“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
My spot on this morning’s The Takeaway. Please share to as many social media outlets as you can — thanks.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Dear Sars,
Welcome back! Dear cracking dry hands season, not so much. I’m here to ask you/the readers about a product I could swear I saw mentioned on the Vine ages ago, but I can’t find …
I think of you and your story every year.
Sars, is your original piece not posted here? I can’t find in archives.
nevermind. found it. and posted on FB re: OFD.
Good lil interview there. Hope it turns up something.
I agree with Emerson. You always sound so at ease in interviews, Sars. I admire that a lot.
Here’s a link to the original piece: https://tomatonation.com/?p=593
Hope the interview helps you find him.
Sars, on a side note, you have a beautiful, emotive speaking voice. I hope you find Don this year.
Thanks for the compliments. I think I sound more thoughtful when I’m on the radio because I’m usually thinking about…not cursing by mistake. Had to think about it even harder this morning on four hours and change of sleep.
Woke to hearing your voice this morning. Good luck and a warm howdy out there to Don whereever he is.
I hope you find Don as well, Sars. I reread the piece every year as well.
Thinking of you, thinking of Don, and thinking of my brother, who at 27 years old is too young to have gone to war and lost so many friends in the aftermath.
I don’t know why, but your voice reminds me of Terri Gross – very mellifluous. You should look into that – I think you interviewing folks would be awesome.
[…] related news, Sarah Bunting is still trying to find her guardian angel from that day: The original story on her blog The […]
I too re-read every year. Is it weird I read every year’s posts? Here they are if others are interested.
2001
https://tomatonation.com/?p=593
2002
https://tomatonation.com/?p=640
2003
https://tomatonation.com/?p=675#more-675
2004
https://tomatonation.com/?p=824
2005
https://tomatonation.com/?p=868
2006
https://tomatonation.com/?p=920
2007
https://tomatonation.com/?p=1591
2008
https://tomatonation.com/?p=2679
Don
https://tomatonation.com/?p=1592
Like a number of people here, visiting this site is one of the things I do every year on this date. It just feels like something I have to do.
Have you considered putting up an iReport on CNN.com? I think you only have to register on the site in order to sub,it things, and sometimes they get picked up. Obviously, you would need an image of somesort, probably one of yourself how you looked in 2001.
I can’t believe it has already been so long since I first read this story, or since it happened. I think of you & Don every year, and keep the hope that he will be found.
Every year, like lots of folks, I find myself here. It’s comforting to “know” someone who made it through the horrific events of that day alive. I am so very grateful to Don for helping you through, Sars. I hope you find him soon.
Happy Birthday, Don, wherever you are.
Sorry for my multiple (well, the second, anyway) comments from a random stranger but loyal reader in one evening. The last comment being on a prior OFD post rather than this one.
But a thought occurred to me after listening to your Takeaway interview and apologies if I am repeating something already suggested somewhere in the many supportive comments…have you considered offering your story to This American Life (Chicago Public Radio) to see if they’d consider including it in one of their shows? I guess it would be “too late” so to speak, in terms of them doing a show this year but maybe for next if you don’t find Don in the meantime.
It’s just a thought as I don’t even live in the States yet I (and many of my non-American cohorts) are addicted to listening to This American Life, and Ira Glass has done topical shows on 9/11 before. I have a hunch that your story would fit well with the whole tone of that show and might just turn something up for you about Don. Unless, of course, you’ve already gone that route and I somehow missed it, in which case this post is a moot point.
Good luck again. I’m waiting for the day that I check your site while drinking my morning coffee and see the post that you’ve finally made contact with Don.
I have sent a note to TAL in previous years, with no response. Doesn’t mean Glass wouldn’t bite on it now, but it does get harder and harder with each year to get media peeps to find the angle. I was surprised The Takeaway didn’t do it as a web-only feature, frankly, which I think was part of the initial plan (and would have been fine with me).
The Takeaway producers also called a short list of prospective Dons at home to see if he was the guy. No dice. But I salute Chelsea et al. for the effort.
I too think about Don every year on 9/11. Hope he’s doing well, wherever he is.