Prowling the booths at Oshkosh last July we were presented with what appeared to us to be the ultimate flashlight, a precisely machined little beauty with enough lumens to melt through a steel door. Very slick. How much, we asked?

“Two sixty five,” came the booth dweller’s reply.

“Dollars?” we whimpered, barely containing our shock at the very notion of a flashlight costing more than we spend on clothes in a typical year. Hell, make that two years. …