a standard trash facility. My ceiling now looks perfect although I had to pay to have what was called "skim coat" so that it is smooth. The real expense was hiring a licensed asbestos removal company as that cost about $5 per square foot for removal plus tests which are done before and after.

They are objectively awful. I had a popcorn ceiling and got rid of it when I remodeled and you don’t realize how much it influences the look of a room even if you aren’t conscious of it. The smooth ceilings are lighter and brighter looking and the room looks much better. They are awful dust catchers and not as clean as a smooth ceiling. If you paint them it is impossible to remove. Also most of them have asbestos so removing them has to be done by a licensed hazmat company.

So bottom line - inquiring minds want to know whether Rinna will go the way of Vicki or whether she is viewed as someone you love to hate. I get asked to do BRAVO online surveys in which they ask lot of questions about the Housewives shows - who do you want to see more or or less or the same; whose side were you on. One of the questions is whether a particular cast member is someone you love to hate. Personally for me, Rinna has been someone I hate to hate - I just don't want to see her on the television screen at all. I generally save all shows to DVR so I can avoid ads but increasingly with the BH franchise, I was fast forwarding lots of stuff because it was so uncomfortable to watch - and of course some because it was boring. I just deleted a LOT of the BH episodes which I hadn't watched or watched only a small portion of because I realized I would never want to actually watch Diana or Rinna. I stopped watching the NY franchise last season when all of the interactions became too much - and that was cancelled thankfully. Sad because it used to be my favorite franchise - even when someone like Lu was too much she was much fun to watch.

Old age and missing topical pop references. I remember years ago going to The Big Chill with my parents and their not realizing the organ was playing You Can't Always Get What You Want at the funeral 🤣 Same as when I am getting a pedicure and don't recognize various *famous* people in the gossip mags - and realize I don't care. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Why was SJP singled out as needing to be censored? Never saw the movie but aren't they all witches?

I don't know or frankly even care exactly what was said that night. Kathy got angry - probably was a bit drunk and tired - she had a hissy fit in which she probably did say some less than nice things about people including Kyle. I think Rinna (and Erika) took this as an opportunity to blow up the incident for a variety of reasons including Rinna wanting a dramatic storyline; Erika wanting to change the narrative; possible jealousy of Kathy for being rich and a fan favorite up to that point. Who knows? Kyle placed herself in the middle by not supporting Kathy when Rinna chose to go down the road she did - blowing up the incident - using social media to make sure the incident got maximum exposure. It is Kyle's failure to shut Rinna down immediately that is the root of the problem. Obviously the sisters have a complicated relationship - I actually was on Kyle's side in Season 1 when there was the blow up in the limo because I do think it was the last straw after having emotionally and financially supported Kim all those years. However there just was no excuse for Kyle failing to clearly and immediately supported Kathy and shut Rinna down immediately instead of making herself to be a martyr of some kind because she was being *forced* to choose between loyalty to her Kathy and to the demon-Rinna.

Is Erika that stupid or does she think the audience is. It is redundant to state you are appealing for legal reasons. An appeal is by definition based on legalities and the interpretation of the law. You don’t appeal for illegal rrasons It is legal word salad much like her stating that a dismissal without prejudice was a win for her. 🤷‍♀️ Erika is appealing in an attempt to stave off inevitable and to wear the opposition out by making them spend huge sums to fight her motions.

As soon as she talked about them having sex twice a day every day I knew she was involved. This seems to be a classic ploy when wives kill their husbands. There is a Forensic File in which the wife shot the husband in the middle of the night and also mentioned they had sex but that his snoring kept her awake which is why she was sleeping in the other bedroom and hadn't heard the shots. 🤣🤣 While some of the women who have lured men into killing on their behalf aren't drop dead gorgeous, I think most of them are above average looks as compared to what other women in their locations probably look like - these generally aren't areas in which there are lots of trophy type wives. But also once you have a basic level of "attractiveness" it is much more about the ability to manipulate because you are sociopathic and finding someone whose psychological vulnerability you recognize and play upon. I would suspect that the predator women attempt to lure other men into their trap who don't take the bait and then there is the perfect storm of predator and vulnerable prey. I would think the analogy are women who have a pattern of being with men who are abusive or control freaks - many women would break off at the first red flag of inappropriate abuse or jealousy not to mention if there was ever a hint of physical abuse. And yet there are women who ignore these signs and wind up in abusive relationships or having their deaths or mysterious disappearances on Deadline.

I am totally not an expert on modern country music - My tastes are eclectic and in terms of country are more Gram Parsons or even older like blue grass. The music they use sounds like very bland rock from 20 years ago - it is just weird that there is nothing country about it in terms of its sound. I know that Shania Twain created a lot of press years ago when she had Mutt Lange produce her album and it was more rocker than traditional lady country - but for the most part whenever I hear new country at this point it just sounds like fungible rock. Speaking as a non-expert the music on Nashville was so much better. Perhaps it is because the music supervisor actually had worked in Nashville for 20 years and so had a real love and understanding of country music and its roots. The credited music supervisor has a lot of music credits but absolutely nothing indicating any background or expertise in music. I worked for many years at record companies and there certainly are ways to get interesting music. The record companies and publishers have people whose job it is to place songs in television shows because it is such good promotional opportunity. If you want to license an actual track it can get more problematic since there are artist rights and royalties involved but for a show like this they don't need actual tracks the way a show like Grey's Anatomy (which uses a lot of music) does. I googled briefly Article on Nashville Music Supervisor https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/music/2017/03/25/anastasia-brown-has-career-defining-role-picking-music-shack/99457988/ Article on Amanda Krieg Thomas who appears to be the main music supervisor for Monarch with a list of her credits. Extensive credits but none showing any love or even familiarity with country whether old, new or in between. I don't remember the specific shows but as I recall there have been some shows or movies in which the choice of music has been stellar and the producers hired someone who was known for their expertise and taste and love of the genre - the antithesis of Amanda Krieg Thomas who is credited with music supervision for Monarch https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/monarch-music-supervisor-fox-country-covers-soundtrack-1235385186/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3588896/

Yes - totally agree as they would indeed use plausible deniability as they have with other issues that needed to be shoved under the rug. However I don't think that body shaming would ever rise to the level of BRAVO giving a rat's ass about. Even death threats have not elicited a strong response from BRAVO but just the most tepid of "that is not nice" from Andy on the BH reunion recently.

I am pretty dedicated to Housewives and there is only so much time in the day so HW don't seem to have the queens. And for whatever reason there don't seem to be the amount of "gay husbands" that were on in the early days. I am thinking of Atlanta which had Dwight and the other guy who sang - can't remember his name who made very regular appearances. I didn't mind them at all as I thought they were both excellent supporting cast members - just commenting that there doesn't seem to be the equivalent gay male friends recently. Teaching housewives to twerk or use the stripper pole also should go. Anything having to do with crystals; bowls that you hit with a gong or guided meditation or any form of yoga including on a surf board or with goats

You are much kinder than I am because I don't think the goal of BRAVO or the producers is to "celebrate" women in any way, shape or form. I don't find the show aspirational and the producers relish showing the wives in the worst possible light. I don't think that any member of production said Yes - we will have a lingerie party to show that we aren't "sizist". I mean most of the women on every franchise are thin or even verging on anorexic - Heather is a complete outlier in terms of size. The WOC tend to be a bit larger than the Caucasian women (although not fat) but that is partially because culturally that extreme slenderness is not seen as the epitome of female body shape. There are obviously some very slender WOC on these various shows like Candiace but they tend to be exceptions and voluptuousness is much more the ideal. Many of them are incredibly fit like Sherree Whitfield but still not built like a toothpick.

I agree as lingerie parties as well as mediums, roaring 20 themes and a host of other "themes" should be banned Who is the audience for seeing women in lingerie - without being sexist I would think the housewives audience are women and gay men - and neither of them are watching to see women's tits and asses. I do have to give props to Heather for being willing to display her body in scanty lingerie for posterity. I don't think her figure is terrible FWIW but it obviously is the size in which the internet trolls can be cruel so kudooze to quote Ramona.

This show has become almost unwatchable. I am not buying Whitney's trauma which conveniently surfaced just in time for filming. And did the producers ask the women to be completely stupid regarding plea deals and flipping someone. Has anyone who has watched any kind of television or movie that oblivious regarding a plea deal? Yes Meredith is a lawyer but it doesn't require three years of law school - just a few hours of watching Law & Order or the equivalent . And it is amazing that Jen Shah didn't plead earlier but chose to amass large legal fees in a futile action. As Meredith said, there is over a 90% conviction rate in the Southern District because they don't bring a case to trial frivolously. And with a white color crime ring that they have been investigating for years, they have all of the paperwork in place - it's not like a street crime where you are depending on witnesses or circumstantial evidence.

And it was immediately refilled since it had been dismissed in Chicago for lack of jurisdiction and the appropriate venue was California.

I don't know about alcohol but back in the day I worked at a record company and there were recreational bowls of coke for A&R, marketing and other creative executives. I understand why Lim is angry about the outcome as anger will still be strong after only 3 months of paralysis. I don't understand the ambiguity of other doctor second guessing the medical decision - no one seems to mention that her life would have significantly been shortened through the other procedure and I would imagine might have compromised the quality of life in some way.

The messages are written by humans who have a particular agenda - the bots are a way of sending massive numbers of these messages.

Also Jackson had significant civil liability so he didn't "beat" that portion nor did he win in the court of public opinion because I don't think anyone with half a brain doesn't think he was a pedophile who exploited young boys - it's well documented. Erika isn't in danger of criminal liability - she is fighting tooth and nail to avoid having to repay the stolen money and the items, like the earrings, that were bought with the stolen money. The boys who were molested - or at least many of them received multi-million dollar settlements. I think many parents would have a moral quandary if their child were molested - do you agree to take $10 million and go away quietly - an amount that is life changing for your middle class kid or do you attempt to bring charges against a powerful super star who has all the resources in the world to hire lawyers to beat the rap (no pun intended). FWIW "beating the rap" really implies that the person actually committed the crime but somehow was able to "beat the charges" because of legal ploys or some other factor having nothing to do with guilt or innocence. OJ Simpson also "beat the rap".

I don't think we are disagreeing since I stated that I thought both of their families were probably upper middle class/professional level. With that kind of income most families of whatever background do have enough to pay for their kids education; private school and help with down payments plus generally have Intervivos Trusts set up. However there is nothing in the background of these families to lead me to believe that they have a huge quantity of wealth - like $100 million or so. I have a friend with this kind of wealth and it is on a completely different level than my friends who are upper middle class professionals and have nice assets of stock or real estate. The adult kids of the wealthy have their own enormous trust funds and don't have to work to support a luxurious lifestyle. The kids from upper middle class professional families have a great head start in life - have a cushion that would prevent them from falling through the cracks but still have to work. Robyn (for example) might not have had to live out of a car when they lost their wealth but I also didn't get the sense that her parents bought her a million dollar home and were providing her with a huge income so that she could continue to live the high life. I am not sure what ethnicity has to do with anything either - there are many people of all ethnicities who have several million dollar in assets but are the proverbial millionaires next door who are driving Honda Accords and living in a middle class homes.

Doesn't seem weird to me because this is a very straight forward by the book procedural for the most part. What is there to discuss as there isn't that much depth or nuance. This isn't a show like Succession which has nuances or even a truly trashfastic show like one of the Housewives show or Kardashians. Truly what is there to discuss about most of the episodes? Also I imagine that the show skews older in terms of demographics as much of the CBS programming does and that is the demographic that is probably least likely to go online to discuss shows.

I think these women have a "gentleman's agreement" that certain things they discuss off camera are not to be brought up on camera. That is why Dorit attempted the long winded explanation of why she brought it up since she thought that since Crystal had brought up her ED it was now fair game even though she had learned about it in a "private" conversation. However, I think Dorit was tone deaf as discussing that one has an eating disorder is not necessarily the same as discussing that one pukes every day which is what Crystal was trying to explain. The details of it were not necessary and Dorit brought them up only for shock value.

I am not even understanding how the suicide is even an issue. Sarandon was physically completely capable of opening a pill bottle and taking as many pills as necessary. Assisted suicide cases are problematic when the person lacks the physical ability to actually take the pills. Nikki's fingerprints on the bottle are meaningless as she could have just said she brought the pill bottle to her mother from the bathroom or purse or drawer because her mother asked her to.

Thanks for the background. FWIW Count Dracula in the Bram Stoker novel is much more complex and nuanced than the movie treatment although the movie is a real hoot if you have any kind of affection for old movies.