The Garden of Eden
Pretty quietly back in 1994 archaeologists found huge stone carvings buried in Turkey. About the size of the boulders at Stonehenge, these unique rocks are more than 10,000 year older…
Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
Once the Shore: The Rumpus Review
When I first encountered Paul Yoon’s story, “Once the Shore,” the opening piece in Best American Short Stories 2006, I felt the rush of a new discovery. In the first…
How Not to Lie
Alexei Tsvetkov calls Prague “a place where you wait for something to happen.” It’s from there he wrote this dispatch on the occasion of his recent (somewhat permanent) departure. It’s…
The Rumpus Interview with Jason Kottke
“The site was becoming unmanageable as just a hobby… so I decided I either needed to quit the site or turn it into something I could live off of… The…
Ben Tolman’s Microscopic Surrealism
Wandering through Ben Tolman’s online gallery of pen and ink drawings can quickly turn into a search for what’s buried among the ornate camouflage. Like looking through a microscope onto…
Kindle: Definition
From Merriam-Webster: Main Entry: kin·dle Pronunciation: \ˈkin-dəl\ Function: verb Etymology: Middle English, probably modification of Old Norse kynda; akin to Old High German cuntesal fire Date: 13th century Definition (1):…
The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks
It’s a tricky thing, a memoir of a death: you know how it’s going to end. The challenge for the writer (not only with regard to the conclusion) is making…
Words Before the Doors Close
For a certain segment of the American Mennonite population, a segment whose ancestors passed through and lived in Germany, the language of the old country was low German. Low German’s…
The Best Show You Aren’t Watching
The Internet is the new Television. But way better! Childrens’ Hospital is a Web series written, directed, and starred in by Rob Corddry. David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, The State, Stella,…
Paul Rudd in a Deleted Scene from The Ten
“$3.50 for a cappuccino? Do I get a bowl of soup with that too?”
And Now, A Year of Recognition
After a lifetime of extreme, little-known performances, 58-year-old Tehching Hsieh is suddenly in the spotlight.
Is the Internet Ruining Our Lives?
We’re distracted, our attention is shot, we are under surveillance, and we don’t care! We like being linked and friended by strangers who may or may not be who they say they are.