Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Spa treatments for the Parseltongued

In the now-I've-seen-it-all category: snake massages. Take a little trip to Ada Barak's Carnivorous Plant Farm in Northern Israel, and you'll get to press the flesh with some snakes: big, small, slithery. For about $80 you can have a mass of snakes (corn snakes, milk snakes, Florida and California king snakes) plopped onto your back or tummy and have them squirm your cares away. Apparently the undulating movement of the snakes is supposed to be soothing -- assuming you have no fear of snakes, that is.

The Time reporter who underwent the massage deserves a medal. Or to be put into an asylum. Whichever. Rather than run away in my skivvies screaming, I prefer a nice Swedish massage -- which now seems like the old-lady version of contact, but I don't care a bit....