The City will be borrowing $6.5 million at 3.26% to fund some SUPER important projects.
Some of them sound worthy – like water treatment.
Several look very unworthy – like the Hostess House ‘facelift’ and landscaping for the $1.5 million fiasco known as the Jack Calvert building.
At least $1.3 million of this is wasteful spending
The most ridiculous part of this borrowing is that the Feds just handed Lampasas almost TWO MILLION DOLLARS in unsolicited “Covid relief funds”. They got $971,000 last August and will get ANOTHER $971,000 this summer.
They literally had TWO MILLION fall into their laps late last year and they are STILL borrowing more for dubious projects.
I guess it’s kinda hard to make ends meet when LEDC prez Misti Talbert grabbed the first half of it for her idiotic Business Pork project. I believe the other half was mostly spent on a new fire engine (which we won’t get for another 12 to 18 months, thanks to the Brandon Administration wrecking the supply chains).
This is a 20-year bond (August 2042) but can be paid off (called) after nine years at the earliest.
That means they are on the hook for at LEAST 9 years of interest payments – which means $211,900 in annual interest times NINE. Or $1.907 million.
Ergo, they didn’t just put you on the hook for $6.5 million. It’s $8.407 million
If they DON’T (or CAN’T) pay it off early and it runs the entire 20 years, the total interest runs to $2.9 million. Or a grand total of $9,400,000.00 burden on the taxpayer.
Don’t worry though, according to TJ Monroe, “typically, we are able to pay those down within the nine years and have saved a substantial amount of money”.
Hm. Perhaps.
Or perhaps with the Fed finally raising rates back to normal, thus cratering the stock market and the housing market and causing a deep (and much-needed) recession, the City won’t have the ridiculous always-increasing sales tax and other tax revenue to rely on and find themselves screwed by the debt burden.
She holds the title of “Educational Diagnostician”. I am trying to think of a bigger joke of a job, but having a hard time of it. Maybe life coach? Or Economic Development Director? Tough call. At least Mandy Walsh works 11.25 months out of the year. I’m guessing Staruska ‘works’ for nine.
Kathy has worked for LISD for all of one year. For some reason, they saw fit to bestow her with a ludicrous salary of $75,890 on her very first day:
Before this, she worked for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department with no title that I could find – (notice she went into hiding in 2020 due to ‘Covid’):
So, she worked for the TJJ for several years – sponging about $70,000 annually off the taxpayer. It appears she then went into hiding during 2020 because of “Covid”, of course. Then she somehow decided to apply to the LISD and they said “hell yeah! Let’s start you at almost seventy-six grand!”
Which is insane. Does this “diagnostician” add $76,000 worth of value to the school district (actually more like $90,000 with benefits)? Is this a wise expenditure when REAL teachers are currently very difficult to recruit?
The answers are “NO”. Not even close.
This is a joke of a ‘job’ that teaches zero kids all day, pays a ridiculous salary, has amazing benefits, and a nine-month work year. But that still isn’t enough for this parasite. She wants more:
You aren’t a teacher. You are a parasite. You should be fired, so that REAL teachers can be paid more.
Unsurprisingly, she is a rabid, moronic liberal:
More misinformation about an “insurrection” that never happened.
Of course, NOW we know that the vaxxed are being hospitalized even MORE than the unvaxxed. Just Staruska spreading misinformation again!
That last one is my fave. The woman whose job of “educational diagnostician” is the very definition of “non-essential” is posting this. Hilarious.
THIS is where about 30% of your tax dollars go: to overpaid morons who contribute NOTHING to education.
Very soon, the LISD school board will yet again vote to give “everyone” a 5% raise. This will sound good to you, because you figure “teachers deserve a raise when inflation is 10% under Joe Biden”. Just remember two things:
It sure looks like Clayton Tucker is spreading seditious and inciteful rhetoric on his public webpage.
Pocahontas talking about the Constitution? You make me laugh.
Wow. So Elizabeth Warren (a sitting Senator who took an oath to uphold the Constitution yet shits on it whenever she can) is saying that even though the Supreme Court, comprised of the finest legal minds on the planet (ha ha – except Sotomayor!) has decided the Constitutionality of this issue, she refuses to accept the outcome of a perfectly legal and fair debate?
Now where have I heard that before? Oh right…the current January 6th witch hunt and clown parade that is still going on about “refusing to accept results”.
Seems very seditious to me. Especially the ominous “we’re not going back – not EVER”. It sounds like speech that tends toward rebellion against the established order.
It also sounds like subversion of the Constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, established authority – which is the exact definition of sedition. Comrade Clayton Tucker is helping to spread this seditious rhetoric to his 4000 followers as a public figure. Clayton is also an admitted socialist. This means he is actively working AGAINST the U.S. Constitution at all times.
In the old days, before our great country turned pussy, seditious commie scumworms (like Clayton Tucker) were dealt with properly. Now we have ungrateful little assholes (like Clayton Tucker) publicly endorsing socialism while enjoying the benefits of a free-market, capitalist Constitutional Republic from the comfort of his mom’s upstairs bedroom.
I’m not sure what Ted Cruz actually did to warrant Clayton Tucker writing such libelous garbage on a public website. I think it was “something, something, January 6th, something something insurrection, something”.
But Ted Cruz is still in the Senate and is one of the staunchest defenders of the Constitution.
So perhaps we have a bit of projection here? Clayton Tucker is actually the one posting speech that sounds seditious to me.
Also, it is clear yet again that his parents wasted their $80,000 by sending Clayton to Southwestern University for that “International Relations” degree, because he doesn’t understand the first fucking thing about the Constitution.
The federal government has 18 enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. That’s it. They are listed HERE.
If something is NOT listed there (abortion, for example), then by the TENTH AMENDMENT: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.“
Roe V. Wade was a shitty decision back in the 70s. They got it wrong. Abortion is a STATE ISSUE. Period. The Supreme Court now says so. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. By joining Warren and spreading rhetoric like this, you are encouraging citizens to subvert the Constitution – a seditious act.
I’m not sure why Clayton is so up-in-arms about this anyways. You have to actually talk to a girl, then date her a bit before you can knock her up. I see no possibility of any of that in Comrade Clayton’s future.
Or, maybe as a woke liberal idiot who thinks males can get pregnant and menstruate, Clayton is worried about getting pregnant himself? Don’t worry, buddy. All your woke gender beliefs violate established science. O’Rourke can inseminate you as much as he wants with no danger of a baby.
There are useful idiots and then there is Austin resident Stephanie “Potato Head” Fitzharris, who overshadows ALL other idiots. Haywood? Tucker? Mere amateurs. When it comes to falling for bullshit (masks and social distancing), not understanding science (vaccines that don’t work), or cheering loudly and stupidly for the Next Thing (BLM, defund police, Ukraine), nobody tops Potato Head Stephanie Fitzharris of Lake Travis area in Austin.
Readers here are no stranger to this morbidly obese libtarded nut job. I have covered her repeatedly HERE and HERE and HERE.
Seems like just yesterday someone called a friend of mine claiming to be a friend of HERS and offered me $1,000 to not ridicule her anymore. When THAT didn’t work, Miss “Defund the Police” actually got in touch with the police and had them send me a threatening letter to stop harassing her!
Is this supposed to deter me from posting ridicule of you? It will not.
So the clown who wanted to defund the police now wastes police time on sending ridiculous letters to me that do not scare me at all. Because she loves to dish out shit but cannot take it.
Hey Potato Head? You coming here to read about what an imbecile you are and seeing me use your own moronic posts against you on MY BLOG is not “harassment”. Everything I post here is the truth and can be backed up. If you feel shame for being proven a moron over and over, then just don’t ever click over here, mmmkay?
This latest is one of my favorite. Like her other cause célèbres (BLM, defund police, wear a mask) she jumped in with both feet while having absolutely no idea what she was talking about. This is what rich, vapid, empty-nester housewives in Austin do to fill up their empty and meaningless lives.
I’m talking, of course, about Ukraine. She had the flag emoji and all the other nonsense within days of the invasion. She virtue signaled constantly about the evil Putin and the brave heroes of Ukraine.
She also fell for the most obvious piece of propaganda I have ever seen. I couldn’t believe people actually reposted this horseshit, but Potato Head Stephanie Fitzharris of the Lake Travis area in Austin Texas definitely bought it hook, line and sinker:
What a sad, hollow life this woman has. One son is a communist loser who lives far away in Portland with the other losers. The other son went to school in California – no doubt to get far away from his blabbermouth embarrassment of a mother. All she does is sit home and repost memes as fast as she can…hoping to be part of something and to fill the hole where normal people have real friends in real life. This results in her posting obvious bullshit like the one above.
Well, the Ukrainians themselves FINALLY admitted what anyone with an IQ over 100 knew months ago: the Ghost of Kyiv was complete and total horseshit propaganda:
Duh.
Just like social distancing was a myth, using masks to stop an aerosolized virus was a myth, the Covid vax protecting you from sickness and death was a myth, and the BLM bullshit about cops killing blacks at a much higher rate than whites was a myth. Stephanie Fitazharris falls for and reposts them all. Because she has no critical thinking skills. That’s what happens when your skull is filled with starch and very closely resembles a potato shape.
Well, local socialist maggot and fake rancher Clayton Tucker of Lampasas is finally re-tweeting and yapping about his hero and fake Mexican Robert Francis O’Rourke.
He and Robert are close. Verrry close, if you know what I mean:
Always with the man purse!
Anyways, I think socialist scumworm Clayton Tucker of Lampasas really thinks that Robert has a chance of becoming governor in November.
I would therefore like to offer a very public wager on this. I know that Clayton Tucker of Lampasas Texas reads here regularly, and I’d like to give him a chance to make a real return on the allowance his parents pay him every Sunday.
Here you go, Clayton: you can bet on Robert to be our next governor AND I’ll give you 4-1 odds. How does that sound? I’ll do it for as much as you can borrow from your mom and dad. Just run downstairs and ask them real quick. Deal?
Here is a nugget from 2014 about how Lampasas was at a “crossroads” as it tried to decide whether to waste another $1.7 million on utilities for the Business Pork.….complete with a bizarre blurb about a Business Park built in the 1970s that “is 41% full, currently – according to officials”.
Wait. What?
From June 2014:
Two things can happen if the city does not prepare for the coming development, said Kathi Masonheimer, executive director of the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation, development will happen anyway and can make the process more expensive down the road without proper planning, or developers will simply move on down the road to another community.
Lampasas EDC and City Council members met after the city’s regular meeting Monday to discuss the viability of spending $1.7 million to extend utility lines to one of the city’s business parks, followed by several additional millions to build structures on the land.
[Wait…ONE of the City’s business parks?? We have others? BAHAHAHAHA. No way. The disasters NEVER end with this group.]
The city already agreed to invest around $2 million in infrastructure improvements this year to update water, sewer and electrical lines in the city.
Located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 183 and County Road 11, the 165-acre business park has remained a vacant field since 2005.
[Vacant field = weed patch. Also, it’s 150 acres. The LEDC didn’t even know how much land it owned? Classic.]
“There have been many times over the past years where we have had good perspective businesses that were interested in coming to Lampasas, and when they tried to come here there was either not a site with utilities to it or (privately-owned sites would become too expensive),” Neal Leavell said at the meeting.
[There’s that lie again! Also, it’s ‘prospective’, not ‘perspective’. Goodness.]
He explained that other cities do not face a utility problem and can place companies quickly and inexpensively on sites, which leaves Lampasas at a disadvantage.
Utilities were not originally extended to the park because the 2003 bond election that would have funded the utility construction failed, Leavell said.
[They did not consider that possibility ahead of time? Of course they didn’t!]
The site already has been passed over by Motorola, CGI Group Inc. and most recently by Lampasas Trucking and Readi-Mix, which relocated to the area from California in April.
A similar business park built in Lampasas in the 1970s is 41 percent full currently, officials said Monday.
[What the hell? ‘Officials’ said? Which officials? Finley was City manager back in 2014 – was he the one babbling about “a similar park’ built in the 1970s? Another park? Where is it? Is it that cement-covered turd on 580 E they are trying to unload on Martin Custom & Rod? Why would you start a SECOND business park if the first one was not even half full? Because Angelou charged you $25,000 to tell you that? BAHAHAHAHAHA. Jesus Christ!]
“This is a risky proposal … there’s no telling how long it would take to put businesses in this park, but I believe without a site, we’re really spinning our wheels in trying to do economic development,” Leavell said.
[Or you could do BOTH: have a site AND spin your wheels – which is the most costly and useless combination, by the way. Neal Leavell = world-class chump]
“LEDC Executive Director Talbot stated that he has had several economic development inquiries from prospective businesses in the past few weeks.”
That sentence appeared in the LEDC minutes from May 3rd, 2004. It also appears dozens of other times over the five years of minutes I read.
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
I’d say 97% of the time it was just like that: nice and vague. No names given.
The other 3% of the time it was much more specific and everyone got an instant erection and ridiculous dreams danced in their heads of some sap who was going to come here and start handing out $100,000 jobs to everybody with a pulse. They threw money at anything during those times – swallowing the hype over and over.
First it was a $20 million medical center. Then it was “second-tier suppliers” for a new Toyota plant in San Antonio. Then it was a high-tech company and maybe the next Dell! And on and on and on. Like Charlie Brown falling for the football trick that Lucy pulled over and over and over.
Sad.
None of it ever came to fruition, obviously. But that lie has been used very successfully ever since.
Talbot used it. Cherry Hargrove used it. So did Kathi Masonheimer. Mandy Walsh has said it countless times as has Misti Talbert. Yet nothing ever happened. It is the irresistible bait that keeps City council coming back for more and lets the LEDC waste their next million.
Talbot and Angelou Economics told us REPEATEDLY we just needed a Business Park (2000 through 2003) – then we’d have street cred since you couldn’t go to potential businesses empty-handed. AND, you could only apply for free Economic Development grant money from the state once you had a viable tenant (just like today).
“We are turning them away because we have no land!”, was the line they used.
“An economic study in 2001, [Neal] Leavell said,concluded a business park was the main item Lampasas needed to attract development.” – Oct 23, 2015
So the plan was always this: buy the land, use it to lure a business, then use that now-solid prospective tenant to get the EDA grant. They even paid Langford & Associates (remember them?) $1,500 in June of 2004 to do a “pre-application’ for an EDA grant!
So, the LEDC chumps bought the land ($1.1 million at 7% interest for 15 years) like Angelou said, and waited. And waited. And waited some more…
For 10 years they waited and not a SINGLE BUSINESS had any interest in moving into the “business complex”. That should have ended it right there. Talbot was wrong. The high-priced consultant Angelou Economics was wrong. Craig Benton and Judith Hetherly were wrong. All of them were wrong.
But that didn’t stop it! After 10 years, they told us “we need to run utilities into the park! THEN the businesses will flock here.
“We are turning them away because we don’t have utilities!”, was the new story.
They told us tall tales that business would be there any minute!
“Advocates of utility extensions have said entities compete vigorously for new jobs and that cities with ready-to-build sites have an advantage as they try to attract new businesses.” – August 8, 2014
“The incumbent said the city acquired the business park property several years ago but has lacked the infrastructure needed at the site. Soon, she said, the business park will be developed enough to be inviting to businesses. [Then-council-member Wanda Bierschwale] – April 10, 2015
“Grayson said he hopes to develop the business park and attract companies to the site.” [Then-mayor Grayson running for re-election] – April 3, 2015
For another seven long years they waited. They kept trying to convince themselves the entire time that success was just around the corner:
“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017
But no businesses came.
But again, that wasn’t the end of it.
They came back to council in 2021 and assured them that they just needed another $1.9 million – later upped to $2.75 million – to build a couple roads and extend the utilities even FURTHER into the park and to concentrate on a 50-acre area of the 150-acre weed patch.
Misti even managed to grab $971,000 that fell into the City’s lap through the Covid Recovery Act bullshit federal giveaway. That was $971,000 the City could have spent on a lot of things. Instead it will be incinerated with the other millions on the weed patch. Misti facilitated this pilfering by telling that handy and time-proven lie about “we’ve had several economic inquiries in the last few weeks”….
So will the third time be a charm? Don’t bet on it.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before! It echoes today’s situation EXACTLY. Which means none of these people have learned a single lesson.
Back in 2004 – while the LEDC was having tunnel vision about building a “business complex” and spending countless hundreds of hours on committees, sub-committees, task forces, consultants, and all the rest, the FREE MARKET was creating jobs all around them. So much so, that some of the companies could not get any workers!
2/16/2004 minutes:Talbot stated that he had a meeting last week with representatives of Specialty Brands [now known as Ajinomoto Foods] concerning their shortage of SEVENTY EMPLOYEES, which they think is becoming critical to their operations here in Lampasas.
Once again (as today), the LEDC is spinning their wheels and wasting MILLIONS OF DOLLARS when there are companies RIGHT NOW who can’t get enough workers! If you don’t see the insanity in that, then your name is either Misti Talbert or Finley deGraffenreid.
You know who else opened up in 2004 and is mentioned repeatedly in the minutes? The Wal-Mart Supercenter. They are now the third-largest employer in town (184 employees). You know who else was ramping up in 2004? Oil States. They were ALSO having trouble finding workers!
As I read the LEDC minutes between 2000 and 2005, the LEDC morons like Mike Talbot are literally mentioning the “lightning speed” with which Wal-Mart is building their store (that is a quote). They also yammer about the expansion of Specialty Brands (Windsor/Ajinomoto) plant AND the expansion of Oil States!
The LEDC was busy jerking around and spending millions on their useless sandbox while the free market created hundreds of jobs right under their noses! Apparently the irony of this was lost on everyone.
The EXACT SAME THING is happening today! Misti and the other clowns are wasting ANOTHER $2.75 million on this thing [current grand total of $7.1 million and counting] while every single business in town is desperate for workers!
(2) Sell the 150 acres while land prices are outrageous and at least get SOME money back (perhaps $2 million back to the City)
(3) Eliminate the position of Economic Development Director (savings to City of over $100,000 per year)
(4) Ban Misti Talbert from ever holding any position in this town again. Ditto for fellow LEDC clown TJ Monroe.
(5) Eliminate the 1/4% sales tax that has been in effect for two decades now and which funds the slush fund these morons have played with uselessly for 22 years.
(6) Roll back the electrical code from the current ridiculous 2020 version back to 2014 – which is used by Austin and other big cities.
Let the free market do its thing. Get moron bureaucrats and Nerf-job clowns out of the way.
One of the biggest lies the LEDC keeps repeating is that the Business Pork Project is currently in Phase I (the $2.75 million boondoggle recently approved).
I have refuted this repeatedly by pointing out that when the LEDC and City council decided to waste over $1 million in 2014 to “bring utilities to the business park” and “make it shovel ready”, that THAT was Phase I. It actually goes back even further than that, according to the old LEDC minutes.
By calling this “Phase I”, Misti Talbert and the LEDC project the false impression that they are just getting started on this Business Pork debacle. It allows them to ignore 19 years of failure and “wipe the slate clean” as it were.
They even splattered the lie all over the Dispatch today!
Unfortunately for them, there are minutes dating back to 2000 that refute all of their lies. Turns out, this latest money grab makes it like Phase IV or Phase V.
Let’s look at some tidbits from 2003:
12/15/03: Executive Director Talbot stated that he recommends that the Board only approve the work associated with Phase I of the proposal. The Board could then decide whether to proceed with Phase II.
President [Paul] Wilborn asked if the price was reasonable.
Talbot stated the price is slightly high because of the time frame.
[Shocker – even back then, they were constantly overpaying for things and in a rush to get something done, even though they had no idea where they were going. This is seen REPEATEDLY throughout the minutes between 2000 and 2004.]
Talbot stated that Phase I was just gathering information and he would like the Board to authorize any testing that might come up.
Talbot stated that his recommendation is that the Board gives their approval for him to engage Turner Collie & Braden Inc only for Phase I in the amount not to exceed $26,830.00, unless additional testing is required associated with the garbage pit designated on the property.
[I guess Pope Eckermann hadn’t sniffed out this money trough just yet, way back then! Also remember, these were 2003 dollars – which is the equivalent of about $55,000 today]
Board member Hetherly moved to recommend Talbot to agree to the proposal. Hudson seconded the motion and the motion passed.
12/23/03 minutes: Talbot wants to enter into an agreement with SWCA Environmental Consultants for professional services associated with the property the LEDC currently has under contract. Hudson moves to authorize and Hetherly seconds. Passes unanimously. [cost is not discussed here – unknown]
Talbot states the following items have been done:
Surveying work has been completed.
Wow. Surveying work was completed in 2003? That is weird, because Pope Eckermann himself surveyed the SHIT out of that SAME PIECE OF LAND in 2014, 2015 and 2016! As I pointed out back in January of 2020:
Between 2/21/14 and 6/15/16 Pope Eckermann took a $168,740 bite out the taxpayer’s ass. Or about $6,000 per month. To do what? Great question. Here is a sample of just a few entries – it’s seriously almost on a monthly basis! They almost LITERALLY tithe Pope Eckermann on a schedule, it seems. Monthly rent to sprinkle holy water on the sacred site:
You’d think that for $168,740 worth of “serveying” [sic] over two years, they’d learn how to spell “surveying”.
It’s almost like I totally called this back in 2020!
1/19/2004 minutes: The Board has 150 acres under contract. The survey has been completed. All of Phase I field work has been done.
THEN on April 5, 2004 (minutes): “Board member Benton made a motion to authorize Talbot to sign an agreement with Turner Collie & Braden to proceed with Phase II work for the 150-acre Business Complex…Hetherly seconded motion. Passed unanimously.
So THERE is your Phase I (and Phase II) back in 2003 and 2004.
After combing through years of LEDC minutes about the Business Pork, it becomes depressing and frustrating to see how the EXACT same useless ideas are tried over and over and over.
Committee after committee after committee. Economic plan after economic plan after economic plan. Task force after task force after task force.
Below is an excerpt from a 2007 article. It interviews Judith Hetherly. Hetherly shows up repeatedly in the LEDC minutes in the 2001 to 2005 time frame. She was another clown on the LEDC board who was instrumental in wasting money on failed ideas. As you read this, you can’t help but notice the similarities to today. Just substitute Misti Talbert for Hetherly. Both were on City council. Both were mayor. Both were president of the LEDC and both helped waste enormous sums with nothing to show for it.
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun:
Last month, Judith Hetherly took the seat of mayor of Lampasas, a position formerly held by Jack Calvert for the past 16 years.
“I think Lampasas is a progressive city that has a lot of possibilties for business growth and economic growth, and I think we’re going to see that. With the springs we have here, we’re sitting on a gold mine,” Hetherly said.
In fact, the natural mineral springs are what got Hetherly involved in Lampasas politics. The town was thinking of shutting down Hancock Springs Pool, which Hetherly saw as a potential tourist attraction, so she joined the campaign to keep the pool open. Hancock Springs Pool remains operational to this day, and Hetherly remains active in city government.
Hetherly served two terms on the city council and is the president of the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation board. As mayor, Hetherly sees herself as a facilitator, collaborating with city and county officials, the school district and Lampasas citizens to achieve positive growth and a sound economy.
Her priorities as mayor are to develop a recently purchased business park and to work with the newly formed Downtown Task Force to inventory available downtown commercial space and attract buyers.
“We have a beautiful downtown, and it’s here only because of that courthouse,” Hetherly said. “We have never planned for anything down here. It just happened. This task force is looking at where (downtown) wants to go.”
The city council is also challenged with revising the Comprehensive Plan for the city. The plan was developed in 2005, but the broad scope of the document created challenges in implementation. Hetherly said that the plan must be more focused.
Amazing! SAME EXACT BULLSHIT. Task forces. Trying to snazz up the downtown area. The Business Pork pipe dream. She even talks about a Comprehensive Plan developed in 2005!!!!
By my count, that is FOUR “economic plans” the City has wasted time and/or money on. Angelou Economic Advisory was the first back in the 2001/2002 era (cost of $25,000). Then the one Hetherly mentions here from 2005 (cost unknown), then the “Strategic Plan” formulated in July of 2017 by the LEDC and then the Comprehensive Plan that Finley keeps under his pillow from Halff Associates (cost $120,000).
When will these dummies EVER learn that government bureaucrats, central planning, economic development con men who charge by the hour, and endless committees are a colossal waste of time and money??? Truly amazing.
