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: July 30, 2008
July 30, 2008 · 35 Comments

Hi Sars,
My younger sister (14) has recently started talking to her older cousin (18) online in many forms, including Gaia Online — a place mostly inhabited by thirteen-year-olds with broken Japanese, “emo,” “princess,” and “Thug …

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
July 29, 2008 · 6 Comments
<I>Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead</I>

A much better movie than I’d expected — I’d kind of anticipated something more precious, or that it would go for a quirkier, funnier tone, and it’s so much better for not having done that.
It’s …

Vine-tage
July 29, 2008 · 54 Comments

From the archives, still limping over here (a year and a half later, I know, I know, but I’m almost done!)…
The grody husband and his mom who wanted the author to get rid of her …

The Dark Knight
July 29, 2008 · 48 Comments
<I>The Dark Knight</I>

Warning: Contains spoilers.
I can’t figure out why I like the Bale Batmans so much (foxy Bale himself aside). Both movies lean heavily on storytelling maneuvers that I tend to hate, and both movies arrived in …

Support Local Biz: July 28, 2008
July 28, 2008 · 2 Comments

Friend of TN Karen tipped me to the nifty music of Schocholautte, which took me a while to get around to listening to (and even longer to spell correctly).The band has a Hives-y sound, and …

True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa
July 25, 2008 · 3 Comments
<I>True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa</I>

I forget where I read the article that referred me to the book, but it went straight onto my Amazon wish list — I mean, what a crazy story. A Times reporter gets bounced from …

The Vine: July 25, 2008
July 25, 2008 · 41 Comments

Hi Sars,
So now that I’ve done the whole first job thing, and the emigration thing, and the settling into what kind of adult I want to become thing, I find myself pondering the important stuff, …

Positively 5th Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker
July 24, 2008 · 10 Comments
<I>Positively 5th Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker</I>

Vegas is one of those topics (others include sex and music reviews) that requires as even a writing tone as possible — the less tone of any kind, the better, in fact, because it’s already …

Product Crush: ‘Tis The Season
July 24, 2008 · 18 Comments
Product Crush: ‘Tis The Season

The Times on the Ramapo tomato’s triumphant return: “When I hear these young chefs gushing about heirlooms, I wonder: haven’t they ever tasted a Big Boy, or an Early Girl?”

The article implies that a big …

The Vine: July 23, 2008
July 23, 2008 · 141 Comments

I really don’t know if there is a solution to this problem, but you give good relationship advice and don’t seem too squicked by grossness, so here goes.
How do I get my boyfriend to stop …