Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 01/29/2008

1/29/1965:
Defending collegiate champion UCLA and nationally ranked Wichita State are both upset in an intersectional doubleheader at Chicago Stadium. The Iowa Hawkeyes surprise UCLA, 87-82, in the nightcap of the twin bill after the Loyola (Chicago) Ramblers nipped Wichita State, 93-92, in the opener despite 45 points by Dave "the Rave" Stallworth of the Wheatshockers. UCLA and Wichita State are on a collision course, bound for the NCAA tournament semifinals at Portland, Oregon, where the Bruins will grab a 108-89 victory en route to their second straight national title.

Birthdays:
Greg Louganis b. 1960
Steve Sax b. 1960
Andre Reed b. 1964
Dominik Hasek b. 1965
Sean Burke b. 1967

1989:
Mark O'Meara won the National Pro-Am title at Pebble Beach, Calif. O'Meara will win this championship four times during his professional golfing career.

"There are three rules at the National Pro-Am. Never eat the cashews in your room at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. (They are $10 a jar.) Never expect to get Jack Lemmon's autograph on Sunday. (He has now missed the cut 25 years straight.) And never bet against Mark O'Meara. -Rick Reilly, February 6, 1989

FICTION UPON FICTION

In Slow Man, Coetzee, a Nobel Prize-winning author, treats us to literature with a capital L. Retired photographer Paul Rayment loses his leg in a bicycling accident and during his long recuperation reflects on what he considers a wasted life. With the appearance of a Croatian nurse, his spirits lift, and he engages, through her and her son, with life again. As he struggles with how to express his feelings for her, who should arrive upon the scene but the eminent writer Elizabeth Costello, the eponymous character of an earlier Coetzee novel. Now the book becomes something else altogether, a postmodern excursion into the theme of writing itself. This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours, you are sure to enjoy Coetzee’s appealing mastery of word and idea.

SLOW MAN, by J. M. Coetzee (Viking, 2005)