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: November 10, 2005
November 10, 2005 · No Comment

Hey Sars —
About two years before I met my now-fiance, he purchased a home. To call it a fixer-upper would be an understatement — the house had not been lived in for 10 years …

The Vine: November 9, 2005
November 9, 2005 · No Comment

Hi Sars, love your site.I have kind of an odd question for you.Back in the day I grew up on the same block as a Very Famous Author.He, like anyone who has some amount of …

The Vine: November 8, 2005
November 8, 2005 · No Comment

“More than” vs. “over.” When would you use one or the other? I tend to use “more than” instead of “over,” e.g., “these sites have more than 1,000 ports” instead of “these sites have over …

Girls’ Bike Club X: C’mon, Get Happy
November 7, 2005 · No Comment

Wing Chun: Hello?
Sarah: Hi! Um, so, are you…eating? Right now?
Wing Chun: No. Why? Who.
Sarah: Have you eaten? Recently?
Wing Chun: Well…how recently is “recently”?
Sarah: You know. Recently. Like since, say, June.
Wing Chun: This involves Michael Jackson. …

The Vine: November 4, 2005
November 4, 2005 · No Comment

Hello, Sars!
What’s the deal
with “that that”?For example, “I don’t know that that is a reason to
break up with him.”It looks strange to me and MS Office grammar
check scolds me for repeating a word, but I …

The Vine: November 3, 2005
November 3, 2005 · No Comment
The Vine: November 3, 2005

Ooh! Ooh! Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by William Shirer! I got into it after reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl for the first time a few years back (I …

The Vine: November 2, 2005
November 2, 2005 · One Comment

Hi Sars,
My car is in Delaware and I’m moving to
Alaska — I have thousands of miles to cover, and I’m giving myself
about a month to make the trip. No hurry. I know you drove US …

The Vine: November 1, 2005
November 1, 2005 · No Comment

Hey Sars,
I was in an African History class last semester and I
came across a weird question while I was studying for
the map test. Why are there so many countries that
have the word “Guinea” in their …

Dink Cycle
October 31, 2005 · No Comment

Dear Tweety T-Shirt,
If you speak English — which I know you do, because I’ve heard you muttering offendedly in the direction of a People magazine story on Nick and Jessica for the last fifteen minutes …

Staff Picks
October 24, 2005 · No Comment
Staff Picks

It’s kind of a scattershot entry today; the job is alternating between “very busy” and “very slow, but alert to the possibility of very busy,” so a cohesive piece is not happening. Instead, I’ve put …