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!

14/31: Candyman: The David Klein Story
December 14, 2011 · 10 Comments
14/31: <I>Candyman: The David Klein Story</I>

“In life, you only have to be a genius for 15 seconds.”
Despite that promising quotation towards the beginning of Candyman: The David Klein Story, and the intermittent presence of Weird Al Yankovic, the documentary is …

The Vine: December 14, 2011
December 14, 2011 · 36 Comments
The Vine: December 14, 2011

I need some help finding new face products. Prior to having a baby I was one of those annoying people who never had to worry about my skin and was pretty lackadaisical about my maintenance. …

13/31: The Help
December 13, 2011 · 10 Comments
13/31: <I>The Help</I>

I give The Help sooo much credit; it won me over despite my utter determination to hate it. You can ask Couch Baron, to whom I spent a good ten minutes bitching on IM about …

Word Of The Day: “slam-drunk”
December 13, 2011 · 6 Comments
Word Of The Day: “slam-drunk”

My initial definition for “slam-drunk” was as follows:
slam-drunk. n. A beverage guaranteed to give you a working buzz-on in a single serving. (“The Gibsons at Oyster Bar are a slam-drunk, man.”)
But now I feel as …

12/31: Martha Marcy May Marlene
December 12, 2011 · 7 Comments
12/31: <I>Martha Marcy May Marlene</I>

I didn’t realize how tense I had gotten, physically, while watching Martha Marcy May Marlene until that last black screen. What an outstanding slow build of “can’t look”/”can’t look away” — you’d think the inciting …

11/31: J. Edgar
December 11, 2011 · 15 Comments
11/31: <em>J. Edgar</em>

I have no idea what the movie is trying to do. I only know that it fails on almost every level save the acting, and even that isn’t great; it’s merely not as disastrous as …

10/31: Shame
December 10, 2011 · 9 Comments
10/31: <em>Shame</em>

The specific buzz around Shame, and Michael Fassbender’s performance, did not fill me with anticipation. Sometimes, when a performance is repeatedly called brave or groundbreaking, the distinction between the bravery or originality of the performance …

9/31: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
December 9, 2011 · 22 Comments
9/31: <I>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</I>

It has all the tools for a great movie: a good old-fashioned ’70s-Cold-War-paranoia plot; a roster of fantastic actors and Hey, It’s That Guys, including Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, and the dude who …

The Vine: December 9, 2011
December 9, 2011 · 48 Comments
The Vine: December 9, 2011

Hello Sars and the Nation! I write in search of audiobook recs.
It’s time for the annual road trip to see the BF’s family for Christmas, and I’m thinking an audiobook or two would be a …

8/31: Beginners
December 8, 2011 · 5 Comments
8/31: <I>Beginners</I>

Watching a lot of movies in a row can scramble the brain, but it can also let those movies reflect on and inform one another. For example, the Oscars Death Race is a time of …