According to the Mayans, the end of time is scheduled for 2012. And then what? All that yoga and Pilates for nothing? Carry on as if you don’t know, I say, something might come up and there will be an extension so it’s good to be prepared. Besides, the Mayans may have meant to say it’s the end of light and it just got lost in translation. Last week I was in Ikea looking for cheap and cheerful things to decorate my personal ashram when an announcement came on: “Incandencent lightbulbs will be phased out by 2012 and LED lights will only be available.” Seriously, is this more Al Gore buffoonary forced upon us? Aren’t LED lights like the devil you don’t know? They are full of mercury. If you drop one and it breaks, you have to hire a crew wearing Hazmat suits to clean it up and you need to check into a hotel for a few days while they detoxify your house. Blue LED has been linked to all kinds of health hazards including disturbed sleep and even cancer. And the lighting is UGLY!!! I have them in my hallway and the atmosphere feels like a lobby in a cheap resort. I am stockpiling incandescent lightbulbs from here on in. They are getting harder to find, they’re certainly not at Ikea. By the way, I actually had some good luck there with a discontinued chair and an area rug, but not for lighting fixtures which was what I was looking for. Anyway, how bad can incandescent light bulbs be? Folklore has it that they can make them so they last forever but they don’t so you have to keep buying more. Lots of things are like that including time, so you can’t really begrudge the manufacturers. If an LED bulb runs out, you have to shlep to a depot that disposes of them safely. Regular light bulbs you can make crafts out of with the children, check out this delightful reindeer here. I found the perfect light fixture at my favourite antique shop in Leslieville, Machine Age Modern. They have a lot of sixties style furniture at pretty good prices:
Machine Age Modern, 1000 Queen Street East at Carlaw
Here is my lamp proudly lit with incandescent bulbs, along with the drapes I HUNG MYSELF with a drill I bought at Loblaws. Who needs a man anyway? I am woman, hear me whirrrrr:
And for your viewing pleasure, here is the rest of my personal ashram:
