Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/16-1/18/2009

1/16/2000:

Paul Azinger wins a tournament on the PGA Tour for the first time since a bout with cancer nearly derailed his career in 1993. He leads wire-to-wire at the Sony/Hawaiian Open in Honolulu and rolls to a seven-stroke victory over Stuart Appleby at the Waialae Country Club. Azinger finally breaks through in this event after carding eight top-10 finishes here over the years, including three runner-up performances. It's a well-received triumph for the courageous 'Zinger, one of the most popular players on the circuit.

Birthdays:

Dizzy Dean b. 1911

A.J. Foyt b. 1935

Jack McDowell b. 1966

Roy Jones Jr. b. 1969

Albert Pjuols b. 1980

1/17/2004:

Rashad McCants hits a three-point basket to tie the score with just over a minute remaining, then hits another trey to win it with six seconds left as North Carolina upsets top-ranked UConn, 86-83, at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill. McCants finishes with 27 points, helping the Tar Heels upset a No. 1 team for the 10th time in school history, tying UCLA for the NCAA leadership in that category.

Birthdays:

Jacques Piante b. 1929

Kip Kelno b. 1940

Muhammad Ali b. 1942

Chili Davis b. 1960

Jeremy Roenick b. 1970

Packers Fact:

Johnny Jolly, a second year defensive tackle, started his first NFL game for the Packers on Kickoff Weekend 2007.

REMEMBRANCE

Forgetfulness was all Thomas Railles wished for after terrorists murdered his wife. It wasn’t possible, of course, nor even desirable. But he also wanted to avoid mindless vengeance, “the anger of the American . . . after September 11.” This thriller of CIA agents, terrorists, and an artist (a former agent himself) whose world has been shattered analyzes—with subtlety, maturity, and intelligence—themes that have preoccupied Americans since 2001.

FORGETFULNESS, by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)

FEAR AND TREMBLING

Allen Shawn is the son of the great New Yorker editor William Shawn and the brother of actor and playwright Wallace Shawn. He has his own very distinctive story to tell, one of crippling phobias (his fears include subways, elevators, bridges, open spaces, closed spaces, and heights), a father with similar anxieties, and an autistic sister. Educated in Freudian studies and the latest brain research, he has written a lucid and evocative account of a difficult yet productive life.

WISH I COULD BE THERE: NOTES FROM A PHOBIC LIFE, by Allen Shawn (Viking, 2007)

SEAT OF LEARNING

THE FIRST . . .

• Professional sports organization in the United States: the Maryland Jockey Club, founded in 1743.
• American cookbook: American Cookery (1796) by Amelia Simmons.
• Electric refrigerator: invented by Thomas Moore in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1803.
• American novel to sell a million copies: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• Drive-in movie theater: opened in Camden, New Jersey, in 1933. (Movie shown: Wives Beware, starring Adolphe Menjou.)

MANY SHAMPOOS AND LIPSTICKS CONTAIN STEARIC ACID. WHAT IS IT? ANOTHER NAME FOR BEEF FAT.

A RANDOM ORIGIN

HAMSTERS

The natural habitat of hamsters is limited to one area: the desert outside the city of Aleppo, Syria. (Their name in the local Arabic dialect translates to “saddlebags,” thanks to the pouches in their mouths that they use to store food.) In 1930 a zoologist named Israel Aharoni found a nest containing a female with a litter of 11 babies and took them back to his lab at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The mother and seven of her babies died on the trip. Yet virtually all of the millions of domesticated golden hamsters in the world are descended from the four that survived.

FOREIGN RULERS: FRENCH REVOLUTIONARIES INVENTED THE METRIC SYSTEM.

On hotel telephone directories, not too reassuring

Service Department Telephone number

The hotel set receives 8826139

Accept the silver 8826131

The mulberry takes 8834843

1. Bent the outside line, and please stir the first 0, behind stir the telephone number.

2. The room telephone number pleases stir the room number direction.

phone directory, Shandong Mansion hotel, China

On places, peculiar:

WANKIE (Zimbabwe)

WANKS RIVER (Nicaragua)

WANKENDORF (Germany)

HOLD WITH HOPE (Greenland)

actual place names

MONT TREMBLANT

QUEBEC, CANADA

Often ranked the No. 1 ski area in eastern North America, the Mont Tremblant Resort has 46 miles of trails broken into 94 runs, many of them expert level. In the pedestrian-only Mont Tremblant Village, skiers down from the slopes stroll through cobbled streets lined with lively restaurants, bars, and shops.

GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

See the answer tomorrow.

Q: English Harbour, a favorite spot of wealthy yachtsmen keen on racing and tennis buffs who want to play in the sun, lies on which Caribbean island?

a) Anguilla b) Antigua c) Aruba d) Abacos