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That would be a fine match in Bertha's eyes as the son would be marrying extremely old New York aristocracy and so there would be immediate admission into the heights of New York (and Newport) society for their children. There would be no point for a male to marry into the English aristocracy since it was the impoverished males who needed the money in order to keep the estates going - it was transactional.

I suspect that Oscar needs more money although obviously he isn't destitute. By the standards of the day, the Van Rijns live relatively modest life styles in their brownstone - they would be the equivalent of upper middle class and not rich. Keep in mind that up to WW I domestic help was extremely cheap and even middle middle class people would have domestic help full time. The reality is that prior to labor saving devices it was extremely hard work to keep a house clean, to cook and to perform other domestic chores. No vacuums, no refrigerators; coal fireplaces created lots of soot in homes; no washing machines; no electrical appliances like a mixer. There wasn't even an eggbeater at that time as it wasn't patented until 1884 so imagine how hard it was to cook a meal on a temperamental stove fueled by wood or coal.

Of course the South after the end of Reconstruction was worse than depicted. The reason segregation lasted so long was because of the terrorist tactics that were employed - lynchings and cross burnings. The Klan ruled and all of the petty despots like the county commissioner were essentially free to rule their fiefdoms without any control. And it lasted well into the 1960's - if not longer. Southern Trees Bear Strange Fruit.

I think one of the issues with Wendy is that her behavior seems completely inauthentic and just "off". It is like she is attempting to be "iconic" and so has planned certain behavior and statements and then she brings them out even if they make no sense in terms of fitting what is actually going on in the moment. The truly iconic moments on any of the franchises seemed to flow naturally in the moment. Close Your Legs To Married Men - Who's Gonna Check Me Boo and others. I also would hold the theoretical Dr. Wendy with four degrees to a higher standard in terms of what she is wiling to do in order to make money. Unlike some of the other housewives who need the show money, Dr. Wendy would have a perfectly fine fulfilling life without sacrificing her dignity and reputation.

I can't believe that anyone would take Wendy seriously for any kind of intellectual job because she is presenting herself as unhinged and not fit to be a professor or a commentator. Anyone actually signing up for one of her classes - if she is even actually teaching - would be watching their unhinged professor gyrating and essentially stating that someone is jealous of her SOLELY because of her fake tits and other physical characteristics. In terms of the dispute, it is utterly ridiculous but then I don't believe either blessings or curses have any impact. Without singling out Catholism, if you accept any kind of religion, why not believe in voodoo or flying monkeys because they are all equally unbelievable. Who knows what the actual truth is - but based on what was actually on the screen, Nneka appeared to be rational and Wendy morphed into an unhinged lunatic.

It was the Wedding of the Week in today's New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/style/tinsley-mortimer-robert-bovard-wedding.html I hope they are very happy - especially the children who lost their bio mother so young.

Yes you can be a very attractive woman and still be a doctor, lawyer or college professor. However - in my personal experience - most professional women don't dress in outfits in which their oversized fake breasts are being squeezed out of their scanty outfits. Ashley always presented herself as having relied on her looks as a way of earning her living - by marrying a rich old man. Nothing she wears or how she presents herself is at odds with how she has always been on the show. Showing up with her breasts exposed at a First Communion brunch is on brand for Ashley.

The difference was that Dr. Wendy presented herself as a serious academician with multiple degrees. She then morphed into someone who was somewhat vulgar in terms of naming her new over sized tits; naming them; wearing ill fitting clothing to emphasize them as well. It was a complete morph in terms of the kind of "respect" she was demanding from the women in the first season. Karen said it all when she essentially rolled her eyes at what Ashley was going to wear. Ashley has nothing but tits to attract her meal ticket. Not that smart women who are professors and political commentators can't be attractive but in general they don't present themselves as squeezed Into clothing resembling underwear.

It was done to mutually benefit the women since it was going to be aired. Mary is only a friend this season so she only gets paid if she is actually in an episode. She hates going to any of the events so this was probably a "scene" that was relatively non-objectionable to her. Heather gets a scene where she is guaranteed to appear in a relatively favorable light because she doesn't take Mary seriously since she knows she is an ill-mannered lunatic.

My question is how would anyone really know whether it was Holly who was the woman who gave away the baby - the parents could have been dead at that point.

They certainly stretch this out when the story could actually be told in 30 minutes and cover all the bases. I also have this problem with shows that feel the need to recap after an ad break - are there people with such poor memories that they can't remember what happened 2 minutes prior? The only way I can watch these is because I have them on in the background while I waste time doing a digital jigsaw puzzle.

With Aging Barbie HH, I don't think she really is in dire financial straits. She is buying a home that costs more than most Americans can afford. It is much larger than a single person needs - it isn't as if she is living in a tiny studio condo. A more financially prudent move might be to buy a more modest condo and have NO mortgage. The divorced people who suffer financially generally have more limited assets to start with and so it is quite a bit more expensive to have two households when there are minor children to support and/or college tuition.

Mutton dressed as lamb is never a good look.

This appears to be a case in which the child had to parent the "parent" and it appears that she is doing everything opposite from her mother. The daughter even had what is obviously her original brown hair color in a fairly innocuous style. Not that there is anything wrong with that but many women of her age who aren't slavish followers of trends will put a few low lights or highlights in and cut some layers. Surprised there were no comments on the "quirky" to the extreme HH in Washington who claimed she saw millions of colors due to a genetic disorder which her mother obviously kept refuting. Very upfront that the parents were giving her the downpayment money as an advance against inheritance but it must have been a HUGE downpayment for the HH to afford an $800,000 house on her own. She worked in a non-profit company which theoretically can pay a decent salary but it didn't seem like she was the kind of upper level executive who would be commanding a huge salary. While I don't think parents should hold a downpayment over someone's head to force them to get a home the HH doesn't like, if I had been the mother I would definitely have vetoed the house she bought. Expensive plus it needed a lot of remodeling. That refrigerator in another room would not be an inexpensive reconfiguration. And of course the HH reluctantly admitted at the very end that she had no idea how much things cost - like even a can of paint. I can commiserate with the paint as somehow a can of decent house paint is now $50 whereas when I was in college and wanted to paint my room, it was so cheap that it didn't register as a significant expense.

I think sometimes they play up the "quirky" although there are obviously people who are so obnoxious or peculiar that it couldn't possibly be an act. I do think that since the house is already bought, it is relatively easy to set up some kind of "conflict". Whatever has been purchased can be the opposite of what one of them wants. I also think that some of them aren't really planning to spend as much as they claim to spend - so that is a potential source of "fake" conflict. This is especially true when it makes no economic sense to not buy a home that has been upgraded because the upgrades will wind up costing them more than if they had bought a house that didn't need to be upgraded. Unless of course one of the HH is a contractor or designer or someone else in the business and then the fake conflict is the contractor doesn't want to work on his own home on the weekend. And I think what a crock - he isn't going to be physically doing the labor - his crew and the tradespeople he uses all the time will be doing it - and for a price well below what a "civilian" would be charged.

I don't disagree with you but I think the character she is playing is closer to 18 which is the age when she would come out - maybe delayed a bit as her mother wanted to be able to launch her from the new mansion but I don't think she is supposed to be in her 20's. Who knows what the plot will reveal but she didn't seem to be particularly smitten with him and his offer. It seemed like she was just excited that she had gotten her first proposal. Also - having just finished watching Pride & Prejudice - the one with Colin Firth for reference - 🤫🤫 Oscar's proposal was hardly one that was wildly romantic in terms of what a naive young girl would imagine in terms of someone sweeping her off her feet. It was very pragmatic in the same way that Mr. Darcy's first proposal to Elizabeth Bennett was very formal. At least with Mr. Darcy, his true feelings of passion are revealed at the end - Oscar is never going to achieve that kind of passionate intensity. As I recall, in the first season, Bertha Russell voiced what she would see as a suitable suitor - an impoverished Lord would be okay but I don't think that Oscar is really going to be the kind of stupendous match Bertha wants and I don't think George would be willing to give Oscar an enormous dowry in defiance of his wife's wishes - even if Glady's wanted to except. It is all very low key and doesn't seem as if this is a hill that Glady's would be willing to die on so to speak - Oscar isn't Mr. Darcy.

Of course he was manipulating her but the marriage of convenience he was proposing was actually a better situation than a lot of the marriages these heiresses were forced into. It appears that Gladys isn’t completely smitten by him although she is accepting him as a valid suitor. I would assume that she is naive enough to actually think she can marry for love and Oscar really doesn’t present as someone a young girl would swoon over.

That she was working - and it didn't appear to be for charity. At any rate, in that era "ladies" don't actually do work for charity - they organized fund raisers like the one that was held in the first season. They weren't volunteering for nursing duty with Clara Barton - or even administrative work. The whole Settlement House movement hadn't begun in 1882 - it started a bit later and then the more "progressive" women of society actually did do a bit of charity "work" with the Settlement Houses which might have included teaching children or women. However, even that was considered to be a bit "out there" - i.e. just extrapolate it to different levels of progressivism among the elite that you see currently - not that different. The same on a certain level will be seen as the younger generation - or the more progressive element of the elite - adopts different aesthetics for example. The original Arts & Crafts movement was an intellectual one that was a reaction to the Victorian aesthetic as well as the age of industrialization. The Gamble House in Pasadena was built by one of the Procter and Gamble heirs as a winter house and is a stunning example of Arts & Crafts albeit one that has exquisite Tiffany chandeliers and tiles. But it is the antithesis of what the elite taste was of the earlier generation. Even an "intellectual" like Russell's son or his real life counterpart Stanford White is building in that baroque style as an aesthetic given.

Oscar didn't suddenly fall in love with her - she was rich and Oscar has lineage. He was proposing essentially a marriage of convenience where she would be his beard and she would be free to do exactly what she wanted which would have included affairs. Ironically and sadly marriage to Oscar would have probably been much better than the marriages that the real life Gladys entered into. The nouveau riche fabulously wealthy heiresses were not married for love or even affection. Many of them were forced into awful marriages with penniless English aristocrats. Edith Wharton's novel The Buccaneers - Consuelo Vandebilt was unhappily married to the Duke of Marlborough. Her dowry of $2.5 million restored Blenheim/ FWIW, in 2023 that dowry was approximately $75 MILLION DOLLARS. Part of the backstory of Downton Abby, the characters (the current Lord & Countess) had married in an exchange of American title for money. Her money was used to subsidize and support the estate. Cora's background was nouveau rich and as I recall she was even half Jewish - making her even more unacceptable. Of course in the fantasy of Downton, they fell in love and her an almost perfect marriage unlike the true reality of most of these marriages with the trade of money for lineage. And of course in one season he managed to lose all of her money.

My god - I guess being "quirky" in West Virginia means having the same color hair that Dale Bozzio (lead singer of Missing Persons) had in 1982 - or Cyndi Lauper during the same period. Anyone who has to mention how quirky they are is not quirky at all - especially when there really is nothing unusual about them at all in terms of their actual interests, style, background or job. And oh my god the name - there are studies indicting any unusual name can have adverse impact on a child. But a name associated with negative behavior patterns. Not quirky - just stupid. And trying so hard Can you imagine someone trying to get a professional job with that name on their resume? And she falls into the same category as other HH who bemoan that any home lacks "character". Most homes lack "character" - that is what you do by decorating the house in a way that reflects your own taste and personalities. Until I remodeled relatively recently, I never thought the style of my kitchen cabinets reflected my personality.

Obviously people lived in walk up buildings and raised children for many years without an elevator. However, I couldn't imagine deliberately moving into a walk up without an elevator if I were expecting or had young children. The husband is not going to be around to assist every time the woman needs to go out with the child - and hauling a stroller, a child as well as any packages is going to get old very quickly. I don't think delivery of items really helps that much and might cause other problems. Amazon and equivalent don't deliver to your door in an apartment building and so you face the possibility of theft and still have to carry items upstairs. Instacart is extremely expensive between the markup on the goods; the service fee; the delivery fee and a tip of at least 15% - especially if you are asking someone to haul stuff up three stories. Having stairs in a private home is completely different because you can leave items downstairs like a stroller and you can bring in packages gradually if necessary because they would be safe inside your home.

Cheap kitchen in every way. That design was intended to have an island which was probably a $5000 upcharge. Without the island the kitchen lacked storage and also aesthetically it looked off. I don’t think an island is mandatory and often it is squeezed into kitchen remodels so it isn’t functional but that specific design needed an island.

Arsenic and Old Lace perhaps? 😂😂😂🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷

Makes me nostalgic for college and Boone’s Farm Apple Wine. 😂😂😂😂 I can’t imagine a viable business selling strawberry wine. Maybe elderberry wine 😂🤷‍♀️

But they are making wine for sale to the public - that is their business. Not to be snarky but I once read a prison cookbook and I am not sure learning how to make wine from a convict would result in a sought after wine except perhaps as a novelty. How do you make prison wine? Prisoners fill baggies with fruits, fruit cocktails, water, sugar, and whatever else they can get, warm it up, and let it ferment for a while. Within a few days, the reaction is complete, and the noxious homemade brew can contain anywhere from 2% to 14% alcohol.