From my "you kids get offa my lawn!" file, strike-anywhere matches are lousy now. They have smaller heads and the sticks splinter easily. Book matches are both rare and really unreliable. I occasionally run across a small, ancient stash of Diamond kitchen matches and am amazed at the difference. Similar deal with Bics--they have cheaper strike wheels that can unravel and I can no longer find any with an adjustable flame. Also, the flints occasionally disappear by some evil magic. Still better than the generic options, though.

The advantage of a match is you plunge it at what you need to light with the flame on one end and your fingers at the other. A Bic and most lighters puts the flame at your fingertips, which is...suboptimal. I have a metal refillable butane lighter that stays lit with the top open so I can pretend it's a match. I like that. Zippos, of course, do the same but I don't like how they leak fuel.

The pyrotechnic REI matches have a strong flame but don't seem to stay lit when the head is consumed. My favorite Optimus Fire Lights, or whatever they were called, are no longer available. They were fat firestarter sticks with a match head that you'd strike to light, then place in your tinder as a chemical firestarter. Brilliant.

Now, offa my lawn, the lot of you