2014: most unnecessary

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This is the time of the year when writers coast. They dream up their totally subjective best and worse lists for the year that's rapidly coming to a close. Why? So they can focus on the important things...the holidays. So with that in mind:

My favorite absolutely unnecessary household furnishing from 2014 is a new blue lava lamp. 

Invented in 1963 by British accountant Edward Craven-Walker, lava lamps contain blobs of colored wax inside a shapely glass vessel filled with clear liquid. A light bulb in the bottom heats the wax making it rise and fall creating all kinds of wondrously trippy shapes. So simple. Millions have sold in the past 50 years. The appearance of the wax is suggestive of pāhoehoe (thick flowing) lava, hence the name. And who doesn’t want a volcano in a bottle?

Mine is so completely unnecessary because I already have two but I am wanting to create my own archipelago.

So retro. So soothing. So absolutely unnecessary. I just love it.

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