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: February 17, 2010
February 17, 2010 · 55 Comments

Hi Sars,
So my mom was at our city’s animal services department getting licenses for her two cats, when a guy comes up teary-eyed, saying he needs to give up his two cats, as neither he …

Bright Star
February 17, 2010 · 22 Comments
<em>Bright Star</em>

Bright Star is a strange little movie, and typical Campion — it’s ravishing to look at, you can nearly smell the things in every shot (bread, rained-on linen), and apparent anachronisms don’t distract the viewer, …

Invictus
February 17, 2010 · 22 Comments
<I>Invictus</I>

And thus endeth the Racism Is Bad, Mmmkay Oscar trifecta.
…I shouldn’t be flip. It’s an important story. Alas, it’s filmed as just that, An Important Story, and the weight of that responsibility presses all the …

Harry Potter and the Hyphen-Something Doodad
February 15, 2010 · 34 Comments

I can’t say I paid rigid attention to it, by which I mean that I left the room without pausing the film to get snacks, borrow thread from Gen, sign for packages, and so on. …

The Cove
February 15, 2010 · 15 Comments
<em>The Cove</em>

…Man.The Cove is a gripping documentary, but “hard to watch” doesn’t begin.It’s hard to watch Ric O’Barry, who worked as the dolphin trainer on Flipper, trying to atone for his part in the culture’s continuing …

Julie & Julia
February 14, 2010 · 46 Comments

The Julia half of the movie is delightful. Meryl Streep is wonderful, in no small part because Julia Child is written so wonderfully here (and I have fond memories of her from my early childhood).
I …

The Secret of Kells
February 14, 2010 · 3 Comments

Whimsical but not twee, grand but not grandiose, The Secret of Kells put me in mind of certain Samurai Jack episodes, specifically the one with the Viking-esque hall-of-warriors sequence.The animation is nothing technologically ground-breaking, but …

Up
February 13, 2010 · 64 Comments

The tears started rolling five minutes in. I always cry at Pixar movies — even Cars; shut up — so I don’t know why I thought I would escape from Up with a dry face, …

Precious
February 13, 2010 · 9 Comments

I don’t know what to make of Precious. It shouldn’t have worked for me — I expected it not to work for me — and yet, somehow, it did. Despite Precious’s situation being so bleak …

The Vine: February 12, 2010
February 12, 2010 · 10 Comments

Hello, Sars!
I’ve always enjoyed reading your advice, but didn’t think I had anything to write in about. Then, I remembered how great you and your readers are at finding difficult-to-remember books, and I was wondering …