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 1, 2007
May 1, 2007 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
I recently took the Swedish equivalent of the SATs (the SWATs, if you will). One part of the test is designed to tests students English skills. While most of the tasks were no-brainers (I …

Awww.
April 30, 2007 · No Comment

Thanks in no small part to you guys, I passed my Star Walker AIDS Walk donations goal in no time at all. Fantastic work, and I’ll hope to see you there.
Edited to add: I’ve upped …

AIDSWalk Mutual Admiration Society
April 30, 2007 · No Comment

I’m proud to say that I’ve joined Team SuperSnack for the AIDSWalk this year; it’s a great bunch of people, and the team has a benefit reading coming up at (I think) Galapagos Art Space, …

Recs du jour
April 30, 2007 · 11 Comments
Recs du jour

To read: Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends
To watch: The Trials of Darryl Hunt
To wear: MAC Splashproof Lash; Aerosoles …

“Kerosene and Spiders,” by TPS
April 30, 2007 · 7 Comments

The winner of the “Kerosene and Spiders” mini-contest appears below.
What garnered this entry winning status? The random capitalization and the jump into the story with no lead-up; use of the terms “expiring” and “fairer sex”; …

The most elegant and colorful sport
April 27, 2007 · 6 Comments

Lance Mannion, in the midst of discussing David Halberstam:

One of baseball’s great beauties is that it is played at the speed of a human voice’s ability to keep up. It’s the only team sport that …

The Vine: April 26, 2007
April 26, 2007 · No Comment

Okay, here’s my problem. I’m 31, single, I don’t want to be, and I’m wondering if I’m being too picky. Typical, huh? Maybe not so much. This might actually be a case where the guy …

Brothers and Sisters: “Sexual Politics”
April 25, 2007 · No Comment

We had a rerun this week, but it needed recapping, and now it’s done.

Chad says his girlfriend is out of town and he doesn’t “have a curfew,” as if that is the point or anything …

The Vine: April 25, 2007
April 25, 2007 · 21 Comments

Dear Sarah,
I was born and raised in St. Louis until I left for college, and one of the things that I left with was an undying loyalty to the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Sorry, …

Contest!
April 25, 2007 · 7 Comments

(Note: This is not the contest, which I’ve rescheduled for the summertime. This is just a contest.)
The Scientific American entry spawned a few comments that got me thinking — what if I tried to write …