DC Oddities by Metro

That umbrella in the case ahead killed a man with a single pellet smaller than a pinhead — ricin, fired into a Bulgarian dissident's leg on a London bridge in 1978, and he didn't realize he was dying for three days. Welcome to the cheerful world of the Spy Museum, where the gift shop sells novelty pens and the exhibits make your skin crawl. Here's what nobody tells you: when you check in, you're handed a cover identity, and the museum quietly tests whether you can remember it later. Most people fail. You'll fail too. It's weirdly humbling. Inside, you'll find the lipstick pistol, wreckage from the U-2 shot down over Soviet airspace, and the unnerving story of Robert Hanssen, who sold secrets from inside the FBI for twenty-two years. By the surveillance section, you'll catch yourself eyeing strangers. Two practical things: buy timed tickets online, because walk-ups regularly wait an hour. And go on a weekday morning — weekend afternoons here are wall-to-wall school groups, and tradecraft loses its menace surrounded by shrieking ninth-graders.