I knocked over one of our bedroom lamps walking around in the dark several months ago and it looked like this: The lamp socket broke (the plastic thing that holds in the light bulb) at it's base. Now I wouldn't know what to do, but it's great having a handy hubs. We picked up two new lamp sockets from Lowe's. Mr. F wanted a pull chain since he has a difficult time reaching up into the narrow lamp shade to turn on the light. He put new sockets on both lamps in our bedroom so they would match. lowes.com Here are his instructions for fixing a broken lamp socket. First, UNPLUG the cord from the wall. Really. Then, unscrew the top half of the socket. Gently pull the remaining socket out a bit to get some slack in the cord. Unscrew both terminals and take off both parts off. Here you can see the bottom part that broke. The wires are now ready for the new socket. Now, put the bottom half of the NEW socket on... ...and screw it in place. Notice that the new socket has a brass screw and a silver screw? The side of the wire with the ribs on it goes to the silver screw, and the smooth side of the wire goes on the brass screw. (this is Pam...all of you go look at your lamp cords right now...I never noticed that there were ribs on one side of the lamp cords, did you?) Closeup of the ribbed wire hooked up to the silver screw. The exposed wire is wrapped around the screw and tightened. Then, gently pull the cord at the base to pull the socket into the new base. Lastly, the top half simply twists back on the bottom half. Put in the bulb and shade, then Voila! This is Pam again...I think I can fix my own lamps now that I have the instructions on my blog. Hey, don't laugh...I changed the points in my car 27 years ago when I was stranded in downtown Los Angeles. I was able to do it because Mr. Fanatic showed me how a few days before because they had broken twice in the same week. They never broke again after I fixed them...Maybe I will tell you the whole story someday. Hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! Pam