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 N.C. Double Scoop Round Of 64, Flight 2: Write-Ups
August 15, 2008 · 57 Comments
The N.C. Double Scoop Round Of 64, Flight 2: Write-Ups

Confused?Click here. To vote, click here.
1 Cookies and cream vs. 16 spumoni. Okay, I admit it. I didn’t know what spumoni was until Bunting put it out there for the commenters. And then I …

The Vine: August 15, 2008
August 15, 2008 · 16 Comments

Okay Sars,
I hope the eagle-eyed readers out there can help me.I was getting a bagel this morning and saw a woman with these awesomely cute quilted ballet shoes on.I asked her where she got them …

The N.C. Double Scoop Round Of 64, Flight 1: Write-Ups
August 14, 2008 · 87 Comments
The N.C. Double Scoop Round Of 64, Flight 1: Write-Ups

Welcome to the N.C. Double Scoop’s Round of 64!Below, the commentary for Flight 1.Confused?The main NCDS page is right here, and you can find the full bracket here.
The tentative schedule as of this writing: Flight …

The Vine: August 13, 2008
August 13, 2008 · 75 Comments

Dear Sarah,
I’ve often followed your advice, but this is the first time I’ve written in.
If you are, say, a florist, musician, or photographer, and your friend or relative asks you if you would do the …

The N.C. Double Scoop
August 13, 2008 · 46 Comments

The food bracket has returned…with ice-cream flavors.   What better way to wind summer down than with an out-and-out brawl at the freezer case?   Keckler and I can’t think of one.
The main tourney-update page …

Waive goodbye, Grandpa
August 13, 2008 · 9 Comments
Waive goodbye, Grandpa

Wow, Gary Sheffield.Really? After seventeen thousand years in the big leagues, it seems to me that either you can never have learned what a platoon is, or you can never have learned how to shut …

The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories
August 10, 2008 · 11 Comments
<I>The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories</I>

…some of which require the bulk of said century to get to the point.[rimshot]Seriously, though: many of the stories faff around for two or three pages explaining how the protagonist had come to marry a …

“You have lovely hands. Do you moisturize?”
August 9, 2008 · 26 Comments
“You have lovely hands.  Do you moisturize?”

BSD dropped me an email about Bernie Mac’s death about an hour ago; the Sun-Times had it, but none of the other news orgs were confirming it, so we were on the phone together looking …

The Vine: August 8, 2008
August 8, 2008 · 28 Comments
The Vine: August 8, 2008

Hi Sars,
I’ve asked the blue-haired children’s librarian who’s been doing this for a hundred years.She doesn’t have anything for me.I’ve searched and scoured used bookstores.I’ve looked online, but I don’t really have much of anything …

The Vine: August 6, 2008
August 6, 2008 · 21 Comments

Hi Sars,
I think I’ve made a mess of things and have no clue what to do. Last night I broke up with my boyfriend of two years. We were living together in a house that …