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: February 20, 2007
February 20, 2007 · No Comment

I have a basic grammar question. In American English, the word “herb” is pronounced without the H, making the first syllable sound like a vowel. So is the correct usage “an herb” or “a herb”? …

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Baseball
February 19, 2007 · No Comment

Spring training had gotten underway perhaps eight minutes previously when 1) The Baseball Non-troversy Du Jour reared its head (well, “heads”) and 2) an email mentioned it in a PS to another matter entirely and …

The Vine: February 16, 2007
February 16, 2007 · 4 Comments

Hey Sars —
After she finds some good fits, she should ask her husband to hang up the
shirts she doesn’t want shrunk, rather than just stuffing them in the dryer.
It keeps them from shrinking, and you …

The Vine: February 15, 2007
February 15, 2007 · No Comment

Dear Sars —
Your Dire Straits searcher should check out www.pandora.com — it sets up “radio stations” that play songs similar to either the artist or the individual song you give them initially. Sounds like it’s …

Girls’ Bike Club XVI: Family Affairs
February 12, 2007 · One Comment

Wing Chun: Hello?
Sarah: Hello? Hello?
Wing Chun: Hel– hello?
Sarah: Hello? I can’t — hello? Anyone there?
Wing Chun: Hello!
Sarah: Hel– I’m sorry, you’ll have to speak up, I can’t hear you over the din of this goddamn …

The Vine: February 9, 2007
February 9, 2007 · No Comment

Hiya Sars —
Not that I’m surprised, but you and the readers seem to be able to come up with the answer to just about anything so far.
I think I read it in Reader’s Digest years …

The Vine: February 7, 2007
February 7, 2007 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
As much as I hate to admit we have the same style, my mother and I both own the wrinkle-resistant tops from Eddie Bauer.
They’re a little pricey, I admit, but since they’re damn near …

Cultural Undertow Committee
February 6, 2007 · 2 Comments

Of all the emails I received about last week’s entry, the most disappointed ones came from people I know in real life — people, in other words, who know exactly what I waste my time …

The Vine: February 6, 2007
February 6, 2007 · No Comment

It’s not a book, it’s a story that was published in Sassy magazine’s December ’92 reader-produced issue called “Snow White” by Grace Hu (it was their fiction contest winner):
“Past Halloweens I had dressed up in …