The refrigerator light went out today. All the joyful packaging of my mustard bottle, Pepsi’s, fruit on the bottom yogurts, and sundry other items are now muted to the point of non-eye-catchedness and non-consumer-greed-inducingicity.

It reminds me of the days when affordable and reliable refrigeration was readily available, but the convenience of electric light on demand had not yet been invented. I shudder to think of an entire nation plunged back into these, now personal, Dark Ages. Where, little Silas, reaching purposefully for a nutritious pudding pack, comes out mistakenly with a cup of wheat germ. The horror, the horror…