Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 11/22/2007

THANKSGIVING
Putting a Wild West spin on the number of jobs held by basketball coach Larry Brown over three decades in the industry, NBA assistant coach Alvin Gentry theorized: "Look at it like the Lone Ranger. He comes in, does what needs to be done and moves on for another challenge. I don't think there's anything real bad about that."

Birthdays:
Lew Burdette b. 1926
Yvan Cournoyer b. 1943
Billie Jean King b. 1943
Greg Luzinski b. 1950
Boris Becker b. 1967

The marvelous short stories of Harriet Prescott Spofford, written in the mid-1800s, are nearly forgotten today, and that’s a shame. They are luxurious, often suspenseful flights of fantasy that still titillate and unsettle the reader. This collection includes two of her best, “In a Cellar,” a detective story set in Paris about a diamond theft, and the title story, about two rivals for the love of the same man. Spofford was an American virtuoso. She’s ripe for rediscovery.

THE AMBER GODS AND OTHER STORIES, by Harriet Prescott Spofford (Rutgers University Press, 1989)