Are Flashlights the NEW Rice-a-Roni?

Factual Questions
1

Ok, I just saw this on today’s episode of The Price Is Right (TPIR).

Did that contestant in the Race Game play for FLASHLIGHTS?

This has to be one of the worst prizes ever, and it looked like a “supply” of flashlights. I mean come on! you can only use one or two, possibly 3 flashlights at once!!

2

Not if you work in a brothel. You could use up to nine flashlights in a brothel.

3

I donno, some flash lights are nifty neato.

The local radio shack has some of those LED flash lights that I am coveting. They have this one, it’s about the size of a mini mag light, and it has three settings, low LED, High LED, and Halogen. It costs about 60$ CDN.

In popular mechanics, or maybe Soldier of Fortune they advertise Tactical lights, like what the SWATS use. And those lights cost upwards of 200$ American. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.

I would like a set of flashlights. Before I lost my Mini mag light, I used it when ever I needed to find something a la CSI, and I really should have a larger spot light (for hunting deer at night :eek: :dubious: :slight_smile: ) to leave in my car.

So to me at least, a flashlight set isn’t a bad prize. If it is a large set, you can plant the flashlights in strategic locations so that you don’t lose them all at once.

4

“San Francisco treat” joke omitted for reasons of good taste.

Well if you appreciate a good torch you’ll have specialty flashlights and probably many of them. Mag lights are good but I found that TheLadyLion had trouble with the recessed switch because of her long fingernails so I got her a Pelican Stealth Light with a lever switch.

I have a “tactical” light, a Surefire 6Z. It puts out a lot of light. Enough to temoprarly blind someone trying to look into it. This fact can often prevent the need for using a weapon. I got TheLadyLion the new G3 model which is just as bright but lighter and less expensive to carry in her purse.

5

Providing it is a comprable flashlight, you could use more than 3. You would only need the use of one how ever. From what I could tell, the supply on today’s episode was at least 20.

6

I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed that I knew that this thread was going to be about a game show just from the title…

7
      • The “tactical” flashlights are rather dumb, IMO. Firstly many of them are vastly overpriced compared to what they really cost, and secondly, many of them only run for an hour or less before you need to change batteries. Some “super-extra-brite” ones advertise runtimes of 20 minutes. Well, that’s just great for some things I guess, but where I live, a night involves generally 6-7 hours of darkness, so I will stick with the cheap old D-cell lights that can actually run that long on one set of batteries, thanks.
  • I mentioned that I still had an old 2-D cell flashlight online once and some people kept saying how great the new tiny ones were, and that “well duh, you just change batteries more often”. All I can say to that is this: if you had ever DONE anything where you needed an impact-resistant, waterproof flashlight, then you know that the last thing you’d want to have to do is stop and change your flashlight batteries every 20-60 minutes. That one would think that this was no major drawback is in itself telling.
    ~
8

Troy McClure:

Hate to be Mister Thick here, but…care to explain?

9

The best unit I have for seeing in the dark is this cheap, orange coloured, plastic lantern. It runs off D cells and lasts for hours.

10

DougC, tactical flashlights are specialized tools. Using it for extended use is dumb just as using a race car instead of a tractor to pull a forty foot reefer full of beef is dumb. Both are correct vehicles for thier intended job but not for each other’s.

A tactical light lacks endurance but puts extreme brightness in a package not much larger than a roll of quarters. It’s designed differently than an ordinary flashlight, with a momentary action button on the end cap rather than an on/off switch on the side. This allows you to grab it from a purse or pocket and turn it on without hunting for a switch or using both hands. They are actually designed to be held in the weak hand when holding a handgun in the strong hand. There are a couple of places in Arizona that offer tactical flashlight courses on how to best use them with or without a firearm

Yeah, some of them are grossly expensive but I got my wife’s G2 for $29 at a gun show, normal retail is $34. Polycarbonate body, waterproof with O-ring seals. I have no reason to think it won’t last a lifetime. Batteries can be pricey too but I get mine from the manufacturer for $1.25 each which is a fraction of what they cost in a camera store. I don’t go through batteries often as I don’t leave the lights on.

I’m not kidding about the brightness either. You cannot look into one of these and keep your eyes open and that’s with the normal bulb. The 20 minute run time you heard is probably with a bulb twice as bright as the normal one which gives about an hour run time. That brightness can be a good way of preventing a dangerous situation before it happens.

11

I first saw those neato superbright LED flashlights CloudClever was talking about on a trip to San Francisco. I bought one immediately.
It was a treat.

12

DougC , the new super-small LED flashlights often are much more effecient than zenon or incandescent bulbs so that they run into the dozens of hours of continuous use. LED headlights that simply permit you to navigate will occasionally go 100+ hours.

Ah, LED’s…

13

Uh…I don’t get it either… :confused:

14

<sigh> I don’t know what part you need to have explained. You young’uns may not remember the ad jingle Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat. for the renouned rice and vermicelli dish.

If that isn’t the part you didn’t get… <groan> consider the shape of the typical flashlight… Think what Freud would make of it… it will come to you in a minute.

Disclaimer: I am not in the least bit homophobic and I believe my post record will attest to that.

15

Flashlights are cool. Just try finding your way around in an unlit mineshaft, with nothing but a box of Rice-a-Roni.

16

You’d be eaten by a grue!

17

Frotz Rice-a-Roni.

The Rice-a-Roni is now quite usable as a light source.

18

We are SUCH geeks…

19

“San Francisco Treat” NI’m familiar with.

It’s the “you can use nine flashlights in a brothel” line that I don’t get.

20

No no, The Brass Lantern of great Antiquity thread is three threads down. Oh, by the way, can I have that scack lunch in the Kitchen?

Perhaps Zork can tell me why no one is answering the question at hand.

Did TPIR offer 20 or so flashlights as a prize?

“You use the word TPIR in a way I don’t understand.”