OF COURSE there’s a bobblehead Pope Francis!! 
Did I doubt it? No, it simply never occurred to me. And there’s a stuffed pope from Bleacher Creatures (see front). And Chocolate Moose downtown has what it calls “your very own desktop personal Papal pal,” a solar-powered waving Pontiff.
But as part of my ongoing campaign not to collect more tchotchkes, no matter how timely, given the Argentine pontiff’s arrival in Washington on September 22, I look for souvenirs that can actually become part of a working household. Hence my house-key ring from the 1989 French Bicentennial (it’s a brass guillotine, still going strong), my Kemal Ataturk car-key ring from Turkey and my map of Croatia beach towel.
Here then, the Pope Francis tea towel! I’m not quite sure who the audience is, but the Georgetown importer Via Umbria has them on offer, for $6. Mind 
you, the kitchen towel commemorates Papa Francesco, not his American visit. Nonetheless, it will find good company in my towel drawer, cozying up to The Inn at Little Washington tea towel and the Castleton Festival terry-cloth towel.
–Nancy McKeon
Via Umbria, 1525 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-333-3904, viaumbria.com
