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!

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 …

Brain freeze
July 22, 2008 · 108 Comments
Brain freeze

As the champion-foodstuffs bracket prepares to make its triumphant midsummer return with an ice-cream face-off, Keckler and I find ourselves with a few unanswered questions — starting with whether Rocky Road is the same thing …

The Vine: July 18, 2008
July 18, 2008 · 37 Comments

Hi Sars,
I have a question for you and your readers: How does one make their fingernails grow hard and strong?
I am a guitar player, primarily a fingerstyle-steel-string acoustic kinda guy. Due to a disastrous experiment …

Both hands on the wheel, young man!
July 17, 2008 · No Comment
Both hands on the wheel, young man!

Happy birthday, Dad.

The Vine: July 16, 2008
July 16, 2008 · 55 Comments

Hi Sarah,
This past year I started a graduate program in social work, and I’m learning that there are certain social service-y buzzwords that get thrown around, like, a lot. Two of the most commonly heard …

Support Local Business: July 16, 2008
July 16, 2008 · 32 Comments
Support Local Business: July 16, 2008

Simon Tofield is back, with his cat, in “TV Dinner.” Do not drink hot coffee while watching.You may, however, make fun of me for having the premiere date of Tofield’s latest entered into my Outlook …