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!

7/31: Meek’s Cutoff
December 7, 2011 · 7 Comments
7/31: <I>Meek’s Cutoff</I>

A one-star reviewer of Meek’s Cutoff on the IMDb complained that there’s no dialogue for the first 15 minutes. This is one of the many things I liked about the movie. These people have gotten …

The Vine: December 7, 2011
December 7, 2011 · 34 Comments
The Vine: December 7, 2011

When one needs baseball-related gift ideas, one turns to The Vine.
My gifting needs are for my uncle who is in his late 70s and works for the Texas Rangers. He reads a lot and I’ve …

6/31: Bill Cunningham New York
December 6, 2011 · One Comment
6/31: <I>Bill Cunningham New York</I>

Richard Press’s documentary about Times Styles photographer, and chance fashion-world icon, Bill Cunningham, keeps it light for the first hour. The tone is the gently knowing one of PBS specials about James-Cameronian construction projects of …

5/31: Badlands
December 5, 2011 · 9 Comments
5/31: <I>Badlands</I>

This is probably the Terrence Malick movie for people who hate Terrence Malick. I do not hate Terrence Malick; I find his work fascinating (with one exception, The Thin Red Line, which I have now …

4/31: The Debt
December 4, 2011 · 3 Comments
4/31: <I>The Debt</I>

I don’t entirely disagree with Roger Ebert’s assessment, in his review of The Debt, that “the film jumps the rails towards the end.” The last sequence is highly unbelievable on several levels — the timing; …

3/31: Project Nim
December 3, 2011 · 10 Comments
3/31: <I>Project Nim</I>

Words are a fucking nightmare when it comes to closeness, often. … Words became the enemy. — Stephanie LaFarge
Project Nim tells the frustrating story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee taken from his mother as an …

The Vine: December 2, 2011
December 2, 2011 · 109 Comments
The Vine: December 2, 2011

Hi Sars — I’ve enjoyed your site for years and hope to tap into the book knowledge that you and your readers have. I have a 7-year-old son who is a voracious reader. I love …

2/31: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
December 1, 2011 · 7 Comments
2/31: <I>If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front</I>

The story in question is that of Daniel McGowan, a former ELF agitator (and arsonist, by his own admission) who got pinched by federal agents in 2005. He’s not a terribly likely-looking “domestic terrorist,” certainly …

1/31: What The Descendants Gets Wrong
December 1, 2011 · 26 Comments
1/31: What <I>The Descendants</I> Gets Wrong

Everything. K, great: on to Film #2!
…Fine, it doesn’t get everything wrong. It’s not necessarily objectively terrible. The writing does a handful of things I can’t stand, though, and starts doing them immediately, so I …

The Vine: November 30, 2011
November 30, 2011 · 100 Comments
The Vine: November 30, 2011

The holiday season is looming and I’m trying to figure out how to deal with a situation before it becomes a Situation. (Could be worse. Could be The Situation…) Brief background: we’re thirtysomethings who live …