Morning Coffee
Did you know that in the 1950s and 60s the CIA used prostitutes to test out the possible mind control effects of LSD on the general populace. Operation Midnight Climax…
Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
Country Music in Kenya & Mumbai
“Country music has fans wherever people are departing rural areas. In other words, worldwide. Turns out that the weeping tunes about better days can be understood even without understanding the…
Stephen Burt On Enjoying New Poetry
Over the weekend, I finally got around to unboxing and shelving my archived litmags in the new apartment. As I placed my issues of the Believer back into magazine files in…
Ryeberg: The curator for YouTube fatigue
Ryeberg is a site that features videos curated by various contributors accompanied by short essays. Contributors include Mary Gaitskill, Russell Smith, and the reliably compelling and often as reliably insane…
An Excerpt From Zeitoun
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business.
Movies Briefly, Stripes (1981)
Few movies deserve an “Extended Cut” but I can think of few that deserve one less than Stripes, which was already twenty minutes longer than necessary in its original theatrical…
But what if I believe in Bigfoot AND werewolves?
Science Daily says that British historian Brian Regal says that Darwinian evolution killed werewolves, replacing that myth with another sylvan mystery, our old friend Bigfoot. Not sure I’m entirely buying,…
Writing, Joni Mitchell, LA and Other Things
Your poem sounds like a Joni Mitchell song I’ve never heard before.
Morning Coffee
Sarah Palin threatens to sue the Internet. (we don’t generally go here, as this is plenty covered on Huffpo and everywhere else, but when someone threatens to sue the Internet…
How to Save a Neglected Book
A reader writes to Cynthia Crossen at the Wall Street Journal, “Morley Callaghan is my favorite 20th-century novelist. His “That Summer in Paris” is among the best of memoirs. ……
An Oral History of Myself #10: Jenni
I treat people the way I'm treated, with the same respect. I'm not worried about your feelings.