Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/13/2007

7/13/1993:
Kirby Puckett of the Twins homers, doubles, drives in two runs and scores once to earn MVP honors as the American League tops the National League, 9-3, in the All-Star Game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. While the gathering of baseball's elite is saddened by the very recent passing of Dodger greats Roy Campanella and Don Drysdale, a comical aside occurs in the third inning. Randy Johnson, "the Big Unit," sails a pitch clear over John Kruk's head...all the way to the backstop. Kruk flails weakly at the next two offerings in his at bat, glad to get back to the dugout in one piece.

Birthdays:
Jack Kemp b. 1935
Stu Lantz b. 1946
David Thompson b. 1954
Michael Spinks b. 1956
Spud Webb b. 1963

BROWSING PLEASURES

Paris has always inspired visitors to take quill to ink and record their impressions of the City of Light. Now Adam Gopnik, bestselling author of Paris to the Moon (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2001), collects the essential American impressions. From Thomas Jefferson to Jack Kerouac, from Edith Wharton to Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Emerson to e. e. cummings, great writers from every age and discipline are here writing on every subject imaginable including the food, the art, the people, the architecture, and the politics. The results are formidable. A treasury to treasure.

AMERICANS IN PARIS: A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY, edited by Adam Gopnik (Library of America, 2004)