Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 10/13/2007

10/13/1964:
Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser captures her third straight Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle at the National Gymnasium Pool in Tokyo. After winning at Melbourne in 1956 in 1:02 and at Rome in 1960 in 1:01.2, Miss Fraser sets a new Olympic record of 59.5 seconds. The resilient Aussie also holds the world mark in the event, 58.9 seconds, set in Sydney earlier this year. She'll close out her Olympic career at these Games, finishing with a total of eight medals: four gold and four silver, counting relay races.

Birthdays:
Eddie Mathews b. 1931
Doc Rivers b. 1961
Jerry Rice b. 1962
Paul Pierce b. 1977
Jermaine O'Neal b. 1978

The late Irish novelist Flann O’Brien had been nearly forgotten until the TV show Lost announced that The Third Policeman would appear in an episode of the series. Fans of the show went wild ordering copies, and in a matter of weeks, the book became the bestselling title in small press Dalkey Archive history. The surreal, comic novel is about an Irish murderer and the consequences of his crime. O’Brien wrote several novels, but The Third Policeman is his last and, by most accounts, best.

THE THIRD POLICEMAN, by Flann O’Brien (1967; Dalkey Archive Press, 1999)