Golden Palace Kicks in $10,700 to Help Sick Boy.

Golden Palace Casino has found a way to use their newsworthy publicity stunts to help make the world a better place. Through eBay, they donated (through the purchase of a bumper sticker) $10,700 to help a young boy suffering with a brain tumour have an expensive biopsy. The nine-year-old lad has been suffering from the tumour for 2 years. Although the family's medical insurance covered most of the Million Dollar Medical costs, the family couldn't afford to have it treated.

The medical expenses exceed one million dollars, with approximately $200,000 per year coming out of the family's pockets. Tiffini Dingman-Grover even resorted to selling personal items on eBay to help cover expenses. Then she thought about an eBay auction to get donations to help her son get his medical treatment. After all, if a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich bearing an image of the Virgin Mary -can fetch many thousands of dollars, then surely her son's health was a much better cause.

Bids were topping more than $3,500, and were pouring into eBay when the Web site's officials announced that they were stopping the auction.

Ebay spokesman, Hani Durzy, said the auction posted by the boy's mother, Tiffini Dingman-Grover violated some of the site's rules and would be canceled, along with the several thousands dollars in bids made yesterday toward the cost of treating her son's cancer.

A discouraged but persistent Dingman-Grover posted a new auction which followed eBay's rules, which only allow the mention of donations if a validated charity is the beneficiary. The revised auction bor the heading: "Frank Must Die." (Frank is the nickname David has given to the tumor at the base of his skull), and the successful bidder will win a bumper sticker with that inscription on it.

Then she contacted the previous bidders in hopes that they would visit the new site and rebid. In the first hour, there were 400 hits and bids reaching $4,550.

Dingman-Grover and her husband, Bryn Grover, were bewildered and upset by the decision. "They have so much [junk for sale] online," Dingman-Grover said. "I think this is rotten."

EBay officials said that, although they were sympathetic to the family's situation, they maintain strict standards about charitable donations and other solicitations for money and could not bend the rules.

Two years ago, in 2003, a fist-size tumor was found on the back of David's skull. Chemotherapy and radiation have shrunk the tumor to the size of a peach pit, and oncologists say the boy now needs a costly biopsy at a Los Angeles medical institute to see whether it is still active, requiring continued chemotherapy.

GoldenPalace officials had been following the story, said spokesman Monty Kerr said, and felt compelled to get involved. 'We've had a lot of fun buying strange things on eBay, but when we saw David's auction we knew we'd have to help him,' Kerr said.

Super Bowl Streaker

Before the grilled cheese sandwich, before the haunted walking cane, and even before the $12,000.00 stapler, were the Golden Palace Streakers.

None were more famous than the notorious British streaker Mark Roberts, who pulled off his first successful North American streak at Super Bowl XXXVIII while displaying the Internet address "GoldenPalace.com" as a Henna tattoo on his bare chest and back. (Roberts is recognized by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the world's most prolific streaker)

He snuck onto the field disguised in a tear-away referee uniform. At the beginning of the second half, Roberts ripped his clothes off and ran to midfield wearing nothing but a plastic football covering his privates. Naked Roberts delighted the thousands of spectators by dancing around for half a minute. He had the words "Super Bowl" and Goldenpalace.com written on his back.

New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham leveled Roberts before security finally hog tied and carried Roberts off the field.

Unfortunately, CBS didn't air the streaking event to the worldwide television audience, focusing its cameras elsewhere as he was being chased.

Ebay Auctions Absurd

eBay auctions in recent months have become mutated versions of the theater of the absurd:

• The image of the Virgin Mary on a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich was bought for $28,000.

• A woman selling the ghost of her father to calm her son's fears - walked away with $65,000.00. The ghost resided in a walking cane.

• A supposed 1850s ghost captured in a glass jar was a little more tragic at a mere $201.50.

Makes you think, though....I wonder what I might find in the garage..or the attic...or behind the stove..that would fetch a few easy K's on eBay.

I heard someone say that they had a pile of dog poo which bore the likeness of George Bush's face in it. Maybe they could sell it on eBay, they mused. No, it probably can't be sold, because,well, how could you possibly pick his face out in that? Even if you could, everyone and their dog has piles of the stuff bearing the same likeness.

Haunted Walking Cane?

It would seem a mere $28,000 sandwich nor an absurd $12,000 stapler will quench Golden Palace Casino's insatiable thirst for publicity.

Our favorite publicity bloodhound has moved beyond grilled cheese virgins and paid $65,000 for the ghostly walking cane on eBay. This is a cane that an Indiana woman put up for sale in hopes her 6 year old son would believe his grandfather's ghost would leave their house with it.



Golden Palace Casino will add the "ghost cane" to a growing collection of oddities that already includes the notorious 10 year old sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary.

Kerr, spokesman for Golden Palace Casino, said the cane which Mary Anderson auctioned to ease her 6-year-old son Collin's fears that his grandfather's ghost was haunting their home in Hobart likely will go on tour like the famous sandwich.

Online casino, Golden Palace, Buys Stapler

GoldenPalace.com has purchased staplers autographed by Paris Hilton, Bill Gates, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Donald Trump, and NFL Quarterback Tom Brady. This purchase was part of an auction entitled "Staplers of the Stars", an online charity auction created by Staples.

The approximately $12,000 from the stapler auction, will go to charities such as City of Hope, Global Green, the Harlem Boys Choir and Staples Foundation for Learning.

"We've made it easy to get a truly unique holiday gift for someone while supporting a charitable cause," said Shira Goodman, executive vice president of marketing for Staples. "We're grateful to all the stars who donated their signatures to make this fun and successful."

Oh, c'mon, Golden Palace, do we really want to encourage Paris Hilton's celebritydom? D'oh!