Funny Business

Published: Friday, 10 Jul 2009 | 4:14 PM ET

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It's a relief, living in La-la land, to read that other people are more bizarre than we are. They even have the successful business models to prove it.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a Tel Aviv plant farm known for its Venus flytraps has expanded into a spa where customers pay for massages using snakes, as rats nibble at their feet.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Ada Barak's Carnivorous Plant Farm is run by a 54-year-old biologist who tells the Herald, "It's a very sensual experience" to have snakes writhe over your body as "tamed Australian rats" bite your feet.

She claims Madonna's people have even called asking for a possible private session when The Material Girl performs in Israel in September. This may be Israel, but this is hardly Kabbalah.

Barak's business really took off after Tyra Banks brought her and her snakes to the states for a televised demonstration. We found a clip of it on YouTube (go in about a minute and ten seconds to see the massage, and nearly three minutes in, the snake accidentally goes down Barak's shirt, as Tyra Banks screams her head off throughout).

Gee, it looks really relaxing, doesn't it?

The snakes apparently poke into nostrils and ears on occasion, but a Herald reporter who submitted to the experience said, "It didn't seem so awful after all. Almost soothing, even."

Barak claims a customer from Paris recently complained, "She hadn't had a man in her life for several years...the snake massage gave her the push of a lifetime." Not sure what Barak means by "push", but submitting one's body to snakes and rats may explain why the woman hasn't had a man in her life for several years.

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