SALT LAMP(oon)

On a recent trip to Kingston, Ontario we were exposed to a lot of the same general products we see in small town boutiques and antique stores around south eastern Pennsylvania. Gourmet food stores carrying $18 bottles of mustard and $24 boxes of rosemary flavored crackers; female clothing stores offering unknown designer dresses for $300 and contemporary costume jewelry pieces for upwards of 400% of their actual value; antique shops with broken chairs for $95, torn hand-woven welcome mats for $240, and frayed-wire lamps for $120; health food stores peddling fresh herbs & spices, exotically natural lotions and Himalayan salt lamps.

Himalayan salt lamps are generally found to be light orange to burnt ochre. Carved from natural salt crystal, they are generally suitable to fit atop small end tables or window sills and have been hollowed out to accommodate an incandescent bulb & its fixture. Popular for their effusive attractive glow, they are commonly used as nightlights and for those situations requiring "ambient mood lighting". There are known claims of the salt lamps' health-promoting properties (such as the ability to release ions that purify the air), but these postulations have not been substantiated and are, at present, recognized as 'pseudoscience'.

[photos courtesy the author & the internet]