Cigar lighter!!!

I found my lighter socket in the car to be all of a sudden faulty the other day. Initial thoughts were "Gaaah, a wee niggly problem that I might have to get a electrically inclined mechanic to look at." Hassle.

When I mentioned it to Mrs TFP, she informed me that it could possibly have been caused by a certain 3 year old stuffing coins into it. Ah ha, short circuited, blown fuse. Quick owner manual consultation informs me which socket the 'Cigar' lighter fuse is located in. Quick extraction to find the fuse had indeed well and truly blown. Wee trip to the garage to get and replace said fuse and we're fine and dandy SatNav/phone charging back up.

Over the last couple of days, I've been referring to the socket on the car as the owner's manual does, the cigar lighter. This has raised a few eyebrows and comments about the use of the word cigar over cigarette. As I explained, it's size is more befitting of a cigar than a ciggie.

Anyway, this got me to thinking that I really don't think of it as a cigar/ciggie lighter but rather the power socket. I think most people don't consider it in it's original incendiary usage these days, for less people are smoking and I would hazard a guess smoking in their cars and I would guess would light up using the immediacy of a lighter instead. A bit of a cultural zeitgeist phenomena.

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Notes on the Picture
This was an active attempt to find something that would highlight well in Blip's fabby new large format feature. Adds new considerations to the blipping process. It is brill though. Thanks again BlipCentralites.