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

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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!

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Articles by Sarah D. Bunting

6/31: Bill Cunningham New York
December 6, 2011 – 7:45 AM | One Comment
6/31: <I>Bill Cunningham New York</I>

Richard Press’s documentary about Times Styles photographer, and chance fashion-world icon, Bill Cunningham, keeps it light for the first hour. The tone is the gently knowing one of PBS specials about James-Cameronian construction projects of …

5/31: Badlands
December 5, 2011 – 9:12 AM | 9 Comments
5/31: <I>Badlands</I>

This is probably the Terrence Malick movie for people who hate Terrence Malick. I do not hate Terrence Malick; I find his work fascinating (with one exception, The Thin Red Line, which I have now …

4/31: The Debt
December 4, 2011 – 5:43 PM | 3 Comments
4/31: <I>The Debt</I>

I don’t entirely disagree with Roger Ebert’s assessment, in his review of The Debt, that “the film jumps the rails towards the end.” The last sequence is highly unbelievable on several levels — the timing; …

3/31: Project Nim
December 3, 2011 – 3:37 PM | 10 Comments
3/31: <I>Project Nim</I>

Words are a fucking nightmare when it comes to closeness, often. … Words became the enemy. — Stephanie LaFarge
Project Nim tells the frustrating story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee taken from his mother as an …

The Vine: December 2, 2011
December 2, 2011 – 5:26 PM | 109 Comments
The Vine: December 2, 2011

Hi Sars — I’ve enjoyed your site for years and hope to tap into the book knowledge that you and your readers have. I have a 7-year-old son who is a voracious reader. I love …

2/31: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
December 1, 2011 – 10:25 PM | 7 Comments
2/31: <I>If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front</I>

The story in question is that of Daniel McGowan, a former ELF agitator (and arsonist, by his own admission) who got pinched by federal agents in 2005. He’s not a terribly likely-looking “domestic terrorist,” certainly …

1/31: What The Descendants Gets Wrong
December 1, 2011 – 11:55 AM | 26 Comments
1/31: What <I>The Descendants</I> Gets Wrong

Everything. K, great: on to Film #2!
…Fine, it doesn’t get everything wrong. It’s not necessarily objectively terrible. The writing does a handful of things I can’t stand, though, and starts doing them immediately, so I …

The Vine: November 30, 2011
November 30, 2011 – 9:22 AM | 100 Comments
The Vine: November 30, 2011

The holiday season is looming and I’m trying to figure out how to deal with a situation before it becomes a Situation. (Could be worse. Could be The Situation…) Brief background: we’re thirtysomethings who live …

31 Days, 31 Films
November 29, 2011 – 12:13 PM | 9 Comments
31 Days, 31 Films

…Because we’re stupid, that’s why.
Okay, seriously: Couch Baron and I decided each to write up one film for every day in December. For him, it’s a way to get a jump on Oscar season; for …

Titicut Follies
November 28, 2011 – 12:02 PM | 10 Comments
Titicut Follies

The pre-Nixon-era mental hospital is a preoccupying terror of U.S. popular culture to this day. This isn’t without basis; madness, and its attendant visions and rants, is a preoccupation of narratives throughout the world and …