The UrbanTurf Holiday Gift Guide

• November 30th 2012

by Mark Wellborn

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be two of the biggest shopping days of the year, but they both pale in comparison to the traffic that UrbanTurf delivers to product websites around the world when it publishes its annual holiday gift guide. Think Oprah’s Favorite Things for those that love DC and home furnishings.

Below are the gift ideas that UrbanTurf staff handpicked this year.

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DC Typographic Map

This map depicts the streets, parks, neighborhoods, waterways and physical features of our city using nothing but letters. Traffic circles, like Dupont and Logan, are centered on large bullet point symbols. The Potomac and Anacostia rivers are illustrated as white text on a dark blue background. The one downside to this map? The designers left out portions of Wards 5, 7 and 8. Similar maps are also available for Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle, among other cities.

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What it Was

You hear his name a lot these days when it comes to writing about the real DC, and we are big fans. George Pelecanos and his special brand of detective novels have become more and more popular in recent years. While the characters have changed (private investigator Nick Stefanos has been replaced by Derek Strange), the references to the DC that those outside the city rarely hear about are still prevalent on his pages. One UrbanTurf editor read his latest work, What It Was, in just about a day…because it’s just that good.

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A Speaker Showerhead

For those that love singing in the shower, this is the gift for you. The Kohler speaker showerhead is exactly what is says it is: a speaker built directly into a showerhead. Because it is Bluetooth-compatible, you can play music wirelessly from your iPod, phone or tablet. The only question is whether or not the music will drown out your vocals.

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The Green Line is Fine T-Shirt

This is probably the type of gift that you buy and take back home to give to your Dad. He will then wear it proudly as he goes grocery shopping or out to grab coffee, hoping that someone recognizes one of the station names from their time in DC and gives him a high-five or a pound.

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Lockitron

With that name you’re probably thinking that this gadget is a cross between a deadbolt and a cultish sci-fi movie, and you wouldn’t be far off. Lockitron slips over the deadbolt lock of your front door, and using Wi-Fi technology, allows homeowners to lock/unlock their door via their smartphone. So if you’re out at dinner, you could check and see if you remembered to lock the door; or you could unlock the door for a friend coming to visit. You can reserve the Lockitron now, but it won’t start shipping until May 2013.

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Bus Token Earrings and Cufflinks

Before the fare card and SmarTrip, the only way to gain entry into DC’s public bus system was by using a token. And if you grew up going to school here, there is no doubt that you lost more than your fare share of these little coins (pun intended). Now, two artists have commemorated the token, as both earrings and cufflinks, using genuine tokens from 1973. Here is a link to the cufflinks and one to the earrings.

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Panic Button Light Switch

With the possibility of an apocalypse and dropping off the fiscal cliff before the end of the year, how could you not want to replace your light switch with a panic button? The Panic Button Light Switch Replacement Kit can be used on virtually all light switches and can be used as a dimmer or slammed on and off in a…panic.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_urbanturf_holiday_gift_guide/6368.