Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 11/20/2007

11/20/1983:
Billy "White Shoes" Johnson catches a deflected pass on a Hail Mary play and literally squirms into the end zone as time expires to give the Atlanta Falcons a 28-25 victory over the San Francisco 49ers at Fulton County Stadium. The dramatic pass from quarterback Steve Bartkowski officially covers 47 yards, but the Niners protest that Johnson never crossed the goal line. TV footage seems to support their argument, but instant replay to review calls is still on the distant horizon. The call stands and the Falcons win.

Birthdays:
Don January b. 1929
Louis Dampier b. 1944
Joey Galloway b. 1971
J.D. Drew b. 1975
Carlos Boozer b. 1981

HISTORICAL FICTION

“Rarely are today’s hungry readers invited to such a feast of a book.”—Annie Proulx, Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Big, satisfying...juicy, tough, gruesome.”—Entertainment Weekly

“The writing achieves unforced grace and power.”—The New Yorker

Vanderhaeghe, a Canadian writer based in Saskatchewan, is an international bestseller but not so well known in the States. You’ll wonder why when you read this magisterial tale, set in the 19th-century American West, of two men on a quest for their lost brother.

THE LAST CROSSING, by Guy Vanderhaeghe (Grove Press, 2005)