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DC offers opportunity for eating acorns in Foggy Bottom – WTOP News

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DC offers opportunity for eating acorns in Foggy Bottom – WTOP News


At the exhibit, you can learn how to mash, refine, and cook acorns. You can also engage in a variety of activities like acorn shuffleboard and ink painting. The latter is the result of the murky water left over after cooking tannins out of the acorns—to make them safe for eating. The more you know!

WTOP’s Matt Kaufax reports on the D.C. ‘Acornucopia.’

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Turns out those pesky nuts falling from the sky onto you and your car, and littering the D.C. area ground in late fall, are more important to the planet than you might think.

A new exhibit at the Smith Hall of Art on the campus of George Washington University celebrates the most unlikely of foods: acorns.

“‘Acornucopia’ is a wonderland of earthly acorn delights!” exclaimed artist and educator Shawn Shafner.

Shafner, who is also a graduate student and published author, says the idea to not only look into how to make art using acorns, but also how to sustainably use and dispose of them, came to him a while ago.

‘Acornucopia’ is the fruit of his labor—and it tastes…oaky.

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“If you’ve seen me around campus, you’ve probably thought I was crazy, gathering all my acorns for this exhibit,” Shafner joked.

Shafner says ‘Acornucopia’ champions the acorn as an unvalued resource, both as a food source AND the genesis of new life in our ecosystem.

“It’s also a powerful instigator of forests,” he told WTOP.

To boot, Shafner says coming out to GW to see the work can support a good cause.

“We’ve partnered with Tomorrow’s Trees, an initiative of the Potomac Conservancy,” he explained. “Most of the native oak seeds you see here are donated to them.”

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Acornucopia also happens to be a ton of fun.

At the exhibit, you can learn how to mash, refine, and cook acorns. You can also engage in a variety of activities like acorn shuffleboard and ink painting. The latter is the result of the murky water left over after cooking tannins out of the acorns—to make them safe for eating. The more you know!

“If you can crack the code, and you’re willing to put in the time to do an awful lot of cracking, then you can know what otherwise the squirrel only knows,” Shafner mused.

‘Acornucopia’ runs Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Smith Hall of Art at GW until 1 p.m. But if you miss it, Shawn says his acorns will be back starting December 6, as part of another exhibit on GW’s campus called ‘(Up)Root(ed).’

(Up)Root(ed) is all about getting in touch with native and indigenous cultures, and will feature an exhibit on native plants—including oak trees.

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With 17 different kinds of oaks on GW’s campus, Shawn says he plans to collect more acorns, and have an acorn cookout on December 8.

You can find the invite to “(Up)Root(ed)” here.


Be on the lookout next week for an upcoming episode of WTOP’s ‘Matt About Town’ series too, where WTOP’s Matt Kaufax does his best morning talk show host impersonation—to cook and eat fresh acorns with Shawn!

‘Matt About Town’ airs every Tuesday and Thursday on WTOP, with video pieces on wtop.com.

If you’ve got an idea for a feature story Matt should cover, reach out via the WTOP “contact us” page to submit your idea.

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You can also contact Matt directly. His contact information is listed below. 

Check out more of “Matt About Town” on WTOP.



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Washington, D.C

D.C. souvenir shops know what teens want: Bucket hats and Trump merch

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D.C. souvenir shops know what teens want: Bucket hats and Trump merch


WASHINGTON, D.C. — From the moment I Love DC Gifts opens at 8 a.m., Khalid Ismail is ready for “the storm.” A pair of tour buses can roll up at any minute and unload a hundred teenagers to speed shop at his family’s store.

“It’s literally like a hurricane,” said Ismail, 30, who quit his corporate job in Dallas to help his father, Kadri Ismail, open the store two years ago. “They’ll just drop off 100 kids, 115 kids, 130 kids multiple times a day, every single day. … It’s a completely different level of busy.”

Most tour groups have just 15 minutes for a souvenir mad grab before it’s back to sightseeing.

Despite reports of an empty downtown D.C. still gutted by the pandemic, the city’s souvenir shops see such deluges on a regular basis. The gift shop is a core component of the quintessential student trip, and D.C. trips are a year-round industry.

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Peak season strikes during spring break and the first six weeks of summer, says Brooksie Robbins, vice president of North American Operations for EF Explore America, one of the many tour companies that were out shopping on a recent Tuesday. Between June and August, the company has thousands of students on hundreds of trips and tours in D.C.

On the same day, six tour buses were idling in front of another souvenir shop a few blocks north of the White House. A blond chaperone held the door open for her flock of tweens in matching red T-shirts commemorating the trip.

“This is what you’ve all been waiting for!” she chirped as they filed inside.

Students flooded in for merch — keychains, mugs, flags, ornaments — candy and soft drinks, or just a break in their educational agenda. And bucket hats. Lots of bucket hats. American flag ones, Washington, D.C. ones, political ones.

“This fits my personality,” one boy said, wearing a white bucket hat with Donald Trump’s name stitched across the front.

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“Where’s the RFK Jr. stuff?” another student asked.

Trump visors and RBG bobbleheads

Back at I Love DC Gifts, Khalid Ismail said the best-selling item is a cherry blossom sweatshirt that says “Good Vibes.” Even in June — months after the city’s famously fleeting flowers have come and gone and daily temperatures approach 90 degrees — the sweatshirt dominates. Ismail said he’s never seen anything bewitch customers so fervently, although Trump merch is a close second: T-shirts with his mug shot and visors with fake orange hair flowing out the top.

“We have no horse in the race, politically. Like, we don’t care, but man — people love him,” Ismail said. “Anything Trump-themed, anything with his name on it … people are buying it.”

Luke Wilbur has noticed the same. Wilbur, 56, used to own Washington DC Gift Shop on Pennsylvania Ave. The pandemic forced him to close, and now he runs DCgiftShop.com. Although he tries to stock an equal amount of Republican and Democrat items, Wilbur sells significantly more of the former.

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Wilbur’s not convinced that means much for the outcome of the presidential election. Only that “conservatives purchase more products by far,” he said.

Plus, “when Trump has rallies, they’re all wearing the hats,” Wilbur said. “He’s a marketer … I mean, Trump was selling water.”

Some souvenir purchasing behavior is seasonal. Across the street from the U.S. Treasury Building at White House Gifts, anything with eagles sells out around the Fourth of July. Christmas tree ornaments are hot year-round. So is anything with the presidential seal or the likeness of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Even though she’s passed, everybody loves her,” the shop’s owner, Jim Warlick, said, pointing at an RBG bobblehead lined up alongside ones of America’s most famous presidents. “We’ve never had anything for a Supreme Court justice other than her. She’s just so popular.”

Warlick, 71, opened White House Gifts in 2008, a dream that stemmed from his interest in American history and entrepreneurship. There was also a fateful trip he took to D.C. when he was 12 and bought a bust of President John F. Kennedy.

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“I said ‘One of these days, I’m going to live in Washington,’” Warlick remembered.

In his younger days, Warlick dropped in and out of college to work for political campaigns and elected officials, then realized he could make far more money selling campaign buttons. He expanded his offerings, making campaign posters and stickers, and eventually opened his first Washington gift shop in 1992.

Five presidents later, the American public is still hungry for patriotic merch. Our appetite for what to buy, however, has evolved. Postcards barely sell these days and political pins are out (because people don’t want to put holes in their clothing, Warlick guesses); pet gear and fast fashion sunglasses are king.

“Ten years ago, people didn’t buy socks, but they do now,” Warlick said alongside a rack of novelty pairs knit with famous faces. Counter to Ismail and Wilbur’s findings, Warlick’s supply of President Biden’s socks were sold out last week while his rival’s version remained plentiful.

Warlick also gets a different clientele than the other shops. More of his foot traffic comes from White House tour runoff than big bus loads.

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“We get some,” he said of the bus business, but not as many as he could. Warlick said some shop owners with round-the-clock bus drop-offs “pay the bus drivers.” He said he’s been approached to go into deals with drivers, “but we can’t give away half of what we sell.”

Robbins, of EF Tours, said “there’s no financial relationship that we have with any of the gift shops” but that some are better suited for big bus groups than others. Shops need to have a “diversity of inventory,” including both snacks and souvenirs, maybe a bathroom and the infrastructure to handle and process a swarm of young adults.

I Love DC Gifts meets that criteria. The store is across the street from Ford’s Theatre, where President Abraham Lincoln was shot, and directly next door to the Petersen House, where he was carried after the assassination. Ismail motioned to a wall of tourist T-shirts. “We share walls with where Lincoln died,” he said.

That proximity alone isn’t enough to guarantee customers.

“Buses are stopping in front of us, but that doesn’t mean they’ll come to us,” Ismail said. “It’s the positivity from the bus drivers and tour guides, the relationships we built … we go to dinner with these people, we know their families.”

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Warlick is doing fine without the bus business. White House Gifts averages 3,000 customers a day in the summer, and he’s knee-deep in side hustles.

For example, Warlick had five replica Oval Office structures built that he rents out to movie studios. One’s set up in a building around the corner from the gift shop. Customers who spend at least $50 in the store can have their photo taken behind the desk, or from a replica White House press briefing room at no charge.

Or the traveling exhibit he created about Kennedy, populated with historic artifacts Warlick bought at auction. Exhibits included one of Jackie’s bathing suits, one of JFK’s shaving kits and two of his limousines.

“It’s just part of preserving history,” he said.

History isn’t necessarily part of the equation for Ismail. He’s hooked on the chaos and joy of dealing with hoards of customers at I Love DC Gifts.

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“It gives me a purpose for life … it gives me energy, like vigor, if that makes sense,” he said. “How many people live and die to have an opportunity like this?”



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DC police impound 167 scooters, issue 172 citations and arrest 61 people in first 10 days of scooter crackdown

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DC police impound 167 scooters, issue 172 citations and arrest 61 people in first 10 days of scooter crackdown


D.C. police impounded 167 scooters, issued 172 citations and arrested 61 people in the first 10 days of ramped up enforcement, according to a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson.

Most of the arrests were for operating a scooter without a license, and most of the impounded scooters lacked registration.

Police began random checkpoints last week.

D.C. police say the message is clear for scooter drivers: have completed registration complete, have a license and have insurance. 

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Last month, D.C. legislators introduced the Moped Registration Accountability Act, which would require rental companies to register their scooter fleet and ensure they are insured. Businesses would also be required to show proof of registration and vehicle classification before selling the vehicles. 



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John Barrasso accuses Deb Haaland of ‘political sympathy’ with pro-Hamas vandals who damaged DC

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John Barrasso accuses Deb Haaland of ‘political sympathy’ with pro-Hamas vandals who damaged DC


A Republican senator has charged President Biden’s interior secretary with showing “political sympathy” for pro-Hamas vandals by not cracking down on thousands of demonstrators who descended on the White House last weekend and marred monuments in the nation’s capital.

John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a Thursday letter he was “deeply troubled” by the “clear acts of violence and vandalism” committed by “pro-terror, anti-Israel agitators.”

“Disturbingly, police reported no arrests following protesters’ clear acts of violence and vandalism, leaving many questions unanswered about the adequacy of the response to this incident,” he told Haaland.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is accusing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland of exercising “political sympathy” by not cracking down on pro-Hamas protesters at the White House last weekend. JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

“I question whether political sympathy with the agitators influenced your department’s response to these acts of violence and vandalism.”

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Thousands of jihadi supporters defaced statues of the French military leaders Comte de Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette, who aided the Continental Army and George Washington in defeating the British during the Revolutionary War.

Another statue of former US President Andrew Jackson was also vandalized after almost being toppled by demonstrators four years before during rioting following the death of George Floyd.

“Death to AmeriKKKa” the protesters scrawled on the statues, along with “Long live Hamas” and “Muslims 4 Hamas.”

Additional fencing had been erected by federal authorities to protect the executive mansion ahead of the demonstration.

President Biden was not in Washington at the time, but was in France for commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

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Thousands of pro-Hamas protesters defaced statues of the French military leaders Comte de Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette. Getty Images
“Death to AmeriKKKa” they scrawled on the statues, along with “Long live Hamas” and “Muslims 4 Hamas.” Getty Images

Neither the Metropolitan Police Department nor the US Secret Service reported any arrests in the immediate aftermath, according to the Washington Free Beacon and the Washington Post.

The National Park Service (NPS) has also not yet assessed the total damages to monuments and other property.

A spokesperson for Metro Police confirmed on Friday that “no arrests” had been made “related to the protests near the White House.”

The National Park Service and Secret Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Biden paused a weapons shipment to Israel and administration officials have pushed for a cease-fire — but he has faced ongoing opposition from his party for backing Israel. AFP via Getty Images

One of the groups organizing the protest, the ANSWER Coalition, accused Biden of crossing a “red line” by allowing Israel to invade Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas, and called for an immediate cease-fire and end to US funding for Israel’s war against the terror group.

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Biden, 81, paused a weapons shipment to Israel and administration officials have pushed for a cease-fire — while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stood firm on the need to eliminate Hamas from Gaza before concluding the war.

The wartime decisions come as the president faces an uphill battle to re-election in 2024, with tens of thousands of “uncommitted” voters in battleground states opposing him over his administration’s support for Israel.

Also on Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill to enforce mandatory minimum prison sentences on vandals who mar statues and destroy other federal property.

“These overt criminal acts, committed on your watch, necessitate your unequivocal condemnation and decisive action to help bring these agitators to justice,” Barrasso wrote about Haaland in his letter. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“These overt criminal acts, committed on your watch, necessitate your unequivocal condemnation and decisive action to help bring these agitators to justice,” Barrasso scolded Haaland in his letter.

“As the Secretary of the Interior, your support of the [US Park Police] and National Park Service is paramount to the security of our federal lands,” he said. “The brazen assaults and subsequent vandalism are stark reminders of the vulnerabilities faced by law enforcement officers and rangers who serve and protect our national treasures.”

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“Your strong and immediate response is essential in affirming our national commitment to the rule of law and the safety of our federal personnel and properties,” the Republican added.

Barrasso has asked Haaland to answer questions about her department’s coordination with other local and federal law enforcement departments to hold the vandals accountable. Getty Images for Outdoor Recreation Roundtable

Barrasso has asked for the Interior Department to answer questions about its coordination with other local and federal law enforcement departments to hold the vandals accountable and ensure the future safety of park rangers — at least one of whom was assaulted during the protest.

When offered the opportunity to respond to Barrasso Friday, an Interior Department spokesperson told The Post: “No, thank you.”



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