Sensible item: leatherman multi tool (used quite often to unscrew the oil filler cap after A Schwarzenegger has popped by and tightened it up).
Silly item: "lucky" pen.
The lucky pen does not write anymore, but it is the pen I had dangling off my kneepad when I had a fer-real fanstop during training. I know, I know, I know: lucky charms are b******. There's a nice scene in Len Deighton's "Bomber" when the CO finds that his walking stick (which his crew think is an affectation but which is in fact his lucky stick) has been sliced in two by flak whilst parked under his seat. He vows never to take a lucky charm flying with him again (having said that he does buy it 10 mins later falling off a motorbike).
As for me and my silly pen: every time I sort out the bag, I take it out, think "don't be so stupid, chuck it away", then put it back in again.
Other stupid and pointless contents: world's largest collection of dried up map markers (from leaving the tops off: average life expectancy one flight), and packet of those stick-it-on-yer-map compass roses which are all stuck to one another instead.
[This message has been edited by FNG (edited 18 December 2000).]