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!

Contest: Search/Sort Function, And More Loot
October 6, 2009 · 15 Comments

You guys: Amanda, Intern of Mystery and Verse is really very awesome.   She’s built a searchable/sortable spreadsheet of all current projects: sort by state, grade level, expiration, whatever you want, AND there’s a FAQ!
I’ll …

Contest: Kiva.org gift cards!
October 6, 2009 · 11 Comments

Today’s mini-prize is brought to us by a generous group of peeps at KivaFriends.org.   (In case you haven’t heard about Kiva, it’s a micro-finance lending site that works along lines similar to Donors Choose’s …

Contest: News and notes
October 6, 2009 · No Comment

It’s 9 AM; we’re at $31,774.   It’s a long, steep hill we’ve got to left to climb, but it’s less than halfway to a mystery match at 60K.   Tell a friend.   Mention …

Contest: “The odd vegetarian exhibitionist fetish of a minor internet celebrity”
October 5, 2009 · 7 Comments

Reader Trip gets Ken Jennings to link to the contest — yay!
I am, I suspect, now equated with furries in Jennings’s mind — ew!
If it gets more donations in the door, who cares — whee! …

TV Question Qorner: Vampires, mouse poo, and the prime snore-ective
October 5, 2009 · 28 Comments
TV Question Qorner: Vampires, mouse poo, and the prime snore-ective

Flash Forward. In the DVR timeslot face-off with The Vampire Diaries, this lost….Yeah, I know.   Cool premise; irritating execution, for two reasons.The first: Sonya Walger.I just can’t care.
The second: The idea that this happened …

Contest: Movie mini-prize!
October 5, 2009 · 7 Comments
Contest: Movie mini-prize!

Anyone donating to one of the U.S. history/geography projects listed below is eligible to win Lost In America or Fandango on DVD. Two great road-trip movies (of sorts), one of which cuts through Vegas!   …

Contest: Monday-morning mystery and mini-prizes
October 5, 2009 · 24 Comments

Welcome to Week 2!   $27,312 right now. All hail the weekend warriors of awesome.
As you have probably gleaned from reading the comments lately, Tomato Nation has an intern.   The Mystery Intern has tired …

Contest: Sunday is a day of rest…
October 4, 2009 · 6 Comments

…but not for mini-prizing!   “Social Activists in Training” expires today; anyone donating to that project and forwarding me their receipt by 11:59 PM ET today can win a Mrs. Potatohead.   (The email is …

Contest: Saturday mini-prize!
October 3, 2009 · 13 Comments

Hello, friends!   As of this writing, $21,625.   Not bad for the weekend!
Let’s keep it going with a mini-prize: a Grow-A-Tree kit.   C’mahhhhn: it’s a whole tree!   In a little box the …

Contest: A note from Mr. K
October 2, 2009 · 2 Comments
Contest: A note from Mr. K

Mr. K posted the “Hands-On Geometric Origami” project — one of the several dozen we’ve already funded.   I really liked Mr. K’s creative approach to his subject, and he’s quite a prompt thank-you-note writer …