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 Runner
January 6, 2009 · 4 Comments

Good writing; bad example of the genre.

Man On Wire
January 5, 2009 · 14 Comments
<I>Man On Wire</I>

While watching Man On Wire, I kept wondering to myself, “Why isn’t that guy bugging the crap out of me? He’s tweeing around the streets of Paris on a unicycle with his Mick Jagger hair …

The Vine: January 2, 2009
January 2, 2009 · 9 Comments

Seven years ago in freshman English, we read a book that I’ve almost forgotten but am dying to reread.
A girl grows up in a small African-American community and lives with her great aunt or …

The Enforcer
December 31, 2008 · 3 Comments
<I>The Enforcer</I>

It’s not an unlikeable movie; it has good bits, and Eastwood’s reaction shots as Harry during certain exchanges almost imbue The Enforcer with a point.
But the plot is both excessively convoluted and not meaty enough …

Leverage
December 29, 2008 · 26 Comments
<I>Leverage</I>

I DVR’d this initially because I expected it to suck really bad, in that special way a Timothy “I Won An Oscar, So I Just Won’t Even Try” Hutton project sometimes has of sucking.
It doesn’t …

The Vine: December 26, 2008
December 26, 2008 · 10 Comments

This one is for you and the readers. Last summer I was studying abroad in Italy for a month and discovered these awesome little cookies in the grocery stores there. It’s pretty much my favorite …

Pete Rose has a MySpace page
December 22, 2008 · 21 Comments

And it’s freakin’ hideous.
I don’t know why Pete ROSE of all goddamn people lives in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of North America, but if he’s going to live there, and he’s going to sign …

Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father
December 21, 2008 · 45 Comments
<I>Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father</I>

I don’t really know what to say about Kurt Kuenne’s documentary, because to describe it in a way that won’t discourage you from seeing it will in turn spoil you. The official website of the film …

The Vine: December 19, 2008
December 19, 2008 · 23 Comments

Hi Sars,
I’m hoping you and your readers will be able help me and my colleagues out. A treasured co-worker is leaving us to return home after working here in America for the last three years. …

Odds; ends
December 18, 2008 · 20 Comments

A comprehensive piece by Omar G on Twittiquette/Twitter annoyances.
My new favorite site, via Glark: Sexy People.
My latest Dirty Sexy Money write-up for SOAPnet.   (SHUT UP, LISA.)