Order by a click

Every time I donated blood I was asked to pump a ball while they drained me. Not that I did not like pumping that yellow ball with a smiley face, but I was always tempted to carry that ball home. Lately I bought one of those balls and its really effective, what they call as the stress ball.

And now a days you get them in different sizes and shapes.
Just imagine if Louis Armstrong had one of these Trumpet stress balls, he would have been pumping away to glory while practicing in his baritone voice.


We associate Louis with the trumpet, but he was a good singer too.

He also worked for a Lithuanian-Jewish Immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. They took him in and treated him as almost a family member, knowing he lived without a father, and would feed and nurture him. Later he wrote a memoir of his relationship with the Karnofskys titled, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family. In it he describes his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by "other white folks' nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race. "I was only seven years old but I could easily see the ungodly treatment that the White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family whom I worked for." Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life and wrote about what he learned from them: "how to live—real life and determination”
Coming back to the stress balls, now a days you get so many promotional products - just by the click of a mouse. Gone are the days where you had to trudge to the market place to select an item.


Is it going to rain today? Well how about a Nike umbrella ? or maybe some one prefers the single canopy umbrella.



Just a click and place the order and its delivered at your doorstep in a jiffy. You don’t like it, just return it.



Eco friendly things are the order of the day, and I am glad to see some new items in the market which are eco friendly. We all use the pen drive, so how about one made with a bamboo cover instead of the normal plastic cover?

Talking of umbrellas, I remember reading somewhere long back that there are about 114 ways to hold an umbrella. (yes never forgot that figure) Like holding by the handle and using it like a walking stick, or holding at the tail end, or hanging it behind on your collar bone, or maybe just simply under the arm, the possibilities are endless - could be more than 114 !!



Umbrellas were a good prop when it came to musicals and who can forget Gene Kelly with the open umbrella in the movie Singing in the rain or Fred Astaire in Funny Face





I just loved those special scenes where Fred kept shooting Audrey Hepburn.
The things that Fred can do with his cane tapping is just out of this world. Those who love tap dancing should watch this five minute clip. Do see the complete clipping especially the last one minute. Fred is great when it comes to timing.
(I wonder if any one can guess how many men were really there in that last one minute of dance)