Crisps and Light Bulbs

When I was young I used to love a bag of crisps, the crackly feel of the bag in my hand, and that delve inside to find the dark blue twist of salt. I'm British, of course . . . to Americans or Australians this would be 'potato chips', I guess - but to me, and especially to the childhood me, crisps.  Flavour: potato, plus salt, if added.  Later, while at high school, such flavours as 'cheese and onion' and 'smokey bacon' appeared - dangerously modern.

Now, of course, snacks have a whole economy of their own, and come in a bewildering display of shapes, sizes, colours and flavours.  So it should be no surprise that, today, as I sit at my desk I can see a van outside my office window that is delivering "retail snacking solutions" to the shop just down the way.  Well, that's what it says on the side, anyway.  Clearly, there's a "retail snacking problem" that requires a clever, inventive and sophisticated response . . . or at least, a bit of neat marketing.

The number of varieties of light bulb on the market has also expanded exponentially.  We needed a new bulb for the office kitchen;  in the old days almost the only question to ask would have been "60 or 100 watts?" Or maybe, "Clear or pearl?"  Now there are long lifes, halogens, tubes of many different shapes, LED's - the list, if not endless, is certainly a very full one.  They may be bayonet or screw - but there are different sizes these days to each of those - but they might be neither of those anyway, there are two pin and four pin bulbs and tubes (the one I needed, I discovered when I eventually managed to work out how to dismantle the light fitting, which was flush to the ceiling, was a four pin coiled tube).

I realise that I'm straying into 'angry old man' territory here, and I'm sure all these varied snacks taste wonderful, and each different variety of light fitting delivers top quality lighting, appropriate to each situation.  And choice, of course, is the great god of our commercial times.  But now and again, do you not just wish we could have the simple old days back again?