A POSSIBLY USEFUL GADGET: At the grocery store today, I ran across the Energizer Quick Switch Flashlight, which uses AA, C or D batteries in the same flashlight. This seemed useful enough that I bought one and tried it out. It seemed to work fine with either AA or D cells — I didn’t have any C batteries handy to test it with. It’s a nice idea for an emergency kit — and the Energizer literature specifically sells it for that — as it will work with whatever batteries you happen to have on hand, or are able to scrounge.

Construction quality is OK, but the all-size battery tray is a bit flimsy-plasticish. Fine for an emergency kit, but not for long-term hard use, I’d say.