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!

Your Bill James quote du jour
July 30, 2009 · 2 Comments
Your Bill James quote <I>du jour</I>

From “Ellis, Richie and the Duke,” a comparison of various HoF and HoF-argued center fielders:
Ashburn had a good year with the bat, but he was playing for the Mets, and he couldn’t see the humor …

The Vine: July 29, 2009
July 29, 2009 · 56 Comments

Dear Sars,
My apologies up front for the length of this email and my thanks in advance for any advice you have for me.
I am a 32-year-old female. My brother (let’s call him George) and his …

The Vacationing: July 2009 Edition
July 26, 2009 · 22 Comments
The Vacationing: July 2009 Edition

Typhus, the Brooklyn Dodgers of Flatbush, lesser Kennedys, seminal animé (say that five times fast), Argentine nutbars, and cod on the Cape — plus the N Cereal AA and the fall contest.These stories and more, …

The Vine: July 24, 2009
July 24, 2009 · 17 Comments

Hi there,
I thought you and the readers might be able to help me out with this.A few months ago, I saw a pair of great sneakers at DSW (the one in Union Square in NYC, …

The Vine: July 22, 2009
July 22, 2009 · 42 Comments

I’m on the road today, so until I get back to Brooklyn airspace, I’m leaving you with an Ask The Readers of my own about a book I read 25 years ago — part of …

N Cereal AA: The Final Four
July 20, 2009 · 29 Comments
N Cereal AA: The Final Four

Ready to vote?   Click here.   Confused?   Click here.
Frosted Flakes vs. Honey Bunches of Oats. Honey Bunches of Oats is what I buy so that I can tell myself that cereal isn’t just …

Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo
July 20, 2009 · 15 Comments
<I>Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of </I>Fitzcarraldo

Today the bat was still there.Someone had neatly laid a strip of toilet paper over it.It was dead, its position unchanged.I left it there and did not use the sink, not out of disgust or …

N Cereal AA: Elite Eight Runoff
July 20, 2009 · 14 Comments

…Hi!   …Good, good.   You know: vacay.   What’s up with you guys?   …Awesome.   So: cereals, right?
Every time I think it’s safe to close the poll, Frosted Flakes climbs back into it. …

N Cereal AA: The Elite Eight
July 11, 2009 · 11 Comments
N Cereal AA: The Elite Eight

Ready to vote?   Click here.   Confused?   Click here.

1 Rice Krispies vs. 2 Frosted Flakes. Wowie. Now this is a contest! I have to hand it to you fiber-loving TN voters: truly, these …

The Vine: July 10, 2009
July 10, 2009 · 20 Comments

Hi, Sars. I have a question for your readers about pasta-makers.
I have a manual, hand-crank, metal pasta-maker and…it’s broken. I feed dough in, and it gets stuck in the rollers, rather than emerging from the …