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: September 12, 2003
September 12, 2003 · No Comment

I’ve been struggling with wording for this all morning and afternoon.
Mmmm, tough subjects.
So you wrote a wonderful response to Post-Coital Worrier, but I still wanted
to throw in some advice from someone who’s been there.
Essentially…I’m like …

The Vine: September 11, 2003
September 11, 2003 · No Comment

As a dog-trainer apprentice
and the owner of a dog who suffered VERY extreme separation anxiety
until age three, I thought I might be of some help.
There are a number of issues taking place from the training
perspective.The …

The Vine: September 10, 2003
September 10, 2003 · No Comment

Hi Sars —
Longtime reader, first-time writer.Your sites — all of them — rock.
I just wanted to say you were absolutely on target in your response to “Caring Cousin” — that she not try to make …

The Vine: September 9, 2003
September 9, 2003 · No Comment

Hi Sarah,
Two years ago, I wrote to you regarding my (now) ex-boyfriend and putting a baby up for adoption.Actually, yesterday was her second birthday.
Your advice to To Tell or Not To Tell was pretty much …

Scents Memory
September 8, 2003 · One Comment

At the time of year when the summer falls back and the fall verges forward, the two seasons leave a space between them in my head for all the years before. If a single madeleine …

The Vine: September 5, 2003
September 5, 2003 · No Comment

Dear Sars:
Just read the letter from “In” Love Alone, and I swear that could have been me talking two weeks ago. Here’s the thing — he’s not going to stay. He wants to break up, …

The Vine: September 4, 2003
September 4, 2003 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
First off, will you marry me? Not, you know, really.
But maybe metaphysically? Or in that way that one
proposes to people on TV?
Anyway, regarding the dilemma of A Regular TN Reader.
I’m in high school, and …

The Vine: September 3, 2003
September 3, 2003 · No Comment

Dear Sars,
I have a quick question, and judging from other Vine Q&As, you seem like
a good person to ask.
I am a part-time English/ESL tutor while in university, and I’m in that
unfortunate position of having a …

The Vine: September 2, 2003
September 2, 2003 · No Comment

Sars,
First of all, excellent advice about Jerry, the check-low-balling
cheapskate who should be returning his bottles for the deposit instead
of screwing his friends into paying the whole check.
Secondly, I’ve always found it easier just to have …

The Famous Ghost Monologues, No. 10: Nelson Friedrich Schrantz
September 1, 2003 · No Comment

Heaven — it’s an interesting question, and it’s even more interesting because nobody around here agrees on the answer. Ask a dozen different people, get a dozen different theories. Heaven exists, or there’s no such …