The Atlantic
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Every Kiss Begins with Konspiracy
Sometimes, during the sparkly onslaught of holiday-season diamond commercials, someone you know might remark that diamonds aren’t inherently very valuable and that there’s a conspiracy among diamond dealers to keep supply low and demand high. As Edward Jay Epstein detailed…
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Tell your children family stories
It will make them smarter! Elaine Reese writes at The Atlantic about the slew of benefits to your children when you share family stories with them, including being able to tell a more complete narrative to others and a better…
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Goodbye to…Earth-Shattering Sex?
The Atlantic gave the Rumpus’s own Sari Botton, Melissa Febos, Mira Ptacin, and Cheryl Strayed a chance to delve deeper into their contributions to the anthology “Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York.” In a roundtable discussion with…
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Relearning Patience
It’s no secret that in this day of instant everything, society as a collective whole have lost a lot of patience. Jessica Lahey at The Atlantic talks about how an assignment from her son’s school made her realize the lack…
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“Because” Has New Meaning, Because Grammar
Like it or not, the meanings and uses of words are constantly shifting, because language. At the Atlantic, Megan Garber writes about how the word “because,” normally a subordinating conjunction, is increasingly being used as a preposition, with examples and possible…
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To Outline Or Not To Outline
Are you like John Irving, who outlines his novels to the last detail? Or are you more like Flannery O’Connor, who works the story out through multiple drafts? There are many thoughts on the internet about the pros and cons…
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Writers and Their Day Jobs
Oscar Wilde once wrote, “The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread…” In an interview with The Atlantic, poet Amy Woolard discusses her double life as a writer…
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Turning the Clock Forward
Most Americans probably enjoyed the extra hour of sleep they got this weekend when daylight saving time ended, but was it the product of an antiquated, inconvenient method of timekeeping? The Atlantic‘s Allison Schrager says yes, but she doesn’t stop there:…
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What Are We Supposed to Do About Gentrification?
We’ve previously written a bit about gentrification, particularly in San Francisco. Gabriel Metcalf, writing for the Atlantic‘s Cities blog, has some thoughts about what caused the problem and what we might try to do to solve it: Many outspoken citizens did—and…
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“All Your Life is a Work of Art”
The Atlantic has been hosting a series called “By Heart,” where authors discuss their favorite quotes in literature. Edwidge Dandicat talks about her immigration experience and chooses a passage from a novel by Patricia Engels, which articulates that “trying to…
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Test Scores Over Football Scores
Officials in Pasco County, Florida, have considered squeezing athletic budgets for each of the past six years. They’ve so far agreed to cut about 700 education jobs, and they extended winter break in 2011, but sports have been left mostly…
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The Dark Secret of the Old Silicon Valley
In 1983, “Silicon Valley” meant something different: different tech companies were dominating for different reasons, in different areas of California’s Santa Clara County. The Atlantic’s Alexis C. Madrigal went to look at what remained of that Silicon Valley from thirty years…