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!

Wing + Ill-Advised Pullover = Crush Of Over A Decade, Shit-Stomped
September 21, 2010 · 14 Comments
Wing + Ill-Advised Pullover = Crush Of Over A Decade, Shit-Stomped

Wing: I am still LOL at that photo. It’s the lead image for my new game, “High Or Head-Injured?”

Sarah: I like to call it…The Crush-Killer. And the hair, WTF. ‘Sup, Methy?

Wing: I mean, dude. Don’t …

Word Of The Day: “pwaft”
September 21, 2010 · 14 Comments
Word Of The Day: “pwaft”

I suspect that “pwaft” needs no definition, but I will let you supply your own in the comments section for a while and then formally update the entry.
Update: “Pwaft” is both a noun and a …

The Vine: September 17, 2010
September 17, 2010 · 126 Comments
The Vine: September 17, 2010

Dear Sarah,
I will be spending a month in the States shortly, flying into New York on the third of October and out of San Francisco third November. Those flights are pretty much my only parameters. …

Tomato Nation Read-Along #5: Poll
September 15, 2010 · 10 Comments
Tomato Nation Read-Along #5: Poll

We’ve got a rather weird list for the fifth round of the TN Read-Along; David Foster Wallace is back, as is Katherine Paterson, and you’ll also see some golden oldies.
Voting will close next Wednesday. Hit …

The Vine: September 15, 2010
September 15, 2010 · 40 Comments
The Vine: September 15, 2010

Dear Sars,
For all of high school, I’ve felt like a fraud. I’m supposedly really, really smart, but I’m lazy and worthless. I scrape by with Bs and A-minuses, but the amount of work I …

Squared Up: Restraint
September 14, 2010 · 2 Comments
Squared Up: Restraint

In the car earlier today, I decided to listen to “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN. Well, maybe I should rephrase that; I decided not to listen to my iPod (forgot it at home), or …

Recent Calendar Entries Reveal Synapses Burnt Beyond Repair
September 14, 2010 · 35 Comments
Recent Calendar Entries Reveal Synapses Burnt Beyond Repair

Hobey V-E-T / I realized yesterday that I spell out the word “vet” even when typing it, lest His Orange Eminence figure out what’s going on from the acoustics of the laptop keys and disappear. …

At That Time
September 12, 2010 · 18 Comments
At That Time

I live close to Green-Wood Cemetery. I like it there, walking around in all the stories.
Long ago, the stories went right onto the headstones. One young man — I’ll call him “Martin V.B. Thompson,” though …

TN Read-Along #4 Discussion Thread: Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words
September 9, 2010 · 28 Comments
TN Read-Along #4 Discussion Thread: <I>Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words</I>

A very informative read, if somewhat discouraging (nearly every page contains a word or phrase I’ve misused for years), and if I had it to do again, I wouldn’t read it straight through; the book’s …

The Vine: September 8, 2010
September 8, 2010 · 29 Comments
The Vine: September 8, 2010

Hi Sars,
You’ve said that we all want to have our exes admit it was all their fault and apologize — I just got that letter and I am not sure what to do about …