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 5, 2009
June 5, 2009 · 45 Comments

…Bookfest!
Dear Sars,
I’m looking for a book I read as a kid or perhaps a teenager. It was about a boy who ran away from home and took up residence in an abandoned train station. I …

The Vine: June 3, 2009
June 3, 2009 · 62 Comments

Hi Sars,
I know that I am not the only one out there grappling with the awkwardness of losing colleagues to layoffs and “workforce reductions” right now but I haven’t been able to find a good …

Deckheads!
June 3, 2009 · 76 Comments
Deckheads!

I thought, at this late date, that I’d heard pretty much every meow the cats had to offer. Aggrieved “yes, there’s kibble in my bowl, but you have to come watch me eat it” wail? …

Silence Is The Enemy
June 1, 2009 · 4 Comments

Reader Scicurious asked me to pass word along of a blogosphere initiative to raise awareness of, and funds to fight, continuing sexual violence in Liberia.
To learn more and/or get involved via your own blog, visit …

The Vine: May 29, 2009
May 29, 2009 · 37 Comments

Hi Sars,
My new downstairs neighbors smoke and I’m very sensitive to it. In addition, the building I live in is VERY dusty. Therefore, I’m interested in purchasing an air purifier of some kind — but …

The Last Years of the Brooklyn Dodgers
May 28, 2009 · 17 Comments
<I>The Last Years of the Brooklyn Dodgers</I>

It starts out well.Author Rudy Marzano cuts straight to correcting misconceptions and debunking myths about the Dodgers and their fans, and the tone has a very faint sour top note — a whiff of simultaneous …

The Vine: May 27, 2009
May 27, 2009 · 74 Comments

About fifteen years ago, my parents split up. They did not divorce and I’ve never really asked why. About a decade ago my dad moved in with a woman I think of as my stepmother.
My …

Incomiiiiiing!
May 26, 2009 · 24 Comments

Welcome, new/temporary readers coming in from Kottke.org.   (And any other new readers, of course.)   Happy to have you, and hear your comments.   New readers and longtime companions, don’t forget to have a …

TV Question Qorner: family affairs, charisma vacuums, and my busted gaydar
May 25, 2009 · 43 Comments
TV Question Qorner: family affairs, charisma vacuums, and my busted gaydar

I moved, I went to California for a week, and I’ve only just now started digging my way out from under a pile of season finales. And I have some questions. Answer them for me, …

The Vine: May 22, 2009
May 22, 2009 · 29 Comments

…Bookfest!
*****
Hi!
I asked a question on Ask Metafilter when it stumped people, one of your readers suggested I send a note to you.I’m looking for a book of short-story mysteries that I read sometime back in …