I generally like the new fluorescent bulbs, but they're not good for all applications. I'm concerned that some light fixtures may become obsolete if incandescents are completely banned - for example, the small bulbs in ceiling fans or the flamelike bulbs with tiny sockets used by ceiling light fixture in my kitchen. Also, I've found that the 75- and 100-watt bulbs don't fit some of my floor lamps - their base is too thick to fit into the bottom of the vaselike glass globe. And what about Christmas lights? Are we to trim our trees and houses with hundreds of fluorescent lights or LEDs? Will the $2 string of lights we load up on after Christmas be a thing of the past?

Oh, but one correction - the "experts" that claim you need to don a hazmat suit or go through extreme steps to clean up a fluorescent light that breaks are no experts at all - all you need to do is sweep it up. After all, no one follows extreme steps when an old-style fluorescent light breaks and they have far more mercury than the new ones.

I've wondered about the same thing! I live in an apartment building that's about 50 years old and all 5 ceiling light fixtures either use those little chandelier bulbs, or have a glass bowl or globe that won't fit the gigantic CFL bulbs. I have only 2 lamps that fit the CFLs and I don't like them anyway. I can't find any that provide the right amount of light and the color they give off is a weird, spacy blue-violet glow.

Funny. As I write this, my gf is installing CFL flame-shaped bulbs with narrow necks in the chandelier in the dining room of our new apartment.

Seriously folks, could you actually go out to a hardware store and check the lightbulb aisle? You're living in 1999.

Oh, and re: Xmas lights, LED lights are fabulous -- they're brighter, more intensely-colored, and they basically never burn out. And they cost like 50x less to run, and emit no heat. A friend of mine actually stuffs big paper globes with strings of LED Xmas lights and lights up her living room with them.