Souvenirs

Over the years, Larry "Big Al" Jordan has experimented with a number of moneymaking schemes. He has peddled everything from cocaine to chocolate chip cookies, human hair to hiking boots. But none of his ventures -- or misadventures -- has generated the kind of cash flow and acclaim he now enjoys from the simple sale of T-shirts featuring the name of the neighborhood where he grew up: Watts.

TEXTILES have been part of Taos' economy and culture since the Coronado expedition first introduced churro sheep to northern New Mexico more than 450 years ago. Soon after, the now-iconic striped Rio Grande blanket appeared. Today, the artist colony is a locus for all things woven, from Navajo rugs to high-end knitting. At Weaving Southwest, the rugs are treated like high art: mounted on crisp white walls with gallery lighting.

MY children, at 7 and 5, have discovered money. Not the value of it but the fact of it: how good it feels in your hand, in your pocket, that more is better -- though "more" is still defined in quantity rather than denomination. And they've learned that if you give a clerk enough of it, she will let you walk out of the store with a new Bionicle or My Little Pony.

VISITORS to Santa Fe, N.M., can spirit home a bit of Indian tradition in the palms of their hands. Zuni fetishes, tiny stone carvings in the shapes of animals, are believed to summon each creature's traits within its owner. Snakes help discard old habits and views, for instance. Bears assist in healing, and frogs bring fertility. Part of the Zuni culture for more than 1,000 years, fetishes continue to be crafted at the Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico.

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" not only has people debating the last hours of Jesus' life but also running out to buy such souvenirs as crucifixes, lapel pins and cards tied to the film's promotion. A particularly popular item is a pendant fashioned from a single nail made of pewter and attached to a leather strap, say officials of Bob Siemon Designs, licensed by Gibson's Icon Productions to produce jewelry tied to the film.

The removal of souvenir debris from the scenes of the Sept. 11 attacks reached the highest levels of government, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III's chief of anti-terrorism, a Justice Department investigation has found.

A Riverside man working for a U.S. government contractor in Afghanistan was carrying Soviet military explosives on an airplane that landed in New York, authorities said. Shaun Louis Marshall, 26, who is free on a $25,000 bond, has been charged with five counts of transporting explosives and ammunition on an airplane, according to an indictment filed by the U.S. attorney's office. He will be arraigned Friday in federal court in Brooklyn and, if convicted, could face 20 years in prison.

For souvenir hunters, the next best thing to looting one of Saddam Hussein's palaces is scrounging for war curios on the Internet. The list of trinkets ranges from Bomb Saddam hot sauce and Iraqi Road ice cream to Hussein pinatas and "Shock and Awe" underwear.

A Jordanian security officer was killed and three people were injured Thursday night when an explosive device that authorities believe was a journalist's souvenir from Iraq exploded at Amman's Queen Alia International Airport. Security officials said baggage screeners at the airport noticed a metal object in an unidentified Japanese journalist's suitcase. When the guard, Sgt. Ali Sirhan, examined it closely, it exploded.

Three human skulls found in the trash at a Duarte mobile home park may have been put there by a woman who said they were souvenirs of her late husband, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The skulls caused a stir Friday when a 12-year-old girl brought them to her Covina school, saying that her grandmother had found them, and asked if they were real, authorities said. Sheriff's Lt.