holidays
Atlas Obscura's DIY Holiday Gift Guide
Why blow hundreds of dollars on gifts this season when you can create wonder right at home?
Articles by Eric Grundhauser
904
Stories
Stories shared by this traveler.
shopping
Wishlist: Magic Flames and the Die With the Most Sides
Weekly gift ideas from the staff of Atlas Obscura.
art
Small Talk With the Editor of One of the World's Tiniest Art Magazines
For almost four decades, Public Illumination Magazine has been packing a ton of absurdity into a little package.
lenin
How Vladimir Lenin Became a Mushroom
The fake news that took the former Soviet Union by storm.
science
The Week In... The Microverse!
Mutant DNA, cuddling babies for healthy genes, and more news from the microscopic world.
medicine
The Rapid Rise and Spectacular Fall of London's Greatest Bonesetter
Sarah "Crazy Sally" Mapp led a highly unusual life.
world record
The Week In... World Records!
All the record-breaking stories you may have missed over the past seven days.
insects
Birds Rub Ants on Themselves, and No One Knows Exactly Why
It's called "anting," and it is weird.
robots
The Week In... Robots!
All the robot stories you may have missed over the past seven days.
dancing
The Lost Lingo of Depression-Era Taxi Dancers
In the 1920s and '30s, ticket-a-dance halls were full of "nickel-hoppers" and "fish."
eiffel tower
The Sad Tale of the 'Flying Tailor'
Franz Reichelt's devotion to developing a parachute suit led to his dramatic death.
retrofuturistic
Inside Connecticut's Secret Museum of Retro-Future Oddities
Robots, rockets, and UFOs are all hiding in a quaint New England barn.
computers
The Gibberish That Sparked One of the Internet's Oldest Unsolved Mysteries
More than 20 years later, the true meaning of the Markovian Parallax Denigrate remains elusive.
reptiles
The Week In... Reptiles!
All the reptile stories you may have missed over the past seven days.
history
The Long Legacy of Ireland's 'Night of the Big Wind'
Before the Great Famine, the country experienced a storm that left a lasting mark.
names
You Can't Be Knighted in the U.S., But You Can Be Named a Sagamore of the Wabash
Or a Kentucky Colonel. Or a Nebraska Admiral. Or a Commodore of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
conspiracy theories
How the 'Rose Mary Stretch' Sold Watergate to the People
To believe the White House's story, Nixon's secretary would have had to have been a contortionist.
haunted
The Ghost Story Behind a Bucolic Catholic Retreat Center
A brief, true history of West Virginia's Priest Field and "The Legend of the Wizard Clip."
music
Remembering, With Fondness, the 'Worst Orchestra in the World'
In the 1970s, the Portsmouth Sinfonia became briefly famous for butchering classical music.
monks
The Bamboo Flutes of Japan's 'Monks of Emptiness'
The basket-masked komusō monks used music to meditate and created a distinctive art form.
objects of intrigue
The Hanging Cage That Held an Infamous Québec Murderess
It had been all but forgotten for most of the 20th century.
31 days of halloween
Why Do People Paint Skeletons on Live Horses?
It's about education, not scares.
objects of intrigue
The U.S. Senate Has Been Using the Same Ivory Gavels for Over 200 Years
They only got a second one after Nixon broke the first.
animals
The Doctor Who Fends Off Magpie Attacks With Children's Party Favors
It's magpie swooping season in Australia, and at least one man is sick of living in fear.
