I gave my wife some very thoughtful gifts this Christmas, but one in particular she hopes to cherish for a long time to come.  The gift is very practical.  It at once represents both history and hysterics--history because this gift is perhaps the quintessential invention and hysterics because this gift reveals the continued imposition of crazy regulations.

The thoughtful, nay brilliant, gift I gave my wife is the 60-watt incandescent bulb--several dozen, in fact.

This old icon of "the idea" has become the new enemy-of-the-state, along with its dimmer sibling, the 40-watt bulb.  In 2012 and the start of 2013, the elder 100- and 75-watt bulbs were snuffed out by overbearing regulations.  Beginning January 1, 2014, out go the lesser luminaries.

Choice is off.  Chinese mercury lamps are on.

Well, at least until the incandescent filaments fizzle out, my wife will enjoy reading and working around our house in the familiar, and dare I say patriotic, light of a great American invention.

Regardless, here's to a happy and enlightened New Year! 

Anthony J. Sadar is author of In Global Warming We Trust: A Heretic's Guide to Climate Science (Telescope Books, 2012).