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!

Animal House
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I’d never seen it all the way through before.   I’d expected to feel kind of “eh” about it, but I like Peter Riegert’s dry delivery more and more, and I really liked Boon and …

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Heeeeee hee hee.   Not every joke works, but enough of them do, and Tim Robbins’s hair alone is worth the price of the ticket.   High-larious.   The best part is watching Paul Rudd …

American Splendor
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I’d read enough sterling reviews that I half expected to be disappointed, or think it was gimmicky, but it’s really good, and Paul Giamatti has deserved this kind of star turn for a while now. …

Amazon Women on the Moon
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Just completely and irredeemably terrible, with the possible exception of David Alan Grier.   It’s like the worst SNL sketches in history all strung together, AND you glimpse Ed Begley Jr.’s penis, which GOOD GOD …

All The Pretty Horses
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

(Don’t ask.   It’s for work.)   Blech.   I loved the book, and the elements of the movie are not bad — except for Penelope Cruz, who just is not an actress — but …

You’re Missin’ a Great Game
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Herzog is off-puttingly self-congratulatory, and I wish he hadn’t bothered mentioning all the players he could tell had drug problems if he’s not going to name some damn names, and I know it’s the fashion …

A Year at the Movies: One Man’s Filmgoing Odyssey
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Hated it.   Stomped on it when I finished reading it.   Condescending, priggish, hypocritical, poorly written pap.   Loathsome book.

A World Apart: Women, Prison, and Life Behind Bars
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

The writing can be kind of pro forma at times, but Rathbone does paint a vivid picture most of the time.   My only real complaint is that I’d have liked more follow-up on some …

Wiseguy
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

A fun, fast read if, like me, you’ve seen Goodfellas about a bazillion times.

Why Girls Are Weird
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It is — to the surprise of nobody, I’m sure — an excellent book.   It’s funny, it’s touching, and it’s so smoothly written that you just can’t stop reading it; I finished it in …