curwhibble [KUR-wib-ul] (noun), TWITO, page 37
A thingamajig or whatchmacallit
"Many thanks to your honor. What pretty curwhibbles and etceteras! I’ll hang ’em to my watch to give it a travelled air.”
--Anonymous, "A Captivity among the Rockites," in The Metropolitan (1831)
More junk. There are many objects around my home that one might call thingamajigs, whatchmacallits, or even curwhibbles. For example, something I found in a Chinese junk shop that hangs from a floor-lamp's switch. This whatsit has a little metal fan on top, from which is suspended an oddly shaped brass bell with some inscrutable writing engraved on it. And from that hangs a coin of some sort, with a square hole in the middle. There are bas-relief dragons curled around the hole, as if guarding it. And there are also red tassels hanging from various parts of this thing. I guess you could call it a bell, but it's much more than that. Altogether, when suspended, it's about 10 inches (25 cm) long. It is completely useless. And that’s what I like about it.
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