amarante

I completely agree regarding Kandi's parenting versus most of the other housewives who have raised neer do wells. My close friend is extremely wealthy - let's say worth at least $50 million. Her daughters have obviously been raised with privilege but they were also raised to achieve well academically. One graduated law school. They were also given the same kinds of experiences that Kandi is giving her her daughter. There is actually a way to parent wealthy kids so that they don't become wastrels and it appears that Kandi is taking that path. Compare the spawn of some entertainers who far less talented kids attempt to make it in show biz. Riley wants to be an entertainment LAWYER (or at least is thinking about it) versus thinking she should sing or act or blog or do some other kind of fame whore occupation.

I don't think the "pain" or the "morphine" made the father say those things. In vino veritas - morphine might have acted as a disinhibitor just as alcohol does so that one lets the "real" person out. However, in my experience, if one is about to die and is morphined up, one is not lucid so one is not going to make that kind of very direct angry focused speech. What I don't understand is why the parents felt the need to reconcile with Shaun. This wasn't at all like the standard slightly dysfunctional household. But then I am not really a "fan" of death bed reconciliations as I don't think anyone solves a lifetime of true dysfunction; forgives or has closure through one conversation.

Except for the car which is ridiculous for a kid. It's not the money per se but the worst kind of car to give a kid as the first car is something sporty and it is inevitably going to get into an accident. Or an SUV which is actually more difficult to drive well than a sedan because it is top heavy. My friend's kids went to an expensive private school in Los Angeles and the kids almost all got very expensive cars when they started driving and they all got into accidents. There was even a fatality (not in my friend's school) where a first time driver crashed his large SUV because it was too hard to handle and he over shot something. My friend gave her kid her old Lexus sedan - the kid got into an accident of course but since the car was a beater nobody cared. The other stuff she is funding seem to be experiences. I think she mentioned doing a summer course at UCLA. My cousin's daughter did that and it's a great summer school experience - it's basically summer camp for an older teen. And she mentioned sending her to Europe during a summer which is again an experience which is not uncommon among affluent parents who aren't over the top. It seems as though she is raising her to do the college type of thing versus some rich celebrity parents/housewives who are raising their kids to be wastrels. The apartment wasn't in Manhattan - it looked as though it had a view of the East Side of Manhattan so it could have been Roosevelt Island which is an odd choice. I would imagine it was a fully furnished sublet so the price for a full service two bedroom wasn't out of line.

Doesn't he live some distance away? I would imagine that he doesn't actually work in the office especially since whatever business they actually do really isn't a desk job anyway.

I was commenting on a previous post in which the poster used the term approaching $800

I think a comment that $800 approaches New York rates is bizarre anyway you slice it or dice it because no one comments on rental costs based on what someone who is lucky enough to be living in a rent stabilized apartment who moved in 25 years ago is paying. I don't live in NYC anymore but I moved to Manhattan after finishing law school many years ago. I had a wonderful loft (newly renovated) on a high floor with an unobstructed view of the city looking north (it was in the Village) and my rent - adjusted for inflation would be approximately $1800 which would be a steal because the building has now been converted to coops where my apartment sells for $1 million dollars and comparable rentals would have $4000 or $5000. Some of my friends who weren't making as much as I was at the time lived in the Village for prices ranging from $335 (for an apartment on St. Marks Place) to a West Village one bedroom for $628 - both amounts adjusted for inflation. The apartment rents were affordable - or at least not in the realm of completely unaffordable - for people starting out unlike today's NYC rents which are essentially unaffordable because no one wants to live in a living room or a walk in closet for any length of time.

The $640 unit available for rental is an office space in a relatively undesirable area. The next least expensive unit is $800 for an attic apartment in a fairly undesirable area - shared kitchen AND bath - in order words renting a room. While an "average" rental is not a perfect way to measure rents, don't forget that there are a number of apartments in New York which have rents below - A LOT BELOW - current market rates because they are either rent controlled or stabilized. But if you are in the current market you are probably going to be paying OVER the average unless one wants to rent in Staten Island - the Bronx (which I believe has the least expensive housing but still not $700 for an apartment) or in the nether reaches of Queens where there is very poor public transportation - e.g. no subway lines.

I recognize that the clitoral amputation has been discussed but what an over simplification it was to focus on a vagina and a clitoris being necessary to have a satisfactory intimate life. The body and human beings have multiple erogenous zones and I would have thought that someone actually versed in human sexuality would have been brought in to discuss that with the couple rather than doctors providing their advice based solely on their good or bad experiences with boyfriends. And while this week's episode did attempt to explain Carly's "attraction" to Shaun, it was an epic fail because it would also describe a good platonic friend supporting one in a crisis situation. And the issue of having intercourse is secondary - at least it would be for me - as it relates to Shaun's inability to have emotional intimacy with another human being. Yes he is not a bad person at all but I would certainly find it ultimately unwilling to have a life partner who was that emotionally absent even if the sex was out of this world. :-).

I assumed her large orders of food were based on taking advantage of being pregnant. It's not uncommon for women - especially women who ordinarily have to restrict their diet to remain slim - to eat A LOT while pregnant and sometimes gain more than the 20 or so pounds that is theoretically recommended. Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson were both huge - and were also fat shamed. I didn't think she was particularly taking advantage of free food - just that she was using a diet "hall pass" to order everything she felt like eating :-). I just thought highlighting the cost of the entrees was in addition to shading her voracious appetite. Of course, this shows exactly how boring this episode was since Eve's eating habits were probably among the more interesting parts.

Thanks for the responses regarding why prices were posted because they generally don't show prices unless it is to make some kind of point - typically when they are at a store buying something. Since the food was Asian and typically people order Asian food "family style" to be shared, I assumed it was meant to be shared in some way. Eve seemed to be a bit piggish - but I assumed it had to do with pregnancy hunger LOL. And you could show her piggishness without the prices because that amount of food for one person would have been a lot. And she actually only seemed to take one or two dishes with her when she left which wasn't excessive - portions seemed small. And I am totally over-thinking this - probably because the episode was particularly uneventful. And the Lychee martinis at $19 a pop would have added up pretty quickly since Eve couldn't drink and had to content herself with food.

I thought of that but that would be destroying the fourth wall because they like to pretend that the housewives are actually paying for trips and other stuff. I think there are a lot of people who watch the show and don’t understand all the freebies the wives get.

Was there some reason the prices of the food ordered was shown on screen at the restaurant? It was obviously some kind of deliberate thing production wanted to underscore but I don't understand what? The women aren't paying for the food so what difference does the price make - and while the restaurant was expensive, it wasn't completely out of whack for an upscale Manhattan place. Anyone who can explain the significance?

I am pretty certain the realtor said three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bedrooms. I would imagine the third bedroom was a standard bedroom which is why we didn't see it since it didn't add to the plot development. I live in an expensive city so prices don't shock me but I confess I was shocked that real estate in Barcelona is that expensive. I am always curious as to why a single person feels it necessary to have bedrooms for overnight guests - let them stay in a hotel if they don't like the accommodations you are providing. Family is different but I didn't get the sense this HH needed accommodations for those as he voiced his concern about shared bathrooms by saying gay men take a long time in the bathroom to get ready :-). On the opposite end of the spectrum. there was a retired couple who moved to a remote village in Ireland from Arizona. He was a retired police officer and she was a nurse and they sold their home. I didn't understand how their budget was only $200,000 since they should have been in a better financial situation than many of the other young HH who quit their jobs to move somewhere since I would have assumed that a house in Arizona would have netted more than $200,000 and police officers generally have pretty good retirement funds coming in. Swinging back again, I find it very strange that people who have "sold" everything to move to a foreign country want to buy a home which means that all or a substantial amount of their funds are tied up in real estate. I have a relatively small mortgage and lots of savings so I could theoretically pay off the mortgage but I deliberately choose not to because I like the idea of having $X amount not tied up and my mortgage interest is so low that almost any other use of the funds yields more.

I assumed she was a crap writer when she said she had published ten novels in a fairly short period of time. I knew she was one of those crap formula romance writers with some clone of Fabio on the cover dressed in some generic historical "costume" - e.g. the classic bodice ripper.

My understanding is that procurement is generally a position for industries which have very stringent needs for items they purchase. I have come across those kinds of positions in the aerospace industry for example. The person in procurement needs to understand the technical specifications of what is being ordered so it's more skilled than just someone buying office supplies :-).

While I agree that you don't just "snap out of" a clinical depression, I don't think Eddie was wrong in stating the obvious. Perhaps he should have said "adult" instead of "man", but at a certain point, you don't blame your childhood for the crapfest you have made of your life. Even therapists don't have people wallow around ad nauseum excusing their current terrible life choices based on the poor parenting they experienced. Background is just helpful in explaining and understanding why one might be experiencing stuff in a certain way - obviously I am over simplifying therapy but my point is that nobody lies on a couch talking endlessly about their childhood with most of modern therapeutic treatment plans. Ryan has had more opportunities than many people to make something of himself at this point. In terms of other spawn, I believe that Sophie wound up at Baylor which is some kind of Baptist affiliated college in Texas. With all due respect to Baylor, it doesn't seem as though it would be especially difficult to get into nor would anyone but a wealthy person pay tuition to send a California kid there when one is guaranteed admission to a UC after two years. If sending outside of California, there are certainly more desirable schools - even in the South. No Southern prejudice here as I am a U of Virginia grad :-). While Tamra might have funded Cut, I believe that Eddie was earning a good living at the law firm. It was enough so that he had bought himself a fairly nice house that Tamra originally moved into. I would imagine that whatever he was doing was not his passion versus being involved in the fitness industry which truly seems to be something that is his dream occupation.

I think the difference between North West and Rose Gold is that North is NOT a name so the only point of naming the baby North is so that it would be Northwest - could have been east, west or south because they are all the same in terms of being a name. Similarly though not as stupidly, Apple is not a name and really I would also say that Brooklyn is not a name - it's my hometown LOL so it's as bizarre to me as if someone named their kid Chicago or Boston - or hell why not Bronx or Yonkers. Even though "rose gold" is a type of gold (and now a color that resembles the gold), I don't think anyone - least of all kids - are going to join the names together as being an object of ridicule. Perhaps because I had a grandmother named Rose, I didn't immediately make that connection. She was named for Steve's Bubbe and no different than if she was Rose Schwartz or Rose Smith.

I really liked Kandi’s braids this episode. What a difference from her rooster hair in the first season. How long does it take to create that style. It looks as though you would hav3 to sit in the chair for hours.

I am old enough to remember when some statistician got a lot of media buzz because their "survey" or whatever they did "proved" that the odds of a professional white woman marrying were equivalent to her dying in a nuclear terrorist attack. I do think there is probably a disparate ratio of professional women (black, white or whatever) versus "high status" eligible men and that for whatever reason it's probably more pronounced in the black community since the percentage of black women who are professional college graduates is skewed more than in terms of the white graduates and of course men of whatever color can marry "down" in terms of education/earnings etc. while it is still considered "normal" for women to want to marry someone on at least their own "level". Of course with the women of Atlanta their choices seem to be in line with their own poor judgment rather than what is theoretically available on the market. Surely Cynthia could have done better than Uncle Ben as he was not just a cheating womanizer but an economic leech. Kenya is such a damaged individual that I think it is probably impossible for her to have a "normal" relationship with anyone. Kandi seems to have a healthy marriage and Ironically she did "marry down" in terms of professional status and money. She could have dismissed him as a gold digger but instead she was able to be okay and recognize that he appears to be exactly what he is - a nice relatively normal guy who wanted to settle down.

For some reason I was asked to participate in a survey regarding this show. It showed an ad with Smiths pontificating on the important issues raised and then asked questions about it. I said the ad was completely misleading because it made it seem as if the actual show would be "smart" like West Wing and the actual show was really dumbed down. Not that West Wing was an exact depiction of reality but it didn't have a show devoted to completely wrong stuff and the writing wasn't on such a sophomoric and soap opera (and not in a good Telemundo Jane the Virgin type of way).

That expressway or on ramp looked as if it was on eye level and pretty close to their apartment. Personally that would be a deal breaker for me. Apart from the noise, there is a significant health hazard that has been shown in people living close to major thoroughfares. I realize that everybody has to compromise when choosing a home but I sometimes find it difficult to believe that the HH's choice actually represented the best place they could find when they were looking. If it were me, I would keep on looking. The Chicago place just didn't seem to have some fabulous features that offset the horrendous location next to the freeway.

That was the stated business arrangement when he came back but I don't understand why she would continue to pay him 50% of what she makes many years later. Unless she is selling to someone who was his client, why would she pay him anything from completely new business she brings in.

I am not that familiar with Chicago but it seems as though Chicago has some lovely residential neighborhoods within the City. I understand the urge to want to stay within an "actual" city especially if one's parents, friends and other family are in the city. Of course the condo they picked was pretty terrible and living directly across from a major highway is insane. Aside from the noise, the pollution would be terrible. I don't understand some of these choices - in all of Chicago that was the best option? I grew up in one of the boroughs of New York City and it was a great compromise between the suburban lifestyle and the density of Manhattan. My childhood home was a single family residential home on a tree lined block where we played with the other kids on the block. The advantage was that there was public transportation which enabled my family to very easily take advantage of what the City offered. And this was especially nice when I was a older and didn't have to rely on parents driving me all over to do anything. I even went to school in Manhattan from seventh grade and took the subway. My parents didn't have lengthy commutes especially since they were lucky enough to have jobs in the borough we lived in. I am sure that in episodes of HH there have been neighborhoods pretty similar to the one I grew up in. Aside from the older row houses, there seem to be homes that are the classic bungalow style which would be in their price range. Of course some of the hipper neighborhoods are more expensive but extrapolating that to NYC boroughs, I would imagine that is the difference between Park Slope and Kensington.

Mama Dee didn't deceive D'Andra - it's not as if D'Andra had paid for the company and then found out it was losing money. I don't understand why anyone would think it is Mama Dee's responsibility to somehow fix or finance the business. Evidently D'Andra never worked particularly hard when she was "employed" by the business as she seemed to have working hours that started at 4:30 P.M. D'Andra did NOT object or state anything to the contrary when Mama Dee said that so I think it is true. Besides there has been nothing in the three or four years of the show that indicates that D'Andrea was actually working in the business except for show. I am sure that if at any point during the time D'Andra has been a housewife, she could have done something to use the promotional value to try to launch the line or attempt to. I am not sure that there is much to launch as the field of beauty products is so crowded and competitive. I think some of the other housewives have attempted to do so without any success - Ramona anyone? Even the Dubrows who have the whole Dr. Dubrow plastic surgery credentials don't seem to have managed to really break through. Aside from Bethenny I can't think of another housewife who has launched a really successful brand and Skinny Girl just was a perfect blend of being the absolutely unique product at the right time and place with the absolute right person to be the face of the brand and as I recall she also was smart enough to partner with a really savvy business guy to take it to the next level.

They could definitely redo the bathroom to make it more functional AND aesthetic. However, redoing a bathroom is the most expensive component of a bathroom remodel. I just finished gut remodels of two bathrooms LOL. A shower needs to be very carefully constructed so that it is waterproof and has the correct slope of the floor so that it doesn't drain. An improperly constructed shower will leak and that will cause structural damage which means the poorly constructed shower will have to be redone AND any damage to to the structure will have to be repaired. My shower had to pass three inspections to verify that it was done up to Code and was waterproof including the 24 hour flood test when they block the drain and check to see that the pan (i.e. floor) of the shower is water proof. I love my new showers so they were worth it but lots of people really underestimate what the cost of a new shower is and/or hire people who don't know what they are doing. Neither tile nor grout are waterproof - the waterproofing is underneath the tile of the shower.