• The Window of Possessive Titles

    One of the new window displays at Red Hill. My first contribution: the window of Possessive titles, a trend I can’t stop ranting about. Especially with novels. But still, an admirable array of authors employ this sure-fire titling method. I,…

  • The Grand Gesture and Other Thoughts About Graduation

    An HTMLGIANT/Rumpus Joint Publication

  • Morning Coffee

    Scienceray on spectacular dams: mankind’s way of saying “take that, nature. Of course then you’ve got shipwrecks, nature’s way of giving it right back to us. Japanese street art: sticker hunting in Shibuya. Dan Harms gives a lecture on the…

  • Iran Links

    “With the Marchers: A resident reports from the streets and the rooftops.” The BBC interviews Caspian Makan, the fiance of Neda Agha-Soltan whose murder at the hands of the Basij was witnessed by the world  on YouTube (warning: this video…

  • Getting Everyone All Better

    If you only read one article on health care this year, consider making it the same one as everyone else: Atul Gawande’s “The Cost Conundrum.” Gawande is great on paradoxes, mysteries and ethical conundrums in the practice of medicine, and…

  • Typing Fast and Sitting Still

    Blogging and stillness seem to be contradictory activities: I, along with many others, think of blogging as the relentless and hasty documentation of modern life on the go, news-in-brief for busybusy people. And yet what bloggers are often attempting is…

  • Santa Muerte, aka La Flaca

    Since death is a hot topic at the Rumpus lately, let me share some more quotes from David Lida’s fantastic book about Mexico City, these about Mexico’s newest saint: Saint Death, affectionately known as La Flaca (The Skinny Lady).

  • Iran’s Regime: Marching Toward a Cliff

    A special comment by Tamim Ansary, author of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes The Khomeinist regime in Iran is in terminal trouble; but that doesn’t mean Iran is about to repudiate Islam and become a…

  • Doyenne of the Death Mask

    Silencieux is the mute heroine of The Worshipper of the Image, Richard La Galliene’s little known fairy-tale from 1900. She has no body, only a serene face, and as the narrator begins to tell his wife about this extraordinary beauty,…

  • 90 Miles from Home

    Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés’s stories about refugees from the Mariel Boatlift present the conflicts and loneliness of exile.

  • This Month in Music: A Roundup of Shit You May Have Missed

    This Month in Music is exactly what it sounds like, only by this month I really mean a subjective span of recent time, and by music, I mean music I think you should care about.

  • The Sound of Passion

    Yet another reason to park your child in front of classical music appreciation videos: she’ll be first responder for your next baby! The Sound of Passion.