A bazaar range of political souvenirs

A few convention delegates are making the ultimate bet that Senator John F. Kerry will win the White House in November: They're buying $40 Christmas ornaments in the shape of his head.

The ornament is one of many politically themed souvenirs being peddled this week to the thousands of visitors to the Democratic National Convention.

There is a deck of Kerry playing cards with President Bush as the Joker. In the way of pins, delegates have an array of choices, from ''Alligator Wrestlers for Kerry Edwards" to ''Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot."

A pair of enterprising Massachusetts gardeners is selling boxes of ''Thyme for Kerry" and ''Beat Bush beans."

''I want stuff that screams my beliefs to the world," said Travis Sheive, who came to Boston from Houston to see the convention. He bought a dozen pins.

One hawker, Harry Schuster, flew in from Tampa to sell voodoo dolls of Republicans and Democrats. ''I'm a capitalist," he said. ''That's why we're selling both sides."

Tony Baltes, a pin maker from Ohio, was eating pizza recently when he overheard a man yell to his friend across the restaurant, ''Aw, you're nothing but a chowdah head."

''I looked up and said, 'What's a chowdah head?' " Baltes said. ''Believe me, you don't hear that in Darke County, Ohio, very often."

A pin was born: ''Chowdah heads for Kerry Edwards."

Of course, all the road closures, security restrictions, and random bag searches around Boston have pin makers dreaming up yet another button: ''I survived the Democratic National Convention."

Sasha Talcott