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!

Girls 101: One Final Push
April 16, 2012 · 19 Comments
<I>Girls</I> 101: One Final Push

From my Girls recap at Press Play:
[H]e pulls a move he obviously thinks is super-hot, biting Hannah’s lower lip and stretching it like four inches off her face; Hannah’s expression in response is equal parts “henh?” …

The Vine: April 13, 2012
April 13, 2012 · 36 Comments
The Vine: April 13, 2012

I find myself in great need of some wisdom from you and The Vine readers. 
First of all, my partner and I have been disagreeing on the question of “stuff” vs “stuffs” when referring to “stuff” …

Death of a Salesman: Strange new world
April 12, 2012 · No Comment
Death of a Salesman: Strange new world

Ben Brantley’s New York Times review of the current production of Death of a Salesman at the Barrymore is very complimentary, but also regretful — that the version doesn’t quite land with him; that, like …

The Vine: April 11, 2012
April 11, 2012 · 29 Comments
The Vine: April 11, 2012

D. and I were friends for six years, close enough that we had weekly get-together. I saw him through a devastating divorce; he saw me through the break up of a seven-year-long relationship, etc., and …

Narc and the art of stillness
April 10, 2012 · 4 Comments
<I>Narc</I> and the art of stillness

I kind of liked Smokin’ Aces, the Joe Carnahan feature that followed Narc with a real more-than-ten-days’-worth budget and some actual names. A number of critics blew off the effort as Tarantinoid, derivative, shallow — …

The Vine: April 6, 2012
April 6, 2012 · 26 Comments
The Vine: April 6, 2012

Do some good on Good Friday; head over to the Dewey Donation drive, and help kids in Thailand and/or Washington DC find their long-lost books! I gave a whole doorstop’s worth of Sandra Boynton this morning …

The Vine: April 4, 2012
April 4, 2012 · 25 Comments
The Vine: April 4, 2012

I have a friend who is fond of contracting “I have,” but not when saying “I have done x” — he likes to contract “I have [a job]” into “I’ve [a job],” and seeing it …

Product Break-Up: MAC metallic nailpolish
April 3, 2012 · 41 Comments
Product Break-Up: MAC metallic nailpolish

Number of hours it took for the mani to chip: 10. (Number of those hours I had spent sleeping: 7.) And it isn’t just a bitty “caught the corner of a Diet Coke can tab …

The Vine: March 30, 2012
March 30, 2012 · 4 Comments
The Vine: March 30, 2012

Perhaps you or your readers could identify this film for me?
It was a B&W science-fiction film (or perhaps something shorter) from the 1950s or 1960s, but I saw it on TV at least 15 years …

The Vine: March 28, 2012
March 28, 2012 · 51 Comments
The Vine: March 28, 2012

A few years ago, my best friend, W, met L. I had recently moved away and W was feeling lonely (she’s pretty shy and has a hard time meeting new people), so she was really …