The Vine: January 27, 2012
January 27, 2012 · One Comment

There is an earworm that has been crawling around inside my brain for the better part of three decades, and I am seeking the assistance of TN's loyal readers in identifying (and possibly purging) it.
My …

Baseball

"I wrote 63 songs this year. They're all about Jeter." Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls' Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don't forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

Culture and Criticism

Your Favoritest Thing: A Poll
January 23, 2012 · 72 Comments

Dave Dickerson and I want to know which of Maria's favorite things is your favorite. We may or may not have a dollar bet on how various favorite things finish in this extremely scientific accounting of their popularity; in order for us to reveal our predictions, however, y'all need to vote.

Update 1/23/12: The poll has closed; you can see the results after the jump. DD's and my aim was to identify the LEAST favorite of the favorite things, and the internet has spoken…about its apathy towards doorbells. Thanks for voting!

Read the full story »

The Vine: January 20, 2012
January 20, 2012 · 9 Comments
The Vine: January 20, 2012

About two to three years ago, I occasionally read a blog about a woman going through her second pregnancy. She had some kind of rare blood-clotting disorder that really only became a problem while pregnant. …

The Vine: January 18, 2012
January 18, 2012 · 11 Comments
The Vine: January 18, 2012

"H" and I have been friends for seven years. For the first four, we were very close; then I moved schools and we both went to university, so we saw each other less often, but …

The Vine: January 13, 2012
January 13, 2012 · 110 Comments
The Vine: January 13, 2012

I have hair. And when I say that, I mean I have hair. It doesn't go far past my shoulders, but it is thick, and coarse, and full of weird waves and cowlicks. It has …

The Hour
January 11, 2012 · 5 Comments
<I>The Hour</I>

The Hour is greater than the sum of its parts, which isn't to say that it's great, exactly. It has a lot of problems: anachronistic language; feet-planted speechifying, also rather anachronistic, about marriage and the …

The Vine: January 11, 2012
January 11, 2012 · 29 Comments
The Vine: January 11, 2012

My best friend is just that because she's fun, honest, caring, and a truly good person. I know I can count on her for…well, almost everything.
Here's the thing — BF believes she can't have a …

The Vine: January 6, 2012
January 6, 2012 · 53 Comments
The Vine: January 6, 2012

I wonder if the Nation can help me with a retail request. I'm a graduate student, and I've just split the seams on my trusty old backpack. I'm looking for a replacement that can hold …

The Vine: January 4, 2012
January 4, 2012 · 52 Comments
The Vine: January 4, 2012

Mine is a question involving grammar and preserving my sanity. I work for a very wealthy family who, rather than solely passing on genetic markers, pass on one particularly grievous grammatical error. It started with …

Word Of The Day: "tweedious"
January 2, 2012 · 24 Comments
Word Of The Day: "tweedious"

tweedious. adj. 1. portmanteau of "twee" and "tedious." 2. portmanteau of "tweet" and "tedious."
I assumed the first definition is the obvious one, but when I said the word aloud with no context, Wing defined it …

31/31: Pariah
December 31, 2011 · One Comment
31/31: <I>Pariah</I>

Get me a beer, please.
It's Sunday morning!
It goes with the spaghetti!
Pariah is in many ways a standard sexual-identity coming-of-age story. Teenager Alike (Adepero Oduye) (and it's pronounced "ah-LEE-kay"…geddit?) is gay, and outside the …

30/31: Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1974
December 30, 2011 · 10 Comments
30/31: <I>Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1974</I>

I get to a point in a film-watching sprint where I begin to wonder if I can recognize a good film any longer. I'll hit a C-minus/D-plus patch, which is usually only two or three …