Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 8/10/2007

8/10/1923:
Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York, is dedicated with the inaugural Wightman Cup matches between the United States and Great Britain. Helen Wills, "Little Miss Poker Face," has the honor of playing the first match in the impressive concrete edifice and she dispatches Kitty McKane in straight sets. Forest Hills will host the U.S. national championships through 1976 before the move to Flushing Meadows, and Wightman Cup play will continue at various sites through 1989. American women dominate Wightman Cup play, 51-10, over their British opposition.

Birthdays:
Red Holzman b. 1920
Rocky Colavito b. 1933
John Starks b. 1965
Riddick Bowe b. 1967
Samari Rolle b. 1976

CULT CLASSICS

A brilliant conceit! A virtuoso performance! Author! Author! Christopher Miller has written a hilarious novel in the form of liner notes. This book is ostensibly the text that accompanies the four-CD set that represents the only recordings of composer Simon Silber. Silber was a nutter (though his hour-long minute waltz was something to hear), and his pretentious biographer can’t stand him, which only make the details of his life and art more fun. The musically inclined must not miss this devastatingly clever riff on writing about music and musicians.

SUDDEN NOISES FROM INANIMATE OBJECTS, by Christopher Miller (Mariner Books, 2004)