They're good for...
* Cleaning out the air intake in the wood stove (mine, anyway).

* Formed into a chain with one opened into a hook, to retrieve your keys from a grate. If the clips in normal shape aren't long enough, open them out into S's and pinch the openings together. (Ha! You didn't think the lowly chain was good for anything, huh?)

* Marking the last page you read in the book.

* Holding the pre-cut mylar circle that fits inside your wool or fleece hat when you need extra warmth, or holding the mylar (folded) inside the rolled-up cuff of same hat when you just need a little warmth.

* Small shish kabob holders.

* Holding the dangly earrings to the dog's ear hair as part of a Halloween Floozie Carpoozie costume. (Those little squeeze clamps were too heavy.)

* With half of it straightened out and the other half still bent, you've got a little poker with a handle to stab small prey before it escapes, to retrieve it off the hot rock for eating, and for poking into squash vines to kill the borer inside the stem.

* For holding bait in the trap so it can't be stolen without tripping the trigger.

* Cleaning wax out of your ears.

* Makeshift barrette.

* I've heard they are good for pitting cherries, but I just use drinking straws.

* Lightweight chain linker.

Six inches of wire can be useful for all kinds of make-do.

Sue

American english cotter pin - a bit of wire with a "D" shaped cross section, folded in half with a loop at one end. Used to retain parts.

British english cotter pin is a different animal. Never heard of it being used in the US, but I'm under 50. Weird shaped tapered pin?

Short out a 9v battery to make a field expedient lighter.

Blow gun darts when coupled with a wad of paper on the end to stabilize in flight.

One or two of the larger ones can be used to splint a broken finger.

Essential item.

When collecting water by the plastic bag/transpiration method the water should be frequently removed to encourage the plant to produce more.

The cut corner is best sealed by a fold and paper clip.

Heavy-duty twist tie. BTW an even better twist tie material is the plastic-coated wire in toy product packaging, used to fix many toys to a cardboard backing. It may not be too late to dig some out of your trash can from Christmas, hurry !

Retrieval device. Straighten out a paper clip then bend a tiny hook into the end, to fish for something in a tight place, behind a hole in drywall, etc.

Reminder. Kindof like tying a string to your finger, clip it to your shirt pocket, etc.

Bic lighter safety device. You can keep the button on a Bic lighter from depressing unintentionally by wrapping wire or twist tie material around the body of the lighter and passing it under the button. (Don't let this keep you from testing them periodically; as others have noted the flint material seems to go unexpectedly sometimes.)

Rocket launcher. When I was a kid we made these little rockets from a single paper match that is wrapped with chewing gum foil, covering the match head and 2/3 of the match "body". (Regular foil was too heavy, and it was a good excuse to use up chewing gum. I don't know if gum is covered with real foil any more.) A paper clip that was bent open to form an angle of about 30 degrees served as the launch pad. We placed the rocket on the paper clip then held a lit *wooden* match (wooden because it burned longer) under the paper match head. After 10-20 seconds the paper match head would ignite and the rocket would shoot a few feet. Caution: don't try to scale this beyond a single paper match, people have been seriously hurt by things like that.

Steve