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!

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 …

RuPaul’s Drag Race Live Chat! Monday March 28!
March 27, 2011 · 3 Comments
<I>RuPaul’s Drag Race</I> Live Chat! Monday March 28!

Don’t make that face, Raja. We got this.
Join me and special guest Couch Baron for some live-chat realness — a RuPaul’s Drag Race live watch-along, Monday night at 10 EDT (DirecTV subscribers get the show …

Author Photos That Bring Me Joy: Thomas Thompson
March 27, 2011 · 12 Comments
Author Photos That Bring Me Joy: Thomas Thompson

It’s a little disappointing that what looks at first glance like an ascot is actually just Thompson’s shirt collar sticking up from whatever waxed-canvas work-shirt frambus he’s wearing, but the carefully casual Dick Van Patten-model …

Random Family: The Bronx Is Drowning
March 25, 2011 · 10 Comments
<I>Random Family</I>: The Bronx Is Drowning

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s amazing longitudinal history of a sprawling New York family, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, is hard to read, but even harder to put down. The …

The Vine: March 25, 2011
March 25, 2011 · 57 Comments
The Vine: March 25, 2011

I have debt. Large amounts — enough that I get offers in the mail for debt-reduction services — and I need to do something about it. I have a good job, that pays well, but …

Tomato Nation Read-Along #9: Poll
March 25, 2011 · 12 Comments
Tomato Nation Read-Along #9: Poll

It’s a pop-culture behind-the-scenes extravaganza in the TNRA poll this time around. Joining Brinda and Grann from last time: JWOWW, Angela Chase, Scott Weiland’s wife, Graydon Carter, and oh yeah the Philadelphia Mob. Klassy!
Can’t wait …

The Contest 2011: Projects
March 23, 2011 · 18 Comments
The Contest 2011: Projects

It’s everyone’s favorite part — suggesting projects! But things have changed a bit from last year, so before you send that email, get acquainted with what’s new, won’t you?
The biggest shift from previous TN/DC fundraisers …

The Vine: March 23, 2011
March 23, 2011 · 39 Comments
The Vine: March 23, 2011

Last year I broke up with my long-term live-in boyfriend. We had been together through a volatile period on both of our lives with financial ups and downs for both of us. When the dust …

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

The Plot: Hanson and Penhall go undercover in one of their habitual guises, the McQuaid brothers, for one of Jump Street’s habitual drills: buy drugs in increasing quantities from a couple of middlemen in an …