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!

Words Of The Day: “dorkasualty,” “tremendouche”
May 24, 2010 · 44 Comments
Words Of The Day: “dorkasualty,” “tremendouche”

I coined “dorkasualty” just now, after giving myself a two-knuckle paper cut with the Chicago Manual. The 16.42 entry on documentation now looks like I used it as a hot-dog bun. Earlier today, I dropped …

The Vine: May 21, 2010
May 21, 2010 · 29 Comments
The Vine: May 21, 2010

Hey gang!
This is about a story I read in a political-science class in college. I am usually strong with the Googling, but my yearly searches have turned up nada.
The basic premise was that a …

The Vine: May 19, 2010
May 19, 2010 · 67 Comments
The Vine: May 19, 2010

Dear Sars,
It looks like I am going to be driving a moving van across the country this summer…with my cat. I have a vague recollection that you’ve done this before, maybe when you drove to …

Bye-Bye, Bombers
May 18, 2010 · 47 Comments
Bye-Bye, Bombers

I’ll tell you exactly what did it.
I’d bought Bean tickets to a Mets game for her birthday, and she kindly invited me to go with her. We arranged to meet up at our seats, and …

The Vine: May 14, 2010
May 14, 2010 · 39 Comments
The Vine: May 14, 2010

Dear Sarah,
After wearing a seat belt, my shirt gets two rub marks in the middle of my chest where it got pushed against the tips of my underwires. Not pretty.
I usually wear 100% cotton t-shirts …

The Vine: May 12, 2010
May 12, 2010 · 40 Comments
The Vine: May 12, 2010

Sorry for the late post today, friends. I’m at Aunt Camp, where internet is spotty, and spent a productive morning scything grass; mulching heather; avoiding a giant, needy bumblebee that seems to believe it’s not …

Coffee Talk
May 10, 2010 · 167 Comments
Coffee Talk

I have a couple of questions about coffee — about the word “coffee,” the ways we use it, not about the beverage itself.
The first one: “coffee black.” I don’t order my coffee in the same …

The Vine: May 7, 2010
May 7, 2010 · 17 Comments
The Vine: May 7, 2010

Hi Sars,
Can you help me find this book that’s been driving me crazy? I probably read this book in the late eighties or mid nineties, and I think it was relatively new, as I owned …

Silkwood
May 6, 2010 · 9 Comments
<I>Silkwood</I>

Silkwood has so many unexpected charms: that Karen Silkwood is not a saint, but a basically decent and courageous woman, and a feckless and sometimes bratty woman; Drew leaving, then coming back to tell her, …

Your N Candy AA Chocolate Champion
May 6, 2010 · 21 Comments
Your N Candy AA Chocolate Champion

The Cups ranneth over Twix with 70% of the vote.
Stay tuned for the classic cocktails bracket (a.k.a. “The NC Make It A Double”), under construction as we speak — and the non-chocolate-candy version after that!