Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 11/05/2007

11/5/1955:
Jean Beliveau scores three times within 44 seconds of one power play as Montreal defeats Boston, 4-2, at the Forum. With Hal Laycoe in the penalty box, Boston had to play shorthanded for a full two minutes. Subsequently, because of Beliveau's hat trick, the NHL will change the rule and allow a player sitting out on a two-minute minor infraction to return to the ice if the opposition scores one goal.

Birthdays:
Bill Walton b. 1952
Javy Lopez g. 1970
Johnny Damon b. 1973
Alexei Yashin b. 1973
Jerry Stackhouse b. 1974

A London detective steps into a taxi in the middle of the 20th century and steps out of a horse-drawn cab in 1829. There our time-traveling hero is caught up in Robert “Bobbie” Peel’s efforts to create the world’s first professional police force, and the case of a beautiful woman accused of committing a heinous murder. Carr was famous for creating eerie atmospheres and brilliant, maddening crimes. He was a master of the “locked room” mystery, a setup present in 50 or so of his novels.

FIRE, BURN!, by John Dickson Carr (1957; Carroll & Graf, 1995)