Hmmm...interesting. Either my memory is too fuzzy, or this is yet
another
example of a subtle change that occurred in 1997 (if I even have the year
correct), and which I've failed to note. They appear to have kept in the
general (non-Alaska) exception for gyroplanes, powered parachutes, and
weight-shift-control aircraft.

I could swear that, at least at some point in my past, they permitted
general "no night flying" certificates, even for pilots outside of Alaska.

You're correct... but they closed that. Now, you can only get the
exception living in Alaska, but I _think_ you have to go back and do the
night stuff within six months or something like that. I had to do the
night training (which led to a last-minute hop the night before my
checkride to get the rest of the landings in) but it was all done with
an instructor (the XC is a story for a different time...). I think they
closed the exemption because too many people were trying to cheat the
restriction and were having accidents (read: got themselves killed) so
they figured it was better to make everyone do it even if they aren't
going to use it again. Now, we can debate the intelligence of VFR XC's
at night in single-engined airplanes for a long time to come...
personally, I don't fly more than a few miles from my home area (where I
can reconginze the landscape and airports, and can orient just by seeing
Atlanta on the horizon) at night, and even then I won't go without a
working, lighted GPS.