Unusual Shaloch Manos

I was just thinking about some of the unusual shalach manos that I have received, seen, or heard about over the years. (While on the subject, I think it is really supposed to be mishloach manos but I prefer the former.) One year, a long time ago, one congregant sent my rabbi an entire whole cooked turkey with all the trimmings. I wonder if he was trying to say something with that or is it one of those times when a "turkey is just a turkey". When I was in yeshiva in Israel over a decade ago, one guy got a hold of a banana bunch that was still attached to the end of the banana branch. He then took a bottle of wine, tied it to the end of the branch via a metal wire, and then carried it over his shoulder and delivered it to his rebbe. I also have a friend who likes to do theme baskets. Some themes he has done: cereal (delivered in a cereal box), coffee (delivered in a coffee pot), and "mouse trap". This last one came with a plastic rat and "rat droppings" in the form of chocolate chips. He himself dressed up as a mouse with his wife as the exterminator.

World's Largest Hamantashen

Angel's Bakery in Jerusalem has baked what is now the world's largest hamantashen, which was made from "200 kg of flour, 400 eggs, 20 litres of water, 40 kg of sugar and other ingredients which combined to make the Hamantashen weigh 570 Kg" (that's 1012 pounds). There was a picture of it in today's paper but I can't seem to find any pictures of it online. Imagine getting that in your shalach manos.

Trivia Night

Last night, my wife and I went to our shul for an adults only, young couples gathering and Trivia Night. The food was actually quite good in which they included wine and cheese (and it was the good stuff too). Each table formed their own team in order to compete at trivia. We also had to pick a name so we appropriately chose the name "Exhausted Parents". In the first case, we had to fill out a "mensa quiz" in which they had questions such as: 24 H in a D = 24 Hours in a Day or 8 T on an O = 8 tentacles on an Octopus We also had multiple choice trivia tests, a pictionary round (in which I had to draw a picture of the word "black"), and a "cut this doughnut using only four cuts and see how many pieces you can make" round. In the end, we tied for 2nd and 3rd place and got movie passes as a prize. Also interestingly, every couple at our table owned a Motorola V551 cell phone.