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!

Gangs Of New York
April 24, 2008 · 28 Comments
<I>Gangs Of New York</I>

“You know what they say about a guy who wears a really tall hat, right?”   “Sure.   Really pointy head.”   “…Er.   No.”  
Prior to watching Gangs Of New York, I considered the …

Smart People
April 24, 2008 · 16 Comments
<I>Smart People</I>

“Would you like to see my red wheelbarrow?”
[Warning: spoilicious. On the plus side, I wouldn’t advise seeing the movie, so you may proceed, or not, with that in mind.]
I enjoyed Smart People, in the sense …

The Vine: April 23, 2008
April 23, 2008 · 76 Comments

Dear Sars,
My boyfriend of five months is currently traveling solo through Southeast Asia, and although he’s already been gone for over three weeks (and is almost halfway through his trip), he has yet to …

Hillusions of grandeur
April 23, 2008 · 89 Comments

From John Helton’s PA-primary postmortem on CNN.com: “Look for Clinton to head into upcoming contests with the message that Obama can’t win in the big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio that Democrats will need to …

Random pair o’ links
April 22, 2008 · 4 Comments

Comedian Doug Benson gave me a glimmer of hope for last season’s Last Comic Standing (until he got eliminated), but he’s a regular on Best Week Ever, and now he’s got his dope-umentary out: Super …

NCheeseAA Quarterfinals: The Stank Sixteen
April 21, 2008 · 20 Comments
NCheeseAA Quarterfinals: The Stank Sixteen

(Ready to vote? Click here!)
Brie vs. Parmigiano-Reggiano. This is a bizarre match-up. One’s a “lolling on the grass with grapes, a bottle of wine, a river, and shamisen” cheese, and the other is an ingredient. …

The Vine: April 18, 2008
April 18, 2008 · 23 Comments

Hi Sars,
Seeing as your readers have such great taste in blogs, I’m wondering if anyone has any blogs to recommend on the subject of gardening, particularly vegetable gardening — the more specific to the …

NCheeseAA: Round Of 32 Run-Off
April 17, 2008 · 4 Comments

It’s a dead heat between Garrotxa and Fiore Sardo. Two cheeses enter; one cheese leaves. Vote now!
Update: Fiore Sardo wins with 52% of the vote. Stay tuned for the Stank Sixteen; polling opens Monday evening!

Around the cineblogosphere
April 16, 2008 · 8 Comments
Around the cineblogosphere

That is not a word, and shouldn’t be; I apologize. Let me make it up to you with some links! First, The Onion‘s AV Club reviews The Pride Of The Yankees and Eight Men Out …

The Vine: April 16, 2008
April 16, 2008 · 23 Comments

So, picture this: You’re a 27-year-old woman, you’re a young professional finishing up grad school and you have recently become engaged to your boyfriend of seven years. You live with this boyfriend, boyfriend has been …