Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 02/03/2008

2/3/1987:
The Minnesota Twins acquire closer Jeff Reardon from Montreal as the centerpiece of a six-player trade with the Expos. Reardon will be an invaluable component of the Twins' improbable rise to a world championship this season. Rarely used for more than one inning at a time, he'll record 31 saves and 8 wins out of the Twins' 85 victories on their way to the AL West title. In the postseason, he'll be on the mound when the Twins clinch the ALCS against Detroit and win the World Series against St. Louis.

Birthdays:
Emile Griffith b. 1938
Fran Tarkenton b. 1940
Bob Griese b. 1945
Vlade Divac b. 1968
Retief Goosen b. 1969

OY VAY!

Michael Wex is a professor, translator, novelist, and stand-up comedian. All of these have contributed to Born to Kvetch. The book is not merely a compendium of colorful Yiddish phrases but an exuberant investigation of the underlying spirit, culture, and people that make the language what it is: “the national language of nowhere,” a language of exiles. Wex is perhaps at his best in the chapter on Yiddish curses, “You Should Grow Like an Onion.” “Wise, witty and altogether wonderful. . . . Mr. Wex has perfect pitch,” Willliam Grimes wrote in The New York Times.

BORN TO KVETCH: YIDDISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN ALL ITS MOODS, by Michael Wex (St. Martin’s Press, 2005)