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: May 14, 2007 #3
May 14, 2007 · 46 Comments

Dear Sars,
This might be a question for the readers! I’ve been thinking for a while about switching to organic shower products, specifically (for the moment) shampoo, conditioner and shower gel/soap. I’ve been googling it and …

The Vine: May 14, 2007 #2
May 14, 2007 · 6 Comments

Dear Sars:
All right, since your readers do such a great job of identifying stories and such, I’ve got another one — this one’s a TV show. When I was a kid I couldn’t sleep one …

The Vine: May 14, 2007
May 14, 2007 · No Comment

Hi Sars,
I just read the Vine about the roommate with the pooping problem, and I would strongly suggest she visit a doctor to check for intestinal parasites. With her new symptoms of particularly smelly stools, …

Ask The Readers
May 11, 2007 · 95 Comments

Sorry for the paucity of Vines this week; I’ve been putting out fires elsewhere and just haven’t gotten it together. (One of those “fires” is actually something fun: an interview with Jack Coleman, Heroes‘s “HRG,” …

Brothers and Sisters: “Grapes of Wrath”
May 10, 2007 · 10 Comments

Holly’s incredulity switches to anger as she snaps that Rebecca “could have been in a ditch, or anywhere,” and can I just ask why the imagined-demise location of choice among mothers is a ditch? Because …

“Where have all the viewers gone?”
May 9, 2007 · 40 Comments

It’s kind of insane to me that anyone is trying to pin the slump in TV ratings on Daylight Savings Time, but evidently this is considered a workable theory. The Wurtzel fellow quoted in the …

Recs Du Jour: “It Wasn’t THAT Funny” Edition
May 8, 2007 · 26 Comments

Stuff that made me laugh over the last 48 hours:
1. Russian performance art with cats. My favorite part: “A few minutes later police arrived and arrested them together with a few cats as a clue …

The Vine: May 8, 2007
May 8, 2007 · No Comment

Sars,
I have a roommate problem I hope you can help me solve. It’s disgusting, but I thought, given the topics of some of your essays, maybe you wouldn’t automatically delete this.
My roommate Lauren and I …

Roger that
May 7, 2007 · 23 Comments

Clemens is coming back to the Yankees. This is, in my opinion, good news. My opinion of Clemens as a person is not the highest; when he accepted accolades and standing ovations during his “farewell …

Contest Deux!
May 4, 2007 · No Comment

The headline: “An Imprisoned Fish”
The deadline: May 10, 5 PM
The rules: same as last time
The prizes: a gift certificate from Brooklyn Industries for the winner; swag for the runners-up