From today's headlines:
"In an apparent move to polish its tarnished image, Halliburton today announced that it will provide care packages to American servicemen and women currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Included in the care packages is an eclectic assortment of personal and non-military items...[including] nearly 50,000 ukuleles."We poked around to find out more and based on an anonymous poster on the Flea Market Music bulletin board, learned that the soon-to-be-shipping out instruments are actually Flea Ukuleles! Evidently, the folks at the Magic Fluke Company have designed a custom version of the Flea, especially for this program. Dubbed the "Sand Flea," these limited issues ukes feature a desert camouflage face and olive drab colored plastic body and fretboard. We've as of yet been unable to find any pix of the Sand Flea on the web, but send us one if you find it!
The article goes on to note that:
"Accompanying each Sand Flea Ukulele, is a songbook with appropriately patriotic songs, everything from 'The Marine's Hymn' to 'This Land is Your Land.'"Turns out the songbook (which, unlike the Sand Flea, will be for sale to the public) is the latest in the "Jumpin' Jim" series: "Jumpin Jim's Barracks Ballads." As the article noted, the contents includes the old patriotic and miliatry chestnuts, but true to form for the series, the new Jumpin' Jim book includes some lighter fare, such as a new twist on "Camp Granada (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah)" and the WWII ditty "Cleanin' My Rifle (and Dreamin' of You)," here "affectionately" dedicated to Osama bin Laden.
What could possibly be next? A USO tour with Jake Shimabukuro, Janet Klein, and Zooey Deschanel?
One thing's for sure, ukuleles have already proven to be a huge hit with our troops. If you haven't already, please consider making a donation to Ukes For Troops, a terrific organization that's already provided dozens of ukes to our men and women serving in the Middle East. Do it today!
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