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!

The NC Double Scrooge Finals: Dash Away All
December 22, 2010 · 36 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge Finals: Dash Away All

The moment has come, my embittered and exhausted friends. Pull your eyes away from UPS’s tracking screen, yank that contested length of ribbon away from the feline in your life, and vote for the nadir …

The Crushed Film Festival presents: Virtuosity
December 20, 2010 · 6 Comments
The Crushed Film Festival presents: <I>Virtuosity</I>

The Movie: Virtuosity
The Crush Object: William Fichtner, initially
The Story: LAPD is working with LETAC, a Halliburton-type software company, on developing a virtual-reality program that uses a composite virtual killer named SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe) to …

The NC Double Scrooge Semifinals: Round Two
December 19, 2010 · 35 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge Semifinals: Round Two

Ack: December dates that start with 2! Travel stressing, muffling Barbie’s dream house in six miles of wrapping paper, sitting bolt upright at 3:28 AM all “stocking stuffers, shit shit shit,” not to mention the …

The Vine: December 17, 2010
December 17, 2010 · 8 Comments
The Vine: December 17, 2010

I have a book question I thought you or the Vine readers could help with. I want to buy my boyfriend a first-edition book for Christmas, and it turns out that all of his favorite …

The NC Double Scrooge Semifinals: Round One
December 17, 2010 · 11 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge Semifinals: Round One

Below, you’ll find the semifinal polls for the Shopping, Entertainment, and Decor divisions. A couple of similar top finishers got merged into one entry; another poll has four semifinalists instead of three because only one …

The NC Double Scrooge: Storybook Division
December 16, 2010 · 110 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge: Storybook Division

And by “storybook,” we don’t really mean books; we mean non-song narratives generally. TV specials, disappointing and desperate reunions of sitcom casts that led to even more pathetic spin-offs, craven attempts to capitalize on kidly …

The Vine: December 15, 2010
December 15, 2010 · 33 Comments
The Vine: December 15, 2010

Dear Sars:
My partner and I have been together three years now.We have a wonderful relationship and both feel very fortunate that both sets of parents are accepting of our relationship.Now, here comes the “but.”
My partner’s …

The NC Double Scrooge: Songbook Division
December 15, 2010 · 154 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge: Songbook Division

I’ve made my feelings about various Christmas songs clear elsewhere, so I won’t belabor the point, but today’s the day in the NC Double Scrooge on which we formally censure the holiday tunes we hate …

The NC Double Scrooge: Family/Social Division
December 14, 2010 · 64 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge: Family/Social Division

“I think it says ‘fragile,’ honey.”
It’s the interpersonal aspects of the holidays that cause the most stress — not because we hate everyone, either, although rage does occasionally play a role. It’s more about performance …

The NC Double Scrooge: Decor Division
December 13, 2010 · 106 Comments
The NC Double Scrooge: Decor Division

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree: how could such a lovely symbol cause so many problems? But it does — or perhaps it’s the futile quest for arboreal perfection that ties us in knots. Whatever …