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!

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I wanted to like this more than I did.   The writing is good; it’s not uninteresting, it’s not slow anywhere, it’s not a prose problem.   It’s a relatability problem, not because I grew …

The Anatomy of Motive
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Good for true-crime junkies, without as much of the self-promotion Douglas tends to indulge in elsewhere — with the exception of The Cases That Haunt Us, which I highly recommend, I’ve found his other books …

American Tragedy
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s very long, but the length is in the service of thoroughness, and it’s a lightning-fast read with a lot of insights into the defense case — who knew what, why they used certain strategies. …

Adventures of a No Name Actor
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

The jokiness started to wear at the end, but it’s likeable prose and interesting behind-the-scenes stuff.   (1/31/04)

The Vine: March 2, 2007
March 2, 2007 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
Here’s a question for your readers:
Twinkies. Did Hostess put out a carrot cake variety at one point? I swear that my mom, a great lover of all things carrot cake, bought a box to …

The Vine: March 1, 2007
March 1, 2007 · No Comment

Hey Sars —
Heavy Metal is probably the film
in question. And that’s just how I’d describe it too, except that it was
definitely R-rated. There was a Heavy Metal 2000 based on the same
source but not the …

The Vine: February 28, 2007
February 28, 2007 · No Comment

Hey! I’m a sixteen-year-old girl from Dublin, Ireland and last month me and my friend made friends with some fellas at a gig. We texted and talked to all of them quite often and after …

The Vine: February 27, 2007
February 27, 2007 · No Comment

Hiya! Some of the Firm folks have started a new DVD set (my sis is one of them). They can be found at http://www.tracielongtraining.com/. Hope this helps!
JC

iChing
February 26, 2007 · 4 Comments

I’m hardly the first person to observe this phenomenon, but what the hell: the iTunes shuffle-songs feature knows what I’m thinking. It can sense my moods; it can tell what’s going on in my life. …

The Vine: February 23, 2007
February 23, 2007 · No Comment

Hi Sars,
Re: the woman who hates the pill and her boyfriend who hates condoms,
I highly recommend the sponge (http://www.todaysponge.com). It’s back
and it’s great. I have been using it with my boyfriend of seven
months and it …