Yep. The other thing I didn’t mention was that Nxivm put all of the groups up in a hotel in Albany during the weekend. When we found out what was really going on, we were mad. Mad, drunken, stupid early 20's college kids. In a hotel that Keith Raniere paid for. It was not a good recipe.

What college were you from? Were you there?

Yeah I don’t really see the appeal of BCS at all unless you’ve seen Breaking Bad. You have to really be invested in the world Vince Gilligan created, otherwise I could see why it would be so boring.

Weird coincidence - I’ve been catching up on that show and watched that episode yesterday on a flight. Love BCS!

No - they cast a relatively wide net. If I recall correctly, there were groups there from all over the Northeast, not just the Albany area. Binghamton University is two hours from Albany.

Thinking back on it, the whole thing was quite clever actually. College students, and people in general at that age, are in the tail end of that time where they reflexively follow authority without question. Furthermore, that’s a time period where all kinds of things college-bureaucracy-related require sensitive…

Are you referring to a college a cappella group? No, I’m not. Binghamton Crosbys.

I can neither confirm nor deny that.

I would love to speak to one!

I looked this up again to refresh my memory - and yes, he created an a cappella group called Simply Human. They performed at the festival. And everyone was wearing all white, not all black. There’s photos and videos here:

Ha! Too bad it’s sold out. Kiefer Sutherland is doing... something? there on May 17 so get your tickets now before they’re gone!

One of the things Keith Raniere repeatedly claimed was that he was in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest IQ or some shit like that. He constantly bragged about how he was one of the smartest people alive. It would be funny if it weren’t pathetic and sad.

Not that I’m aware of. At the time we thought it was absurd to the point of hilarious and we were all basically making fun of this guy and his followers to their faces. Not sure if other people from other a cappella groups got involved though. I do know that because we fucked their shit up, they never held another one…

Some believed us because they felt weird too, others thought we were being weird conspiracy theorists ourselves. This is what concerned us enough to look this guy up:

The sex cult, according to media reports, didn’t exist at this point. Nxivm at this time was shilling some professional self-help pyramid scheme BS. We sensed bad culty weirdness - they weren’t really trying to hide it, or just didn’t think we were smart enough to notice - and did a Google search on someone’s laptop…

Really interested in what Ilana Glazer has to say about this. I find her to be an incredible hypocrite and I kinda love that Shania came out as a trumper since they are both so obsessed with her.

I was in an a cappella group in college that met these wackos. They staged an “a cappella festival” in order to recruit young impressionable college kids with means into this crazy cult. Our group was the only one who did our research and looked these people up while we were there. One of the nights of the “festival”,…

That lender shows me 5.33% fixed for 10-year term. Still not worth the hassle. Ugh.

Peak wine season tends to be early-mid fall (fall foliage is especially enjoyable) but there has been an explosion of breweries and distilleries as well, so really all of summer and fall are really awesome.

I have private loans through Navient and the weighted average interest rate is 5.5%. I cannot for the life of me find a lender that will go lower than that, maybe 5.45% and that’s not really worth the hassle. I have a pretty decent salary and a 795 credit score. Where CAN we find those 3% interest rates? Or should I…