Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 12/21/2007

12/21/2003:
On the final snap of regulation time, Jerome Pathon of the New Orleans Saints scores a touchdown on a wild 75-yard play involving four laterals to draw within a point of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The play is upheld after a lengthy videotape review, but John Carney misses the PAT, the Jags hold on to win, 20-19, and the Saints are eliminated from playoff contention.

Birthdays:
Joe Paterno b. 1926
Chris Evert b. 1954
Florence Griffith Joyner b. 1959
Mike Alstott b. 1973
Karrie Web b. 1974


Katherine Anne Porter’s short stories won her both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. But could she pull off a novel? She worked twenty years on Ship of Fools and proved that she was a master at that genre too. The critics went wild: “phenomenal” (Atlantic Monthly), “miraculously brilliant” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (San Francisco Chronicle). The story of a transatlantic crossing is as resonant now as it was when the book was first published. It’s a genius at her very best. Don’t miss it.

SHIP OF FOOLS, by Katherine Anne Porter (1962; Back Bay Books, 2000)