The Refurbished Light Bulb

The bathroom light bulb burned out. I removed it, shook it, dropped it in the trash, and planed to buy another. As I looked at the bulbs, there was a particularly cheap brand, so I picked it up and read the box. Beside the lumens, watts and hours was a sticker with manufacturer, distributor and warning information. The last line read “refurbished”.

I looked it over carefully before screwing it into the socket. How does one refurbish a light bulb, I thought, and then gave up hope on the US trade deficit.