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Hi, I'm Rich Tina.
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And if there's one thing we've learned and over twenty.
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Years of marriage, some days you'll feel like killing your husband.
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And some days you'll feel like killing your wife.
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Welcome to love, Mary.
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Kill Hey Tina, Hey rich How are you taking good?
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How are you?
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I'm doing great?
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Great?
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Good to hear good.
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You seem very perky today?
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Sure am. I hope all you listeners enjoyed that theme
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song because apparently you all love it so so much
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and it's just the best ever.
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They do love it. I love it too. I think
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it's great.
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If you don't follow us on Instagram. Recently, I posted
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a poll because I'm not even like being like cute snarky.
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I really don't like her theme song. I've made that
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pretty clear year.
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Since you really tried to. It's been evinced people that
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we should change it.
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I haven't given up, but I posted a poll and
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everyone was like, I love it, Yeah, don't change it. Yeah.
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It was at least ninety percent, and there is a
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fair amount of people that answered the pole. So thank
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you so much for participating in that poll and keep
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enjoying using our theme song fun because they don't normally
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listen to the podcast, but I think I was clicking
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over because now we're on YouTube. I clicked over to
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YouTube just to see how things were going over there
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and a little quiet, but it was I had to
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hear the theme song, and I was like, you still
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maintain that you love it?
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I really do love it. I think it's very It's
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just I feel.
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Like we're kind of perky and the song just is
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just such a downer.
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I don't think it's a downer at all. It makes
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me remember our glorious wedding day.
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You are so wrong because we played music like Weezer, right,
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and we play Weezer, and we played they might be giants,
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they might be giants. It was a very festive occasion,
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and that song is not a festive This.
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Song does make you think of weddings.
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Okay, well, enough about that, you one. I hope you're happy.
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I hope all you listeners are happy to well.
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I have a consolation prize for you, in the form
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of a snack. Okay, would you are you hungry?
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You know what, I am very hungry today. I go
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through days where I'm like I could eat or not,
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and then some days I just want to eat. Like
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a side of beef, and today is a site of
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beef day, so that's good. Yeah, I brought you the
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side of beef.
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Costco corn muffins.
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You shut up. You are the worst husband in the universe.
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We went to Costco yesterday together.
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Yeah you do. You had to, like you want everyone
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to be impressed that he went to Costco. Ladies listeners,
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He's gone to Costco three times in his entire life.
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Who goes every week? Twice a week? Me, I know,
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I'm just I'm just cheesing.
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He's a wonderful I brought the corn muffins.
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It was funny because we went to Costco and whenever
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anyone goes with me grocery shopping, I always say you
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can get whatever you want because I'm just always so
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happy to have company. Yeah, and when you put we
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a lot of times don't always, but we get the
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like a thing of Costco muffins, and we won't go
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into the new smaller sized Costco muffins because we all
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feel a certain way about that in our house because
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we used to cut them in half and I would
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like throw them in the freezer and like you could
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get a blueberry muffin whenever you want. I don't like
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the new ones as much, so I guess I wouldn't.
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Yeah, you said you weren't going to go into it,
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but you did, but.
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Well a little bit. But anyway, you could have picked
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any muffin, and you picked the cornffins. Yeah.
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I love corn bread, I really do, and.
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These I actually really hate corn bread. I don't know why.
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I just really don't like it. Yeah I do, So
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tell us how you felt about the corn muffins.
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I think they were great. I think really good. Yeah,
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but let me bring out the real snacks I bought you.
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They're really not that much more exciting. I think part
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two snack you're going to be really excited about. But
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but part one, I brought you some buffalo Cheetos crunchy.
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I mean Cheetos buffaloes.
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I've never had that.
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Can I apologize? I need to offer apology to you
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for calling you the worst husband in the universe, because
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that might have been a slight exaggerator.
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I was pretty sure you were joking about that. But
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then I also, because this episode is going to drop
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right around Easter, I brought you some peeps party cake
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flavor peeps Peep.
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Yeah, you're back to the worst husband on the planet
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of all the kids in all the world. When have
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you eaten a peepe?
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I've eaten many peeps in my life.
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So the other night we were sitting at the dinner
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table and our kids were like, don't buy peeps. Do
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not buy peeps for the Easter baskets. And our kids
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are definitely too old for an Easter basket, but they
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still get an Easter basket. But yeah, they the peeps
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are great. I just like the doing the peeps. If
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you've never done this before, you take up two peeps
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and you give them, put like stuff a toothpick in
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their beak, and then you put them in their microwave,
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and I don't know, I don't remember how long.
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You do it.
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Because it looks like they're bad like their sort. You
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don't remember this.
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I remember putting them in the microwave, but I don't.
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If you do, like with a toothpick, and it looks
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like they're battling dueling. Oh okay, all right, so you're
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going to make me eat what flavor is.
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The cake flavored? Okay, we'll be right back. What did
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you think about the buffalo crunchy Cheetos and the party
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flavored Peeps.
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I'm gonna have to go with no, no.
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No, no, I'm both. Yeah.
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Really, I mean I love I really love Cheetos, which
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I'm embarrassed to say as an adult like I but
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the Buffalo I am not. I'm not a fan. And
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the peep you know that it tasted like a normal peep.
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The party cake didn't impress me much.
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Wow, Okay, I'm sorry to disappoint you.
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I think you'll appreciate you.
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I think you'll like part two, Sack, let's just do it. No,
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I brought I made it part two intentionally so you
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would have to come back for part two.
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You were worried.
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I'm always a little worried. Give us a rating.
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When I walked into the room, you were like recording
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on your own. I was like, all right, i'll see
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you later.
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Give us your rating for your for the Cheetos.
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The Cheetos, I would go like four out of ten
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and the peeps, sorry peeps, a one out of ten.
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Oh my, how about you.
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I would give the Cheetos a seven out of ten
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and I'd give the peeps a seven out of ten. Wow,
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I can both and I think they pair really well
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together because the cheetos are a little spicy, and then
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the peep afterwards is really very kind of cools your
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mouth off, so I'd recommend them together.
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And you also brought me a gas station soda, so
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that was very nice. If you thank you, You're welcome.
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You are not the worst husband. No, all right, well
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we should talk about the case of Ben Novak Junior
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and Narsi Novak. This is a recommendation from our listener,
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and thank you and for the recommendation. Super interesting case.
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I don't know why I seem to gravitate toward cases
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that are about wealthy people, because I'm just sort of
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fascinated by like people who have a lot of money
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and just screw up their lives in one way or another.
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So this is another example of that. And if I
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have a content warning for this case, it's that everyone,
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almost everyone in the story is a horrible person. It's
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nice to be able to say, like the victim was
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a great presence. No, not in this case. You're not
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going to like anybody noted. In the early morning hours
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of July twelfth, two thousand and nine, screams rang out
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through the Hilton Westchester in Ryebrook, New York. Narsy Novak
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sobbed atop her husband's mangled body. Tape was stretched across
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his face. Both of his eyes had been gouged out.
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Ben Novak Junior was dead. He was the heir to
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a fortune built on an iconic American institution, an eccentric
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and abrasive millionaire who managed to alienate nearly everyone he met.
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With a drug habit, multiple mistresses, and a jaw dropping
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collection of jewelry and pop culture memorabilia. He lived a
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life of excess. There was a long list of people
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who might have wanted him dead. It was the second
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family tragedy in a short period of time. Ben's mother
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had died only three months earlier, seemingly due to a fall.
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Rumors were floating around the family. Narsy and Benja Junior
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had always had problems, but people couldn't help wondering had
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she finally had enough of his running around. Benjamin Novak
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Senior was born to a Russian Jewish family in nineteen
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o seven. He was the youngest of four children. His
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parents were Sadi and Hyman Novic. Ben would later change
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his last name americanizing it to Novak instead of Novic.
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Hyman ran a hotel in the Catskill Mountains in the
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southeastern part of New York State. The area was commonly
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referred to as the Borscht Belt or the Yiddish Alps,
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as it was the premier vacation destination for Eastern European
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Jewish immigrants. Many other hotels and resorts at this time
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would bar Jews from entry, which left a big opening
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in the market, a hole which was filled by many
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Eastern European Jews who immigrated to the area and started
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their own hotels. Ben's father died in the mid nineteen
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thirties and he took over operation of the hotel along
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with his older brother. But Ben wasn't good with teamwork.
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He and his brother fought a lot, and eventually they
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had a falling out. So Ben moved to New York
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City and started Kemp and Novak, a clothing supply haberdasherie.
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This business failed as Ben had another falling out with
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a business partner. You'll see that as a theme as
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the story goes on. Ben had a hard time getting
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along with people, and that also passed along to his son,
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Ben Junior as well.
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So I just asked you if they only made hats,
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because I thought Habitasherie meant a hat maker.
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And that's what I thought as well.
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The Google says that it is a maker of men's.
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Yeah, clothing and accessories. Yeah. I had the same thing
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in my mind that haberdashery meant a hat store. But
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apparently that is not the case. After Ben's haberdashery failed,
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he liquidated all of his assets so that he had
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some money to use to relocate. In nineteen forty, he
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and his new wife, Bella Novak, relocated to Miami Beach, Florida.
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He got very lucky with his timing because upon arrival,
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he and multiple business partners purchased the Monroe Towers Hotel,
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which the United States government then rented out for use
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as a military training after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Ben
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used the profits from Monroe Towers to purchase four other hotels,
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which in turn the army paid him to rent out,
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so he effectively became a hotel magnate off the back
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of government subsidies. Wealth changed Ben almost overnight. He started
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wearing nice suits and shaving his mustache in the French manner.
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He was already a jerk prior to arriving in Miami.
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But afterwards he really became a tyrant. He was cold
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blooded and spiteful and double dealing. He would often try
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to stiff people who worked for him.
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I'm sorry, what is shaving a mustache into the French manner? Mean?
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I just sent you a picture, but it's very much
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like a like just a neat, kind of thin mustache,
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like very well well groomed.
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Okay.
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Ben and Bella adopted a two year old son named Ronald,
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but Ben was an adoptive father in name only. He
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was far too busy with his hospitality business, and he
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often had to take long trips to New York City
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for business. He claimed. In nineteen fifty one, he abruptly
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divorced Bella he had fallen in love with another woman,
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a model named Bernice Stemple. Bernice was born in nineteen