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 Poppy-Fields Movie Couch Of Fame: October Sky
February 2, 2015 · 8 Comments
The Poppy-Fields Movie Couch Of Fame: <em>October Sky</em>

Reader Mike counts us down.

31/31: Beautiful Darling
January 31, 2015 · No Comment
31/31: <em>Beautiful Darling</em>

Beautiful Darling has a sweet nostalgic sadness to it, like its subject, the former James Slattery who became a Warhol-Factory “Superstar.”

30/31: The Imitation Game
January 30, 2015 · 5 Comments
30/31: <em>The Imitation Game</em>

“No, not that one, Nana; the other one, with Sherlock.”

29/31: Life Partners
January 29, 2015 · 2 Comments
29/31: <em>Life Partners</em>

I would tell you that we’ve now reached the point in 31 Films In 31 Days when we pick our movies based on how short they are…

The Vine: January 28, 2015
January 28, 2015 · 12 Comments
The Vine: January 28, 2015

There is a movie I watched, probably in the late ’80s/early ’90s. It was probably a made-for-TV movie, because I can’t find it hard as I Google, but it’s really stuck with me because it’s …

28/31: Croupier
January 28, 2015 · 2 Comments
28/31: <em>Croupier</em>

Most contemporary reviews of Croupier point to Clive Owen as the best — almost the only — thing about it, and he’s marvelous, but I disagree.

27/31: The Grand Budapest Hotel
January 27, 2015 · 6 Comments
27/31: <em>The Grand Budapest Hotel</em>

When a Wes Anderson movie is good, I don’t tend to have a whole lot to say about it.

26/31: August, Osage County
January 26, 2015 · 8 Comments
26/31: <em>August, Osage County</em>

I wanted to like August, Osage County more than I did — and I did like it fairly well, considering — because of Tracy Letts.

25/31: Selma
January 25, 2015 · 10 Comments
25/31: <em>Selma</em>

Selma is at its finest in the quietest moments, quiet enough to hear the hearts breaking.

24/31: The Babadook
January 24, 2015 · 2 Comments
24/31: <em>The Babadook</em>

A friend of mine once said that you don’t get over a death, the space it leaves. “It doesn’t go away; you just learn to decorate around it.”