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 Vine: June 4, 2010
June 4, 2010 · 25 Comments
The Vine: June 4, 2010

I read both of these stories while in middle school, so early ’80s. Both of them were stories included in our class-issued Language Arts books.
First was about a group of kids…I think it was …

What Might Have Been; What Was
June 3, 2010 · 21 Comments
What Might Have Been; What Was

It’s not that Matthew Pouliot didn’t let the body cool before deeming Ken Griffey, Jr. “overrated.” It’s not even that the word “overrated” is the very first word in the headline — that that adjective, …

The Vine: June 2, 2010
June 2, 2010 · 23 Comments
The Vine: June 2, 2010

Hi, Sars!
I have a combo cat/relationship question, and would really like your advice…
For very innocent and necessary reasons, I recently had to perform a little Google search on my ex (I thought I was going …

The Vine: May 28, 2010
May 28, 2010 · 22 Comments
The Vine: May 28, 2010

Hi Sars!
I have a mystery book and I haven’t been able to Google it. The main character is a teen girl — her mother is remarried, and her new stepfather has a son from a …

The Vine: May 26, 2010
May 26, 2010 · 83 Comments
The Vine: May 26, 2010

Dear Sars,
I was out for dinner with my SO and wanted to fill him in on the finale of a reality TV show. I’d started to do that when the woman at the next table …

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 …