Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 11/02/2007

11/2/75:
New York Ranger fans turn on their own team when goaltender Eddie Giacomin takes the ice for the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden. After compiling a team record 266 wins in 10 seasons with New York, Giacomin had been placed on waivers and was quickly claimed by Detroit. Tonight, he's cheered by the Ranger faithful from the warm-ups until the final whistle of a memorable 6-4 Detroit victory. One of hockey's finest exponents, on and off the ice, Giacomin will be voted into the Hall of Fame in 1987.

Birthdays:
Bill Mosienko b. 1921
Whitey Skoog b. 1926
Ken Rosewall b. 1934
Willie McGee b.1 958
Sidney Ponson b. 1976

YOU’VE NEVER READ JOAN DIDION?

Joan Didion is a writer capable of such insight, such poetry, such truth, and beauty and clarity that you can hardly believe that she is, essentially, a journalist. Her best work (if we must choose): Slouching Towards Bethlehem. These essays, written in the sixties and focusing on California and its counterculture movement, are masterful and memorable.

SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM, by Joan Didion (1968; HarperCollins, 2001)