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 Entity: Touched By A Demon
April 2, 2011 · 5 Comments
<I>The Entity</I>: Touched By A Demon

Despite a whiffy premise that put me in mind of Christine, and not in a good way, I wanted to like The Entity more than I did. It just isn’t scary enough.
The entity in question …

Save The Day: April 2
April 2, 2011 · 9 Comments
Save The Day: April 2

noon update
$14,412! Good job, super-friends. (Even better? I had to update this total thrice while writing the entry!)
Administrative notes: I’ve updated the site FAQ with contest-specific answers, so please give it a read, especially …

The Vine: April 1, 2011
April 1, 2011 · 8 Comments
The Vine: April 1, 2011

Ask The Readers bookfest today, fittingly. Want to make sure today’s schoolchildren grow up reading beloved YA novels that they need help remembering and write in to The Vine about in 20 years’ time? Me …

Save The Day: April 1
April 1, 2011 · 40 Comments
Save The Day: April 1

No fooling, super-friends: we’re underway! Huzzah!
4:30 PM update
As of this writing: $11,170! Great start, everyone. Please scroll down for information on today’s mini-prizes, and don’t forget, for these, you do have to forward me your …

The Contest 2011: Origin Story
March 31, 2011 · 18 Comments
The Contest 2011: Origin Story

Towards the beginning of Davis Guggenheim’s fantastic, bleak, motivating Waiting for Superman, Geoffrey Canada tells a story about…well, waiting for Superman, and how bereft he felt as a child when his mother had to inform …

The Tomato Nation/DonorsChoose.org Contest: An Overview
March 30, 2011 · 42 Comments
The Tomato Nation/DonorsChoose.org Contest: An Overview

Newer readers may not know what’s going on with the annual contest here on Tomato Nation, so I’ve put together a brief overview so that everyone knows what’s going on, and starts getting psyched.
The contest …

The Vine: March 30, 2011
March 30, 2011 · 53 Comments
The Vine: March 30, 2011

My partner and I are planning to get married next year. But the fact is, we both hate wearing jewelry, and neither of us wants to wear a ring for the rest of our lives. …

21 Jump Street: “Next Generation”
March 29, 2011 · 8 Comments
<I>21 Jump Street</I>: “Next Generation”

The Plot: A teacher with financial problems gets beaten up, and because notorious loan shark Tony Delaplant’s son Hoagy (…seriously) attends the school, it’s assumed that one of them is involved. Hanson is sent in …

Chop Sucky: The Sonny Chiba Double Feature
March 28, 2011 · 3 Comments
Chop Sucky: The Sonny Chiba Double Feature

I’d gotten used to thinking of Sonny Chiba movies as ponderous, shadowy wastes of time, but it occurred to me recently that maybe I remembered them unfairly. It’s Chiba, for God’s sake; it’s not all …