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

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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!

TN Read-Along #14: The Great Influenza Discussion Thread
March 20, 2012 · 18 Comments
TN Read-Along #14: <I>The Great Influenza</I> Discussion Thread

Institutions are a strange mix of the mass and the individual. They abstract. They behave according to a set of rules that substitute both for individual judgments and for the emotional responses that occur whenever …

Myra Breckinridge: Beyond the Valley of the Vidal
March 19, 2012 · 6 Comments
<I>Myra Breckinridge</I>: Beyond the Valley of the Vidal

You could view Myra Breckinridge as a nervy meta-commentary on identity in Hollywood, on narrative recycling, on the tragic self-regard of the heroine of Sunset Boulevard, on the rejections of the aged and the outlier. …

Word Of The Day: “hargh”
March 18, 2012 · 2 Comments
Word Of The Day: “hargh”

From some of the same people who brought you “hew,” a handy portmanteau of “hee” and “ew,” comes this new coinage, compliments of the Couch Baron.
hargh. interj. Combination of “hee” and “argh,” used to express amused …

From the Platonic cave of amazing thank-you notes
March 16, 2012 · 11 Comments
From the Platonic cave of amazing thank-you notes

Yesterday, I received a delightful thank-you note in the mail from the White Russian, her partner Drummer, and their toddler for the holiday gifts I got her and the fam. Yes, the winter holidays. Yes, …

The Vine: March 16, 2012
March 16, 2012 · 15 Comments
The Vine: March 16, 2012

There is this book I read in the library at my elementary school, and I have been trying to remember what it was called ever since, because I loved it so much. It was a …

The Vine: March 14, 2012
March 14, 2012 · 53 Comments
The Vine: March 14, 2012

I’m in the biggest fight of my life and I’m not even angry, at least not yet.
Several years ago my sister met, dated, and got engaged to a man who was arrested for having child …

Movie Meetup: The Trouble With Bliss
March 10, 2012 · 19 Comments
Movie Meetup: <I>The Trouble With Bliss</I>

Edited 3/7 to add: tickets on sale now, clickety click oo-ahhhh!
I’m juuuuust about ready to start watching movies again; why not start with The Trouble With Bliss! Produced by the Couch Baron and starring Michael …

The Vine: March 9, 2012
March 9, 2012 · 26 Comments
The Vine: March 9, 2012

It is entirely possible that I have managed to conjure the most bizarre Ask the Readers question in the history of The Vine. It is also possible that no one has an answer other than, …

The Vine: March 7, 2012
March 7, 2012 · 25 Comments
The Vine: March 7, 2012

Long-time reader, first-time writer for the Vine, and I have a new-to-me etiquette question.
I belong to a church that is very open to GLBT folks and we get involved in GLBT rights events on a …

The Vine: March 2, 2012
March 2, 2012 · 37 Comments
The Vine: March 2, 2012

I’m hoping crowd-sourcing an answer on this might get better results than my fruitless Googling? I’m after a kids’ or YA book that I would have read back in the early ’80s, most likely. The …