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 Crushed Film Festival presents: Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
February 13, 2009 · 24 Comments
The Crushed Film Festival presents: <I>Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil</I>

by Mark Blankenship
The Movie: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Crush Object: Jude Law
The Story: Reporter John Kelso (John Cusack) thinks he’s got a simple assignment in Savannah, Georgia: cover a rich eccentric’s …

The Crushed Film Festival presents: Turk 182!
February 13, 2009 · 21 Comments
The Crushed Film Festival presents: <I>Turk 182!</I>

by Sarah D. Bunting
The Movie: Turk 182!
The Crush Object: Timothy Hutton
The Story: When his firefighter brother Terry (Robert Urich) gets hurt saving a little moppet from a blaze while intoxicated (Terry is intoxicated, not the …

Introducing The Crushed Film Festival
February 13, 2009 · 34 Comments

The Crushed Film Festival is a series of pieces in which I and various colleagues admit to/review films we saw because, and pretty much only because, an actor or actress we had a crush on …

Sober House: A Question
February 12, 2009 · 33 Comments
<I>Sober House</I>: A Question

A question besides “Why do I watch this sordidry?”, that is, because there’s no good answer to that.
No, my question is: Does anyone else wonder why Jen is in charge of that house if she’s …

Why We Need The Oxford Comma
February 12, 2009 · 82 Comments
Why We Need The Oxford Comma

[T]he comma separates items (including the last from the next-to-last) in a list of more than two — e.g.: “The Joneses, the Smiths, and the Nelsons.”   In this position, it’s called, variously, the serial …

The Vine: February 11, 2009
February 11, 2009 · 69 Comments

Hi Sars,
I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I don’t have the sources to back me up: I’m doing a couple of different volunteer things that require me to receive and sometimes …

Encounters At The End Of The World
February 10, 2009 · 9 Comments
<I>Encounters At The End Of The World</I>

It’s stayed with me for a few days; Werner Herzog, who narrates as well as writing and directing the documentary, has a way of musing in voice-over about the prospects for human life’s continued tenure …

At least headline-writers get to have a good time
February 9, 2009 · 30 Comments
At least headline-writers get to have a good time

“A-Roid,” “A-Fraud,” it’s a tabloid field day around here.   Craig Calcaterra at Hardball Times has a good (and more importantly, calm) piece about the revelations, and the last few days of coverage.
If you demonize …

The Vine: February 6, 2009
February 6, 2009 · 83 Comments

Hello Sars!
I love online advice columns, hence my reading of The Vine. I’m looking for more to read, but would you believe it’s difficult? There’s boring old Dear Abby and other, rather stuffy, syndicated columnists …

The Vine: February 4, 2009
February 4, 2009 · 41 Comments

Dear Sars,
So. I’m 41, and I haven’t had sex for eleven years. For most of that time it wasn’t for lack of trying — I just couldn’t seem to make it past a first date …