Time to lighten up the mood. I just received my Oorah Chinese Auction catalogue and couldn't resist the temptation to flip through. Last year I noted that more and more prizes come in the form of cash (mortgage payments/rent, groceries, utilities, debt repayment). Practical prizes seem to be the wave of the future.
Prize 35 caused me to do a double take! Prize 35 is a MONKEY. The fine print reads: Winner will receive a gift certificate for the value of the purchase of a capuchin, marmoset, squirrel, lemur or spider monkey. The value of the gift certificate shall not exceed $2,800. In states where licensing is required winner is responsible to license. Winner is responsible to comply with all regulations and requirements relating to monkey. Oorah makes no representation as to the legality in any state where winner may reside. Sponsored by: Anonymous
Let's face it, the people of Israel in todays day and age aren't known as dog or cat people. Many of our children are terrified by the sight of a dog. I'd love to know the thinking behind offering such a prize.
The reader with the best explaination will be published prior to the end of Chanukah.
27 comments:
Don't know if Oorah has this in mind, but a few years ago one of my children volunteered for an organization that buys and trains monkeys to assist the severely handicapped. (In particular, those without use of their hands.)
I'd assume that somebody donated it. The question is why an individual would want to do it, not really why Oorah would.
Also, I'm pretty sure lemurs aren't technically monkeys.
I borrow my answer from the Barenaked Ladies (only the name lacks tzniut):
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
Somebody at Oorah is a fan of the Barenaked Ladies song "If I Had $1,000,000", which contains the lines "If I had a $1,000,000 / I'd buy you a monkey / (haven't you always wanted a monkey?)".
(Great song, by the way.)
Also, I'm pretty sure lemurs aren't technically monkeys.
Careful, the path leads to evolution.
Offwinger: great minds think alike...
We were joking about the Oorah monkey all of Friday night!
Arguably the odds will be best for that prize. It can always be resold.
Perhaps they didn't want to insult the sponsor.
Alternatively, its an experiment to see how many people just put in one in each basket without even reviewing the prizes.
Funny - this seems more like Purim Torah than that of Chanukah...
Anon613-London
It bothered me, personally, because if someone wins this who doesn't even look at the prizes (puts one in every box), what will become of this animal? I don't think monkeys are appropriate pets anyway. Wasn't a monkey responsible for literally ripping someone's face off a few months ago?
Deb, that was a chimpanzee -- much bigger, much scarier.
I don't think the monkey has been donated or even purchased -- the winner gets a certain amount of money towards the purchase of a spider monkey or similar pet. We won't be checking off that box, but we know some families that would love a monkey.
I think it is mainly a joke and a wierd prize to get people talking. Apparently it is working as it was mentioned on this blog.
I read on Failed Messiah Blog that Oorah is in trouble with the law.
This is what I get for throwing the Oorah booklet directly in the trash - I missed out on all the fun.
Exotic animals are expensive, though. My former boss's wife & kids once called him from the pet store asking if they could buy a certain bird. How much? $2400.
Monkeys are said to have good midos:
"Hey, hey, we're the Monkees
And people say we monkey around.
But we're too busy singing
To put anybody down."
David-
Why would *anyone* read Failed Messiah? The genuine nazi websites are much funnier and at least they are honest.
Oorah is not in trouble with the law. A lawyer in a civil action leaked their name to the press to help his client. They are not under any investigation. But that's Failed Messiah for you.
Failed Messiah is also working on a story that says Oorah's monkey is really a midget African American. Bid now.
Yehudah
Yehudah, to be fair to FM, the story was originally in the Star Ledger, which is a legitimate news source. You may disagree with the reporting, but the source was not FM.
Oorah has very very high overhead. Compared to other charities, not much of what's collected is actually going to its cause. There has been controversy around Oorah and its cause in the past, not to mention its commercials.
They have high overhead?! I thought the idea of their mail-in auction is that they minimize costs and don't hold an actual auction at a location with all that goes in to making an event.
As for the monkey, I seem to remember that they once had a parrot as a gift.
Oorah has had to settle with at least a couple of states over deceptive advertising in their "Kars 4 Kids" campaign.
According to their 2006 990, they were running at around 58% overhead.
That's very high.
For the family that thinks they have it all.....
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/primates/a/primatesaspets.htm
According to this article, monkeys mean, aggressive, messy, expensive, prone to disease and can live 40 years. They may be cute as babies but if the family needs to go out of town, good luck finding someone to care for the monkey. They do not wear diapers, are rarely toilet trained and do disgusting things with their waste products.
Look how much free publicity they're getting because of that monkey!!!
By the way, much of the advertising in the 58% of "overhead" was actually outreach advertising....
I refuse to allow into the house those freebie goldfish that schools and camps are always foisting onto unsuspecting parents and they want me to voluntarily bid on a monkey?!
They are projecting!
I saw that over shabbos. I do not contribute to this organization but I am making this one exception, I will be putting in for the Monkey. My wife said that if I put in for this chances are we will win it, our luck.
One of the lessons that zoos --AKA wildlife conservations centers -- try to drive home is that wild animals should not be made into pets. Some people end up abandoning their exotic pets when the trouble they cause begins to outweigh their novelty value.
You've all overlooked the obvious.The word for monkey in Hebrew is Kof, which in gematria comes out to 186.The word Kesef" or money comes out to 160.The difference is 26,which is a common donation among Persian and other Jews,since that is also the gematria yud-K-Vav-k.The donor is obviously a Persian Jew trying to get a monkey off his back.I'm surprised no one else thought of it.
The Oorah auction theme this year seems to be Dr. Seuss. Perhaps they wanted to include a Thing 1 or a sneetch but since most of Dr. Seuss' characters are imaginary, they decided to settle for another icon of children's literature. I wonder if this monkey comes with his own bicycle?
When confronted about the lies in their piece, The Star Ledger removed the story from their website. The article misstated facts about Kars4Kids and suggested that Kars4Kids was involved in illegal practices and in laundering money. Both suggestions are false and were never made anywhere, including in the court papers cited by the Star Ledger. The newspaper further misreported on a civil litigation that has nothing to with Kars4Kids.
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