Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 7/8/2007

7/8/1989:
Undone by a rain delay in the third set and a series of suspect line calls in the last two sets, 29-year-old Ivan Lendl drops a five-set semifinal match to 21-year-old Boris Becker at Wimbledon. Despite winning the Junior competition here in 1978, Lendl, the world's No. 1 player, will never realize his dream to win the main draw on the All England Club's fickle grass courts.

Birthdays:
Harrison Dillard b. 1923
Roone Arledge b. 1931
John David Crow b. 1935
Jack Lambert b. 1952
Todd Martin b. 1970

James Villas is the former food editor of Town & Country, the chichi rag of the society set, so you might expect his essays on food to be, well, snooty. Not so! Here are rhapsodies on peanut butter, meatloaf, Costco, sourdough, and grits, as well as more rarified pleasures too: He bids on Château d’Yquem at a wine auction and investigates the decadent allure of absinthe (known as the green fairy). Life is a banquet for Villas, as you can tell from his exuberant adventures. Pull up a chair!

STALKING THE GREEN FAIRY: AND OTHER FANTASTIC ADVENTURES IN FOOD AND DRINK, by James Villas (Wiley, 2004)