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!

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 …

Support Local Biz: February 4, 2009
February 4, 2009 · 5 Comments
Support Local Biz: February 4, 2009

My latest 90210 recap is up on SOAPnet.com.   “Weezy”?   Really, writers?
Also, in case you don’t plan to fly US Airways in the near future, you can read my Brooklyn piece in the in-flight …

Giving new meaning to the term “field trip”
February 3, 2009 · 57 Comments
Giving new meaning to the term “field trip”

It is on at last, friends.   I apologize for the delay, but now, without further ado, I invite you to join me on a tour of Washington, DC’s finest sights:
Friday 13 March 2009
Monuments!
Photo ops!
A …

The Vine: January 30, 2009
January 30, 2009 · 12 Comments

Is there any way that you can ask your readers if there’s a good “all-in-one” baby registry out there on the interwebs?   I’m looking for one sitethat searches a bunch of different stores for …

Support Local Business: The Kites play King Killer
January 29, 2009 · No Comment
Support Local Business: The Kites play King Killer

Please join me at King Killer Studios on Saturday January 31 for a show by The Kites (the handsome peeps above).   Their punishing metal riffs…no, wait, they’re a folk trio, but Nat can probably …

The Vine: January 28, 2009
January 28, 2009 · 51 Comments

I hope Agent Weiss is reading today — it’s her birthday.   Have a good one, lady (don’t deface any forts with nail polish unless you call me first).
*****

Hi, Sars,
This past summer, I got laid …

Operation Filmmaker
January 23, 2009 · 8 Comments
<I>Operation Filmmaker</I>

Operation Filmmaker isn’t perfect, but does a great job of pulling the viewer back and forth between sympathies (or antipathies, as the case may be).You see the producers’ point (this is his job, and the …