amarante

Physician loan provides better terms - no down payment and no PMI. Also your student debt isn't credited against you. It would make sense to buy since interest rates are extremely low. This is especially true of the situation where they need a mother in law suite since that is a significant savings for them. I wasn't really taking the statements about the MIL situation seriously but that might be because my grandmother was my nanny which enabled my mother to earn an advanced degree and then work without having any child care issues. Beyond the expense, most people trust their parents with their children more than any paid nanny. And the grandmother would be available for any kind of crazy hours the mother had to work. There was an entirely separate living situation with a separate kitchen which made that house the obvious choice. In my situation, I grew up in what was called a two-family house in Brooklyn and my grandmother lived in the downstairs apartment. There was never any friction because my grandmother was not in our apartment at night unless she was specifically visiting for some reason. I would suspect that would also be true of these HH since the MIL essentially had her own apartment - it even had a separate entrance.

His hurricane knowledge really was lacking. I don't live in a hurricane area but I know more than he did. Double pane windows are no protection against hurricane force winds. If there is a hurricane, you either need to board up your windows or put up your hurricane shutters. It is only if you actually have REAL hurricane windows that you don't need to do anything. The reason people go to the significant expense of installing true hurricane windows is so they don't have to deal with the hassle of putting up the shutters. Also you can be fairly significantly in land and still be at risk in a major hurricane area. Being close to water relates only to flooding from the actual water source flooding you but you are still in danger of having your house suffer significant damage including water damage from torrential rains. Obviously they needed a home with a mother in law suite because the mother will be living with them for a significant period of time. I wasn't particularly impressed by any of the choices and was a bit surprised at how pricey that area was. That island must be a very elite area to command that price given the significantly lower price for the third home which wasn't on the island. I wouldn't want to have to deal with that amount of baby gates - needing them for one staircase is manageable because you aren't constantly going up and down and having to deal with the gate but the split level home appears to need gates just to get from one section of the living area to another. I also think that drops in elevation are a hazard because people don't realize that there is a small drop as it doesn't register.

I had assumed she was delusional and wasn't really a UNICEF lawyer - why would she be stationed in Chicago and why would legal expertise be out in the field. I would assume a doctor with Medicine Without Borders or such would be more believable as a story line. At any rate a delusional "lawyer" would have been more believable. Any lawyer (or really anyone) with health insurance isn't going to be carted away to some kind of Bedlam Public Hospital. There are all kinds of facilities for those with insurance who would take this kind of low needs patient.

That is not uncommon in many metropolitan areas unless zoning prevents it since many cities are specifically zoned for one family homes only. In California there is a current fight against anti-zoning laws that would enable multi-family homes in areas that are currently zoned for single family homes. Many of my neighbors are impacted because they live on side streets which are zoned one family residential and which have a very distinctive non-urban feel - expect that they are close to all the modern conveniences of urban life. So many lovely neighborhoods will be destroyed as developed come in and build multi-family homes in areas that were single family. Also common - but less destructive to the feel of a neighborhood - is that older homes in desirable areas will be torn down and a larger more desirable home will replace it. For awhile awful homes out of character with the neighborhoods were being built but the trend is now for very traditional homes - albeit larger than the ones they replaced and with the kind of features and configuration that appeal to modern affluent buyers. Think Leave It To Beaver style homes but larger - but still very traditional in appearance.

As others have posted, I think she just wants them to experience the *normal* stuff that college kids do as opposed to the completely repressive lifestyle of Mormonism. There is quite a bit of difference between having sex indiscriminately with numerous sex partners and not remaining a virgin. Mormons are supposed to be chaste until marriage and I don't think most *normal* parents would expect their children to be celibate until they are married. Especially since most parents would hope that their children don't get married until they have some actual life experiences and imposing artificial celibacy on young adults is probably going to lead to marriages at an early age because having sex is pretty normal for young adults.

I agree. For the most part they resemble the most banal of the US homes. I wonder if the pandemic has impacted where they can shoot. I DVR HH International and HH and there are generally two HH International almost every night and there is only one HH - and often there are HH International shows broadcast on nights when there is no HH broadcast. The Mexican resort episodes are fairly boring as well unless the house hunters are spending a LOT of money so there is some house porn. But the generic low budget homes are of little interest to me.

Nobody is disputing that teachers need school supplies and that there are many poor children who can't afford even basic school supplies. What was ridiculous was that instead of utilizing her platform to organize something like a drive that would actually provide supplies and other funding, she had three women pack up a tiny amount of school supplies. It was less than a gesture - it was ludicrous and accomplished nothing. She could have had her children do it in 10 minutes and that might have actually been a genuine teaching moment for her children. It is analogous to her *plan* for a candle business or what she is stating is her being the next Martha Stewart. And yet, she theoretically hasn't even figured out what the cost of a candle would be - let alone ancillary and overhead costs to determine whether the business would be profitable. As *lazy* as Robyn is, her hats actually represent a viable business - not only does it fill a niche but she had to figure out costs including fulfillment costs and find a distributor to manufacture the hats. I am not an expert in baseball hats but I don't think her hats are something that you just buy in bulk on Alibaba whereas a candle is generic. You just get someone to slap your personal label on mass produced candles.

While I appreciate the gesture, the actual execution of it was ridiculous. She didn't need three people to pack up what appeared to be 20 bags of a few items. Most parents would just deposit that amount of stuff directly to the school or write a check for the teacher to cover expenses. The whole segment was performative rather than actually being a valid charitable platform.

At this point, it is all blind items but I have read it several times on various sites. Whether it is Wynn or some other sugar daddy - who know - but obviously someone is funding her current lifestyle because her BRAVO salary and her promotional side gigs wouldn't be enough. Her legal bills alone would be hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point and theoretically she left without anything.

Why not? 🤷‍♀️ It is all transactional to the, so it’s like applying for a new job for normal people. I find the dynamic of someone purchasing Erika to be more intriguing. Surely there are less vile, more beautiful, younger women to buy.

I don't know how you can get higher than Tier A. I interpreted that she bought leads with the others in Tier A and then handled her personal "team". By leads I assumed data mining which is how all kinds of targeted marketing is done. In this case they would have bought data that targeted whatever fit their particular scam - people of a certain age obviously but there would probably be other data that made them seem particularly susceptible like entering "sweepstakes" or subscribing to low information stuff. I don't understand why Jen hasn't cut a plea already. Once the Feds indict on a white collar/financial crime, their conviction rate is well over 90% because there is such an irrefutable paper trail to follow. Her assistant has already pled and so he would be the final nail in her evidentiary coffin. It is unlikely that Coach Shah will be charged criminally because there is nothing to indicate that he was involved in her company in terms of the paperwork. Even Erika - who actually appears on some of the bogus shell companies - is probably not going to be criminally charged with embezzlement from the firm. What she is fighting is her civil liability as she doesn't want to give back the $25 million "loan" to her LLC and she wants to hold on to any valuable "gifts" that she received during the marriage - e.g. the jewelry and art work. Also she is claiming a $600,000 marital exemption in the Pasadena house.

What religious people? His family are secular Jews and to the extent they are religious at all, secular Judaism is extremely accepting of gays. To the extent they actually lived in Utah ever, they lived in Park City for a few years which is probably a liberal bastion in the same way that Austin is unlike much of Texas. There is no comparison with someone who grew up attending one of the gay hating fundamentalist sects and who has viewed parents of other gay people or relatives who disowned their gay children.

Interesting question indeed. The filmed segments take much longer than a standard Kleinfeld appointment which I think is just over an hour. Filming for a segment takes all day. Perhaps the time commitment is why they feature more consultants than they did in the earlier seasons when they featured a relatively small number of consultants. Someone might be willing to work for no pay to be on television for one day but one might feel a bit exploited after a while. Randy makes about $3 million per season from what I have read. Not relevant to this discussion but here is an article which I found interesting on the Kleinfeld consultant who deals with "modest" brides - mostly Orthodox Jewish but also a few Mormons. I don't know if she is still around since the article is from 2015 but they must still have someone since it would be a lucrative niche. In the first season there was one Orthodox Jewish bride who did have her dressed modified https://www.racked.com/2015/6/3/8711481/kleinfeld-bridal-modest-wedding-dresses

Word on the street is that Erika's has a sugar daddy who is allegedly Wynn of the Vegas hotel stuff. It is true that she had a recent lucrative paid promotional appearance in Vegas. All of the clubs pay "celebrities" to make appearances and it is a good source of income for reality "stars".

I don't understand Brook's coyness regarding his sexual identity. Lord I hate to be associated with Rinna but just own it whatever that is. The only possible embarrassment would be if he were non-sexual 🤣 but he lives in New York and is involved in the fashion industry - frankly heterosexuality is probably more of a liability in terms of networking. Lance Loud came out in 1973 when it was still a bit shocking - even in progressive circles. I had gay friends then who hadn't come out of the closet in college in that era and I was from New York City so Lance was being pretty brave.

Long expose on Mary's cult from The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/rhoslcs-mary-cosby-is-accused-of-running-a-religious-cult-by-former-congregation-members Is This ‘Real Housewives’ Star Really Running a Cult? Ex-Church Members Say Yes Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise has always been about drama—petty digs at so-called best friends, mascara-streaked tears over crumbling relationships, and a healthy dose of flipping tables and smashing wine glasses. But recently, season storylines have been overtaken by serious criminal investigations, with Teresa Giudice serving prison time for financial fraud, Jen Shah facing charges over conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and Erika Jayne currently entangled in allegations that her husband embezzled his clients’ settlement funds to bankroll their extravagant lifestyle. In the new season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Mary Cosby will take her turn in the hot seat in response to accusations that she has transformed her late grandmother’s Faith Temple Pentecostal Church into a cult. Eyebrows were raised from the moment viewers first met Cosby, and learned about her unconventional religious path. The eccentric, designer-clad preacher married her step-grandfather Bishop Robert Cosby shortly after her grandmother Rosemary “Mama” Redmon Cosby passed away in 1997, thereby inheriting her multimillion-dollar estate, her various businesses, and her commanding position in the church. Cosby was already quizzed over the cult allegations at the Season 1 reunion, which aired in February. Host Andy Cohen brought up leaked audio recordings of Cosby’s sermons, including one where she complained about not getting enough birthday cards and called the congregation “stingy” and “poor.” Cosby denied to Cohen that she was pilfering money from the church to fund her expensive lifestyle, calling the claim cruel. “My church couldn’t possibly take care of me,” Cosby said. “I’m a God-fearing woman. I would never do that.” “Clearly I’m not gonna get on national television, be a Housewife and be in a cult,” Cosby defended herself to Entertainment Tonight. “Like, come on. I believe in my church. There’s no cult. My church members, they know those are false allegations. Those are ridiculous. It’s the people that are looking for fault.” But questions have only intensified, and the Season 2 trailer shows Cosby’s co-star Lisa Barlow meeting with the late Salt Lake City community leader Cameron Williams, who states unequivocally, “Is it a cult? Yes. Does she call herself ‘God’? Yes.” (Williams’ family declined to comment when approached by The Daily Beast.) The Daily Beast spoke with seven former Faith Temple church members, six who agree with claims that Cosby has been operating her church like a “cult”—alleging she refers to herself as God, encourages members to work at her family’s various businesses for free or minimum wage, berates congregation members from the podium, and instills the fear that if anyone ever leaves Faith Temple for another church, they will be condemned to hell. Cosby’s own uncle Ernest Walton believes Cosby is running a “cult,” saying his mother would be disappointed. “I think it’s an abomination,” he says. “Everything's coming out into the light now and everything’s coming down.” A second former male member, who requested to have his name withheld and was at the church for 25 years before leaving in around 2018, says Williams was spot on with what he told Barlow. “It’s cultish what they’ve done,” he says. “It’s the mental manipulation to try to get people to believe that she has power to either take them to heaven or condemn them to hell.” “It’s not a joke,” says Abby, a former member raised in the church who left age 22 in the late 1990s, and requested to have her full name withheld because a close relative is still an active member. “She’s got these people terrified. That woman is the most evil thing that ever walked this Earth. You have no idea, all those smiles and shit—that is not real.” Former church member Ralph Arnold Jr. says he “unequivocally” believes Cosby is running a cult, and her teachings go against fundamental Christian beliefs. “She preaches that she is God on earth,” he explains. “The church has gone to ruin and most everyone has left because Mary has no anointing whatsoever when she preaches. She just screams at her members and mentally abuses them into submission. [She] brainwashes them on the regular, not to mention the utterly flamboyant and hypocritical life she lives.” “We were going to church for religious reasons,” ex-member Rosebud, who asked for her last name to be withheld, adds. “We thought we were learning a new way of life, a new way to praise God, but that was never the case… There is so much shady stuff going on in that church.” You are afraid to not go to that church and you’re afraid to go to the church as well. A female former member, who requested anonymity because a family member is still in the church, likened Cosby and her husband to con artists. “They make you afraid,” she says. “You are afraid to not go to that church and you’re afraid to go to the church as well. It’s really messed up… If not a cult, they are definitely scam artists that manipulate the members of the church into giving them pretty much all of their money so that they can live high and mighty on the hill.” And while former member Ernest Enoch disagrees with the term “cult” and expresses his upset with former members who spoke out against Cosby, saying the issues dividing Faith Temple should be addressed internally rather than in public, he admits that when he left the church in Jan. 2021 it cost him his relationship with someone he considered family. “I would never say that I personally belonged to a cult, that’s making me look like a fool,” Enoch says. “I disagree with some things, but they’re my disagreements. People [are] not talking to each other right now because of all this stuff. I saw somebody and it broke my heart because he’s like a son to me and he barely could look at me, he barely could talk to me… because he knows that I’m not affiliated with them anymore.” A lawyer for Cosby stated that, “[A]ll religious institutions, including the Faith Temple Pentecostal, accept donations from their parishioners; however they don’t force parishioners into poverty to make such contributions.” He stated the suggestion that Cosby calls herself “God” is “extremely offensive and has no basis in reality.” (In the trailer for next season of RHOSLC, Mary is seen angrily telling cast-mate Lisa Barlow “I’m not God—I worship the God in me.”) Faith Temple Pentecostal Church was started by Cosby’s grandmother Dr. Rosemary Redmon Cosby, known to her congregation as “Mama.” According to Faith Temple’s website, Mama left her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, with her four children in January 1961 on a pilgrimage to Salt Lake City, believing she had been called there by God. In 1975, she married Robert Cosby, who was 20 years her junior, and he became Bishop of Faith Temple. Over the years, Mama amassed a sizable fortune through the church and running various businesses, including restaurants. She owned three homes in the Salt Lake City area, a condo in nearby Zion Summit, as well as a vacation home in St. Cloud, Florida. “God established through Mama, a church of ministers, as Elisha established a school of prophets,” Robert Cosby wrote on the church’s website. “Mama teaching the ministers to be of one mind, going against everything that mainstream Christianity teaches and allowed God to manifest himself in her.” The church was at its peak in the 1990s, with Rosebud and Ralph estimating at least 500 people packed into the pews on Sundays. Rosebud’s mother was so deeply invested in the church that Rosebud says she followed Mama from Indiana to Utah, and that she herself was named in honor of Mama, whose first name is Rosemary. Rosebud says her mother took her sisters and her to the church nearly every day, and on Sunday they would be there from sunup until sundown. “That was our life,” she says. “They would give the adults weekly schedules. If you became a member of Mama’s church, you were dedicated to attending the whole weekly schedule.” I don’t even remember getting any money at all, to be honest with you. I was just grateful that she chose me. When congregants were not at Faith Temple, those who didn’t have full-time jobs outside of the church did housework at Mama’s home or at one of her various businesses. Rosebud says her mother, who worked at a local hospital, did free work in her spare time at Mama’s balloon and flower shop, or would go to Mama’s house to clean. Abby says she was also made to work for free at one of Mama’s restaurants. “I don’t even remember getting any money at all, to be honest with you,” she says. “I was just grateful that she chose me.” Mama died from heart failure at the age of 64 in January 1997, at her vacation home in St. Cloud, Florida, leaving behind a multimillion-dollar fortune. Her daughter Rosalind Cazares—Cosby’s mother—claimed Mama was in perfect health before her sudden death and suggested her stepfather could have been the cause, according to local reports. Although a judge granted Cazares’ request to have Mama’s body exhumed and have an autopsy performed, it was ultimately determined that she died of natural causes. Cosby claims that it was Mama’s wish for her to marry her step grandfather, who she is not related to by blood, because he was 20 years younger than Mama. “My grandmother told me for herself that she wanted me to take her place,” Cosby previously said. “My grandmother felt like she robbed his youth and so she said, ‘If something ever happens, I want you to marry one of my girls because I know they’ll be loyal to you and treat you good like you treated me.’” “I did marry him,” she added. “I didn’t want to… That’s weird to me. But [my grandmother] really did want me to, so I obeyed her. I trusted every word.” Cosby claimed they waited and prayed about their relationship for “two years” before tying the knot. However, local reports from the time claim they married in Chicago in September 1998. Cosby was 25 and Robert Cosby was 45. Cosby’s marriage divided the church, prompting Cazares to split from Faith Temple and start her own church, taking half of the congregation with her, about 200 members, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Cazares ended up filing suit against Robert Cosby, once in 1997 and again in 2007, claiming he had mishandled assets from her mother’s multimillion-dollar estate and intended to cut her out of her inheritance. (Cazares and Robert Cosby had both been made representatives of Mama’s estate.) “This includes the failure to identify and account for the articles of personal property that were given away, sold, destroyed or otherwise not preserved by defendant Cosby while he was acting as personal representative of the estate,” her 2007 suit claimed. Cazares alleged that Mama’s signature had been forged on deeds and mortgages prior to her death. A jury ultimately ruled in Cazares’ favor, and ordered Robert Cosby and Faith Temple’s business manager Annie Johnson to pay her $1.2 million. Around the time Cazares left and divided the church in spring 1998, Ralph and some of his family members left the church as well. Not only did he disapprove of the marriage, Ralph says, but he also didn’t believe that Mama or Cosby were God. “I was raised hearing it all the time and watched the adults in my family worship [Mama] and say it all the time,” he explains. “Not only the adults in my family but her herself. She would preach it… It was beaten into our brains and psyche.” Some sources say that while Mama’s leadership tactics were questionable, the situation at Faith Temple deteriorated significantly under Mary’s reign. One of the most shocking claims is the verbal dressing downs Cosby allegedly issue from the podium, singling out certain members of the church. The male former member says under Cosby and Robert Cosby “it was all about money.” On Sundays, he alleges, there would be “grueling hours and hours of people badgered” for donations. “They would sit and demand money until they got a certain dollar figure, whatever [sum] was in their head before they let people go” he claims. “Now, that didn’t mean they had guns to your head, but they would shame you if you left. They would shame you if you didn’t give enough. So, it was a form of mental manipulation.” “I witnessed Mary ridiculing [senior leaders] a couple of the times that I went back,” Ralph says. “There would be church meetings where [senior leaders] were picked apart and mentally beaten down in front of the entire congregation… She is blatantly making fun of, ridiculing, and verbally abusing her congregation members.” There's been a handful of Cosby's sermons posted on YouTube, one of which was played at the RHOSLC Season 1 reunion. In one particular recording, Cosby can be heard calling her congregation poor and stingy, apparently over a lack of tithe money coming into the church and not receiving enough birthday cards. “You’re not in church, you think I’m stupid,” she asks. “Coming in here draining me? I ain’t preaching over y’all’s sin. I’m doing everything else, y’all ain’t helping. Halfway pay your tithes. I got 14 birthday cards. Your old stingy selves. You old poor people. I don’t want no poor people around me. You’re poor as hell. And if you ain’t poor, you stingy cause you still poor! God said you was poor.” While many Christians believe in paying tithe to the church, around 10 percent of their earnings, several sources say that both Mama and Cosby demanded a much higher percentage. Rosebud recalls that her mother was paying almost half of her checks to the church when it was led by Mama, taken from her wage as a cleaner at a hospital, where Rosebud estimates her mother was making $5 an hour in the late 1990s. “Mary and [her husband] require all of their members to give them way more money than their monthly tithes. They call them love offerings,” Ralph explains, saying that such donations kept his family in poverty and subjection. “There were a lot of times we would come home [and] we had no lights because my mom said she had to pay her tithe, or she put a little extra in the collection plate for offerings,” Rosebud recalls of the earlier years of the church when it was led by Mama. “If [Mama or leadership found] out you gave two cents to anybody else’s church, they would go off. They will stand up there on the pulpit, and they will call you out.” The female former congregation member, whose grandparents and mother were also part of the church, says she remembers people were forced to hand over their food stamps in those days. “My mom never had Christmas growing up because all the money [her parents] had for Christmas gifts were given to the church,” she says. “My grandpa got injured in the war and got a settlement of money and they took it from him, all of it. A lot of the members there are on food stamps, and they struggle to pay their own bills. They [would] make them give them everything.” The male former member says Mama was always transparent about where the funds were going. “Mama had the utmost respect for the people, she was transparent in everything, including financial situations within the church,” he says.”She didn’t hide nothing from nobody.” However, somewhere down the line after Cosby married Robert Cosby, he claims “somebody had got an addiction to the finer life and saw that they [could] milk the church members for funds, and live this exotic life.” Abby says while she knew that Cosby and her husband were wealthy due to inheriting Mama’s various businesses, it wasn’t until seeing Cosby on RHOSLCthat she realized the degree of their wealth, describing the ostentatious display of Cosby’s homes as a slap in the face to her struggling congregation. While church members were used to visiting and doing household work at Mama and Robert Cosby’s marital home, Abby recalls that after Mama died, Robert Cosby addressed the church, saying things would be different. “I’ll never forget the bishop said, ‘This is not going to be the same as when Mama was here. Y’all abused her, wore her out, killed her. Now, I’m not going to be like that, you will not get my face, you’re not going to intrude upon my privacy, things are going to change.’” “All of us never knew,” Abby says of seeing Cosby’s mansion and the rooms filled with racks of designer clothes. “That’s the first time we all saw what she had; it is overwhelming hoarding. We didn’t know that. We all did think, ‘Where’s all this money going?’ They said we were going to build a temple, a temple greater than the Mormon Temple. Seriously, we’ve been so damn poor. And that’s the first time in all these years I ever saw what they had.” “I think it’s an abomination,” Walton adds, of his niece’s grand display of wealth on the show. “And it’s the worst thing that they explored it all on TV and got to be movie stars and stuff. And it’s ridiculous.” “It’s sickening to think about all the people on fixed income and to know friends and family that have took the equity out of their homes… because they gave to that,” the male former member says. Abby believes that Mary and Robert Cosby are hellbent on using the church to fund their extravagant lifestyle. “Trust me, whatever those people have, she takes,” she claims. Several sources believe Mama and Cosby’s teachings go against fundamental Christian beliefs by referring to themselves as God, as well as allowing their congregants to refer to them as God, and by instilling fear in members that they will not get to heaven unless they believe in them and follow their teachings. “They felt like they were next to Jesus,” Rosebud says. “[Cosby] preaches that she is God on earth,” Ralph adds. You ain’t coming back unless you come through me, I know that. I know the father, honey, and he comes to me. “Mary is trying to convince people that she’s God, or like this special mediator,” the ex male member explains. “That she has power that she can talk to God and she can decide where you’re going [heaven or hell]. Mary tries to equate herself to like a female Jesus.” In an audio recording from one of Cosby’s sermons, Cosby tells the congregation, “You don’t just walk up back in here. You got to go through the door… For there’s one God, and one mediator between God and man. Who do you think that is?” A congregation member appears to call out, “You, Mary!” “I don’t know, I ain’t say it,” Cosby responds. “But you ain’t coming back unless you come through me, I know that. I know the father, honey, and he comes to me.” “They put the fear in you, that if you don’t go to that church, you’re going to go to hell,” the female former member says. “My mom has some issues with the damnation of feeling like she’s going to hell. As a grown adult, she has it beaten into her head, that’s the only way. She just is so torn in her heart knowing that it’s not the truth, but because she believed that for so long… I mean, it’s brainwashing.” Rosebud says she felt compelled to speak out after watching Cosby on The Real Housewives, and in anticipation of Bravo not taking the cult allegations as seriously as they deserve. Abby and Rosebud say they want their relatives and others who are still at Faith Temple to realize what’s happening around them. “Their brains are still clouded, and they’re still devoted,” Rosebud says. “They don’t see anything wrong.” Ralph echoed their sentiments. “I would tell them to open their eyes and really examine what has happened,” he adds. “In their heart of hearts, they have to know that God left the leadership of Faith Temple long ago and is now only in their hearts. I would behest them to run for their lives as fast as they can away from her and [Robert Cosby]. To protect whatever faith they may still have and try to start healing. [The congregation] is faithful to a fault, and what has happened to them is just heartbreaking.”

For some reason I assumed the vet got a position at a zoo which is really the only place where there are significant numbers of "exotic" animals needing vet care. I can't imagine the logistics of tending to that many reptiles. Granted they are not as high maintenance as a dog but you still have to clean their cages regularly and make sure they have a supply of clean water. I owned an iguana years ago as my mother was a science teacher and brought home the classroom iguana which I kept. It really wasn't a very interesting animal to own - it had no interest in interacting and so spent its life inside the cage - on the rare occasions when he (or she) was removed from the cage, the iguana would make a dash and scurry up the blinds and have to be captured. The iguana did require some level of maintenance as there would be iguana turds that had to be cleaned - and I had to get some kind of larvae to feed it. I was very glad when my parents brought home a dog and I had an animal that I could have a true relationship with.

That was a promotional opportunity. They will be getting a free storage facility in exchange for featuring that company extensively on the show. The only reason to have such a lengthy segment which prominently featured the name of the company was the benefit to Robyn - and possibly BRAVO as well. Any time the housewives visit a store, the housewives get some promotional benefit. I have read they get $X in merchandise. When they visit a store and don't buy something, they aren't getting free merchandise but often there is a reason for the visit - e.g. it's a very theme specific store or it's a very high end store which theoretically is intended to show their lavish lifestyles. Hotels comp BRAVO for a lot of rooms when the housewives do a trip.

A Sous Chef is a position - a Sous CHELF - as spelled in the tweet doesn't exist - at least in terms of any restaurant position I know of. Is this some kind of internet shade - is chelf a *thing* or just a typo?

It is complicated and it depends. Generally someone who has a lien on the property/assets would be first in line. For most people, their mortgage company has a lien on the house which means it is first in line. One of the issues regarding the lenders is that even if they had a security interest in the collateral, that collateral would only be for the portion of the payment that was owed to Tom as his contingent fee. In other words, if Girardi had received a settlement of $10 million, Tom would only have been entitled to $4 million at most since the clients were owed the rest of it. The issue with the "loan" to Erika's company is that EJ Global (the LLC) has no assets and theoretically Erika is not personally liable for loans to a corporation. That is theoretically the reason people have LLC's - to separate personal and corporate liabilities. However, it is very likely that the corporate veil will be pierced and Erika will be personally responsible to repay that amount. The whole issue of piercing the corporate veil has been discussed extensively on the Erika thread and why it is likely that the creditors will prevail.

Well the titles of her books clear up any *confusion* we all had concerning her practice as a psychologist. Seems to be an author of atrocious pop psychology books - The Cheater's Mind; Psyched to be Skinny and Cyber Mind. Based on her body, I would say that she needs a psychologist dealing with body dysmorphia and eating disorders.

Not to belabor but in the context of the show - the location and what the market place is in Los Angeles, I understood Josh to mean it would be a complete tear down. The footprint of the house wasn't large enough and the exterior wasn't particularly attractive. There simply isn't a market for someone who would spend $3.5 million and then have to live with that house. I am not sure how you would even enforce that kind of covenant since it would have to run with the land and be recorded to be enforceable. In my personal experience, any older home in Los Angeles in a desirable area is a complete tear down unless it is truly architecturally desirable. There are some neighborhoods in LA in which you need to preserve the exterior completely and there are even a few in which the interior has to be preserved. In Pasadena, there was a huge scandal when a developer removed all of the interior finishes in a Greene & Greene home because the value of them sold individual surpassed the actual value of the home. You can't do that in Pasadena any longer. And as I recall there are some areas near the West Adams district of historic homes which also require preservation of the interior finishes. Obviously the exteriors all have to be preserved and anything done that shows on the exterior including doors, windows and paint color needs to be approved.

I think she started filming before she realized that the situation would escalate in the way it did. When she started filming there was nothing public and no reason for her to think it would explode. Even when things started falling apart and she claims she left Tom, nothing really had come out. It was well into the season when the Chicago firm filed against Girardi and the Bankruptcy Court became involved and the whole house of cards started collapsing. It is what she did after the whole thing started collapsing so publicly that is inscrutable. She could have just said nothing - or said that she couldn't really speak of these matters - and immediately offered up some kind of bland sympathetic statement for the "victims". There is nothing in that kind of statement that would have been viewed as an admission of guilt. Instead she concocted easily refutable lie after lie and also acted in a completely tone deaf sociopathic manner both on the show and in her social media. As has repeatedly been discussed, it is not that she lies that is so strange. It is that she lies so poorly and with lies that are so easily disputed.

The house would be a tear down because a larger house that was more suited to what people want would be built. The house was only two bedrooms and had a small kitchen. It simply isn't appealing to any segment of market. People who want a mid century modern home wouldn't find it appealing because it wasn't a particularly good example of that genre. It was just a builder grade home that was built in 1952. A few seasons ago, either Flagg or Altmann had a fantastic MCM home in Holmby Hills that had been lovingly restored by the owners. That home had no problem being sold because it was gorgeous and it wasn't a "shack" on a $3 million lot which is essentially what the current house was. I think most homes with basements in Los Angeles are built on hilly lots so that the basement is only a "basement" on one side that is basically built into the hillside.

The Wall Street law firms have a salary scale for first year associates and essentially all of the law firms pay what is called the "going rate". When I was a third year law student, the joke was - What is the going rate? The going rate means if you don't match it, we are all going to Cravath. 😂 Girardi definitely used loans from companies that specialize in funding large litigation cases. They have experts to assess the *value* of the cases. It's not really shameful per se to have loans at because class actions especially are incredibly expensive to fund since everything is contingent. With a standard contingent fee case, the plaintiff generally pays the costs and fees as they arise. For example, any filing fees or any experts hired. A huge expense is the cost of a deposition since you have to hire a videographer and/or a court reporter to record the deposition. And then you have to pay xeroxing and distribution for the copies that need to be sent out to the other side. When I was involved in a lawsuit as a plaintiff in a contingency fee situation, I was billed each month for the costs and fees. The only thing I didn't pay for were my attorney's billable hours which he took from the eventual settlement. From what I read, Girardi was actually scamming the LENDERS as he was using the same collateral to get loans from different lenders. In others words, he would borrow against the XYZ litigation from Lender A and then borrow from Lender B from the same XYZ litigation.