Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 9/29/2007

9/29/2001:
IBF/WBC middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins scores a TKO over previously unbeaten WBA champion Felix Trinidad at 1:18 of the 12th ans final round to unify the title and become undisputed middleweight champion of the world at Madison Square Garden. The 36-year-old Hopkins (40-2-1) dictates the pace of the bout from the outset before a predominantly pro-Trinidad crowd. His hand speed, ring movement and punching power war down Trinidad's defenses until a straight right to the chin ends it in the 12th, manifesting his nickname "the Executioner."

Birthdays:
Ellsworth Vines b. 1911
Kermit Zarley b. 1941
Carol Blazejowski b. 1956
Sebastian Coe b. 1956
Hersey Hawkins b. 1965

A masterful work of fiction—only the second novel of Taylor’s long career as a short story writer—A Summons to Memphis documents the genteel decline of a Southern family. The Carvers are exiled from Nashville when Mr. Carver, a lawyer, is betrayed by a client. The move sets into motion a long, languid chain of events that changes the fate of each family member. The Philadelphia Inquirer likens the book to “a leisurely port wine sipped slowly and with pleasure beneath a blackjack oak.”

A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS, by Peter Taylor (1986; Vintage, 1999)