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 Documentary Shorts 2011
February 26, 2011 · 4 Comments
The Documentary Shorts 2011

FINAL SCORE: Sarah 54, Death Race 2; 22 of 24 categories completed
None of the documentary-short nominees really caught fire for me. I didn’t hate any of them, not something I could say for my fellow …

Another Year
February 25, 2011 · 10 Comments
<I>Another Year</I>

Sarah 49, Death Race 7; 21 of 24 categories completed
(Stay tuned through the weekend for a Documentary Shorts roundup; a predictions entry, whose prognostications you should do the opposite of in your Oscar …

The Vine: February 25, 2011
February 25, 2011 · 7 Comments
The Vine: February 25, 2011

I’m hoping your bibliophile readers can help me come up with the title of a book I read as a kid in the ’70s.
It’s about a boy who goes on a camping trip/hike up …

The Animated Shorts 2011
February 24, 2011 · 11 Comments
The Animated Shorts 2011

Sarah 48, Death Race 8; 20 of 24 categories completed
The 2011 crop of animated shorts, like their live-action brethren, also came off less turgid than last year’s; I liked almost all of them. But I …

The Vine: February 23, 2011
February 23, 2011 · 99 Comments
The Vine: February 23, 2011

I’m writing to you today about a very delicate situation. I’m totally lost as to what, if anything, I can do. I really need your help.
Here’s a little background: I have a sister who I …

The Live-Action Shorts 2011
February 23, 2011 · 5 Comments
The Live-Action Shorts 2011

A more entertaining, less self-serious crop than last year’s, or at least I felt that way when the lights when up Monday. It helps that the program chose its order well, and ended with a …

Incendies
February 22, 2011 · No Comment
<I>Incendies</I>

Sarah 43, Death Race 13; 19 of 24 categories completed
…Wow. How to describe Incendies without giving away anything. How to describe it, period, really, but I will try not to tip anything here (if you’d …

Bradelor! DUN!: Everyone Else Is Dead
February 22, 2011 · 6 Comments
Bradelor! DUN!: Everyone Else Is Dead

I spent the bulk of the episode buoyed by one fact and one fact alone — the next episode is the last! YAAAAAY! — and then I realized OH NO we haven’t had key-party awkward …

Barney’s Version
February 22, 2011 · 4 Comments
<I>Barney’s Version</I>

Sarah 42, Death Race 14; 18 of 24 categories completed
“Barney’s Version” is not a movie to be loved from start to finish. I was annoyed by it, then I liked it, then it irritated me, …

Hereafter
February 21, 2011 · 6 Comments
<I>Hereafter</I>

Sarah 37, Death Race 19; 17 of 24 categories completed
I liked it more than I’d expected to, but the guiding structural principle — the three plot strands that converge at the end — felt like …