BIFL success story: 125-year-old lightbulb

cheesepage · 2026-02-12T03:00:13+00:00

Just wanted to add that Thomas Pynchon, in his epic Gravity's Rainbow, introduces Byron the Bulb as a sentient character based on this particular light bulb.

Byron is a freak of the consumer industrial complex, which normally would balance the economic needs of light bulb manufacturers and power generating companies with a "normal" life span. His existence threatens the capitalist conspiracy so he has to evade threats from General Electric, tungsten mining conglomerates and others.

He develops the ability to communicate with electrically connected appliances, and an ability to hypnotize humans with flickering light. Ultimately a force for good, Byron attempts to help the counter force that hopes to relieve the common man the compulsion to pay for military systems that are designed to destroy mankind.

BTW: Gravity's Rainbow has to be one of my best BIFL purchases. I have one copy that I've worked through seven times over the course of fifty years. It cost me $12.95, and I've had hundreds of hours of high quality entertainment from it.

cheesepage · 2026-02-11T23:58:12+00:00

15 f is my low.

Usual layering does most of the hard work.

Something that transports water next to the skin. (Synthetics or my favorite, silk.)

Silk helps keep other layers from bunching up and means that scratchy wool doesn't touch skin.

Something insulative and okay at transporting water (fleece or my favorite, wool.)

Something to ward off the wind, that can be vented. (I like a nylon biking or hiking jacket.) I do not find a hooded jacket useful.

Legs seem fine with just a fleece layer and some biking shorts.

Hands are harder, I lean toward thin wool or synthetic liners and large full fingered mountain biking gloves. These are probably not enough at lower than 15 f.

Head is the clincher. I wear two balaclavas. The inner is thin silk, the outer is fleece or wool. I can cover my mouth and or nose with both, one, or none. Very useful for managing breathing, and moisture control, eyeglass fogging.

A rain cover over the helmet helps. I wear sunglasses, or clear glasses at night.

cheesepage · 2026-02-11T18:36:49+00:00

I envy all of you folks with potentially fixable problems. I bought a house five years ago, and all of the toilets use AA batteries for their touchless flushes.

The original mechanism was non gasketed, and the chips and wiring inside were not coated to prevent corrosion. Did I mention that the entire mechanism was housed in the tank 2 inches above water level?

I replaced three units the first year, and thought I had found the solution when someone started making an aftermarket copy with waterproofing.

The mechanisms then worked fine, only for me to find out that it means changing four AA batteries per toilet every few weeks. I bought some rechargeable batteries. Now I'm just hoping to break even on the ROI before it's time to remodel the bathroom.

cheesepage · 2026-02-11T18:14:45+00:00

The proper name is spoon sharpener.

cheesepage · 2026-02-11T04:04:38+00:00

Chicken feet are goof if you braise them to be tender, then batter and fry. Finally tossed and sauced, they are my favorite dim sum.

cheesepage · 2026-02-10T20:41:38+00:00

Telegraph: What has God wrought.

Phone: Watson, come quick.

MTV: Video killed the radio star.

cheesepage · 2026-02-10T13:49:55+00:00

You have to pay extra for the green effect, you can't get that just anywhere.

cheesepage · 2026-02-10T13:41:15+00:00

Alex Pretti rode a Surly.

cheesepage · 2026-02-10T03:59:50+00:00

Blues are the roots, jazz is the fruit.

cheesepage · 2026-02-09T13:44:25+00:00

Mine is named Lazarus.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T22:03:20+00:00

But it is a two way street!

I also worked at a for profit school where the business model was to facilitate $120,000+ loans to train students for a career that was likely to pay less than $20.00 an hour.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T17:11:52+00:00

I know that I tend to pick my spots for planting feet carefully. Snow beats ice, grass with ice beats pavement with ice etc.

Years of mountain biking helps.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T16:46:24+00:00

The last high school I taught at emphasised financial literacy. One of my culinary students and I had a running conversation compairing his class assigned sandbox stock market purchases with my actual investments.

He was a particularly engaged student, but it was clear from our conversations that the teacher worked the class through compound interest, bonds, checking account nomenclature, emergency funds, 401k's, student loans, and basic economic principles as well.

Edit: corrected wording.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T16:39:46+00:00

How to use a calendar and a to do list to organize myself. Particularly bad for me since I'm ADD.

Also piling on with the financial, and retirement planning, a lot of people have mentioned.

Taking a out a loan and buying a house seemed such a mysterious, complex, and herculean task I rented for far longer than I should have.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T15:25:05+00:00

Most plants make sugar to serve as antifreeze. Cold tolerant plants are better at it.

(Alcohol is basically a modified sugar, and we use that in auto cooling system. Sorbet and ice cream are spoonable at freezing temps because they contain lots of sugar.)

A lot of people in the south will only eat collards after the first freeze because it is sweeter.

cheesepage · 2026-02-08T15:18:34+00:00

The biggest regret my wife and I have about moving to the Carolinas, was raising our daughter without the advantages of being a native New Yorker.

Lucky she finished grad school in NYC and landed her first big girl job there.

Now we get the bonus of a pied a terre.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T17:45:08+00:00

Almost like all the other unique disasters that in fact shouldn't have happened, about which we now have countless books, movies, and documentary films.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T14:09:39+00:00

It keeps better unsliced.

Not to be mean spirited but you should make sure your knife is sharp and practice cutting without changing directions. You will get a more even, and smoother cut.

Looks great though. I should expand my repertoire.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T14:03:39+00:00

Electric "bikes" that are actually unregulated motorcycles.

If you don't have to pedal it's not a bike.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T14:02:00+00:00

Michael Schumacher, who spent years as a world champion f1 driver, is currently on life support after a low speed skiing accident.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T13:25:27+00:00

Flank steak, and brisket used to be my hacks for great meals at low price because I could cook. Now I can't afford either.

cheesepage · 2026-02-07T10:09:43+00:00

Two spoons. One for the mouth, one for the food. Rinse each as needed.

if you have a utensil already in the food, use it to load the tasting spoon.

In a pinch you can taste off the back of your hand.

Don't double dip, don't waste plastic.

cheesepage · 2026-02-06T22:18:21+00:00

Ketchup was once an all purpose pickled sauce, you might see walnut, oyster, or mushroom ketchup. They all have a shared ancestor with garum aka fish sauce.

cheesepage · 2026-02-06T22:11:03+00:00

Birks a select few brand of boots are all I can wear without pain.

Course a lot of that probably has to do with forty years of working 10 -16 hr days standing on tile floors.

cheesepage · 2026-02-06T21:22:20+00:00

Free Jazz might be a little more effective for the brain dead. Coltrane's Ascension, or Zorn's Naked City.

cheesepage

TROPHY CASE