Miscellaneous: Things We Need Words For

Things we need words for: A small machined metal or molded plastic part separated from its intended application carefully preserved in the (usually) vain hope that someday it will become apparent what it was made for and where it belongs. These things are clearly important and probably irreplaceable but not where they ought to be. The sort of little bit that, if you have it, the thing it goes to is ten times more valuable than an example of that thing missing the little bit you can't figure out.

Miscellaneous: Things We Need Words For

Things we need words for: The uncracked or barely cracked pistachios that accumulate at the bottom of the bag, having been repeatedly rejected for the easy-to-open ones.

Miscellaneous: Things We Need Words For

A mysterious small object that creates an alarmingly loud ring as it shoots up the vacuum cleaner hose and disappears before you've had a chance to see whether it's something worth digging for in the vacuum cleaner bag innards to recover.

Speaking of useful words, a while back I came across a wonderful word for marks that look like writing but aren't writing--think of the marks in some of Cy Twombly's work, or imagine fake calligraphy. Does anyone know this word? I've been unable to remember it. It's something I'd like to recover from the vacuum cleaner bag that is my brain.

[Update: Someone has reminded me. The word I was looking for is "asemic."]