Actually not always better to burn out than fade away.

Since I moved in last Sunday, there's been no light in my foyer, which obviously complicates night time entry. Tonight I removed the glass from the ugly fixture and discovered three bulb locations but only one bulb present- this little compact fluorescent bastard here:

Now, I was under the impression that these never burn out, so I thought maybe there was an electrical problem (sigh). But I popped in a new standard incandescent bulb and it worked just fine, proving that CFL's do in fact burn out. Which could explain a lot of the lighting (or, non-lighting) issues in Casa Brookman. I guess I'm confusing them with LED's (which don't burn out unless you do something real stupid- like running a ton of current to them. Don't ask me how I know that.).

While we're on the topic,  this place is literally the Winchester Freakin' Mystery House of light switches. Apparently Rabbi Ba-ruchman was a somewhat harebrained contractor (according to my neighbor), and boy was he big on an extraneous outlet and/or light switch... usually not aligned properly, often with mismatched switches and plates. Anyone who knows me should know that this is my equivalent of waterboarding torture. 

As I renovate each room, I'll figure which ones actually do something relevant and leave what's necessary. Plus you can get nice two or three ganged switch things like this:

... so I'm sure I could combine some of these and fill in the holes with drywall.