Photo: Greg Fuchs

Thing The Gun Lighter The counters of rural highway convenience stores are always riddled with bric-a-brac - titty-lighters, eyeglass repair kits, combination ice scraper-cupholders - the novelties you want, but don't need. Once in a while, you just have to give in. Driving along Du Pont Highway on the way back from a strange trip to lower (also called slower) Delaware, a friend and I pulled over to get a soda at one such store, called Super Soda. Unfortunately, the store's soda selection didn't quite match up to the name's promise. But that hardly matters because what we found was much greater than a Diet Coke. Resting in a plastic case of gaudy lighters was this thing of Western beauty - a gun lighter. Bronze-plated and the size of Derringer, this sharpshooter did nothing but light up - like a blowtorch - when I pulled the trigger. Even though I don't smoke, I had to own it. So on our drive back, I was dying for my friend, who does smoke, to have a cigarette. Ready, aim, fire. The Gun Lighter, $9.99 at Super Soda, 4722 N. Du Pont Highway, Townsend, DE. - Margit Detweiler