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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 in The Vine

The Vine: March 19, 2003
March 19, 2003 – 1:08 PM | No Comment

Dear Sars,
I’m writing this letter because I need an objective viewpoint, and everyone I turn to is somehow involved in this. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible, but it is a bit …

The Vine: March 18, 2003
March 18, 2003 – 12:56 PM | No Comment

Hey Sars,
In about a month, I’ll be going back to university, which is about a four-hour commute from the city I’m living in now. Campus residence is a lottery
for the privileged, so I’m moving into …

The Vine: March 12, 2003
March 12, 2003 – 12:08 PM | No Comment

There’s a car commercial running right now — don’t know what the car is — wherein Jeff Goldblum says, “Pretty impactful, huh?”
Chaps my ass every time.
Also, an unrelated but interesting thing: According to my dictionary, …

The Vine: March 11, 2003
March 11, 2003 – 11:56 AM | No Comment

Dear Sars,
I’m being stalked by a cat. A big gray cat who is most definitely owned by someone in my neighborhood, as it has a collar, but I don’t know who the owner might be. …

The Vine: March 7, 2003
March 7, 2003 – 11:27 AM | No Comment

Hi Sars,
All the grammar talk in the Vine recently has reminded me of
something that has bugged me for a while. It seems to me that when I
first met the phrase “free rein” way back whenever, …

The Vine: March 6, 2003
March 6, 2003 – 11:18 AM | No Comment

Sars,
I just got a cat
about eight weeks ago. She was a poor cat that had been abandoned when her
owner had died, and whoever came to take the woman away didn’t realize the
woman had this cat. …

The Vine: March 5, 2003
March 5, 2003 – 11:12 AM | No Comment

Sars,
I have a cat-related question, and thought you might be able to help.
I recently moved into a new house with four complete strangers. Surprisingly, that’s not the problem. We all get along quite well. The …

The Vine: March 4, 2003
March 4, 2003 – 11:07 AM | No Comment

Hey Sars,
I hope you can address a grammatical issue for me and my advisor. It’s about the article before an abbreviation. One abbreviation that we commonly use in our business is MIC (mean inhibitory concentration). …

The Vine: February 28, 2003
February 28, 2003 – 3:37 PM | No Comment

Dear Sars,
I have noticed how much you despise the word “irregardless,” and I also
have a word pet peeve. I have a severe dislike — no, hate for the words
“flammable” and “inflammable.” I mean, what’s the …

The Vine: February 27, 2003
February 27, 2003 – 3:28 PM | No Comment

At least a dozen people have written to me since yesterday’s batch of letters went up, asking about “the Garner.” I thought I’d linked to the book on Amazon enough times that y’all knew what …