apckrfan: Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/24-1/25/2009

1/24/1999:
David Duval converts a six-foot putt for eagle on the 18th hole to tie a PGA record of 59 and win the Bob Hope Desert Classic by two strokes over Steve Pate at La Quinta, California. Duval's achievement ties Al Geiberger (1977, Memphis) and Chip Beck (1991, Las Vegas) for the lowest round ever posted, but this is the first time it occurs during a final round. Duval leapfrogs 12 players who began the day ahead of him and pockets the first-prize check of $540,000.

Birthdays:
Giorgio Chinaglia b. 1947
Atlee Hammaker b. 1958
Rob Dibble b. 1964
Mary Lou Retton b. 1968
Tshimanga Biakabutuka b. 1974

Packers Fact:
John Brockington was the last rookie running back to start for the Packers on Kick off Weekend in 1971 before Brandon Jackson did in 2007.

1/25/1997:
The New York Islanders stage a special night in honor of Al Arbour, who coached the team to 739 victories in 19 years and 4 straight Stanley Cups (1980-83). A solid defenseman in his playing days and a no-nonsense leader behind the bench, Arbour was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame last November, and tonight a banner with the number 739 is raised to the Nassau Coliseum rafters in his honor. New York adds to the festive occasion by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2.

Birthdays:
Lou Groza b. 1924
Don Maynard b. 1937
Steve Prefontaine b. 1951
Mark Duper b. 1959
Chris Chelios b. 1962

CLASSIC FOR ALL TIME

Known as Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-79 CE) produced the Western world’s first encyclopedia, in 37 books. This selection, even at around 450 pages, is only a teaser, but it is still chock-full of the wonderful, the marvelous, the bizarre, the minute, and the colossal. Anthony Doerr (author of Four Seasons in Rome) says of the work, “His subject is the universe, from stars all the way down to polyps . . . a panorama of an ancient world crawling with myth and misinformation, but also elegant and ordered and deeply beautiful.”

NATURAL HISTORY: A SELECTION, by Pliny the Elder; introduction and translation by John F. Healey (Penguin Classics, 1991)

FOOD FOR FIDO

With the pet-food scare of 2007 still fresh in our minds, a cookbook for our furry companions is welcome and perhaps necessary. This one has a twist: Almost all the recipes can be eaten by the cook, too. Includes sections on nutrition for dogs, foods that must be avoided, and fun party ideas for canines.

THE DOG ATE IT: COOKING FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS, by Linda West Eckhardt and Barbara Bradley with Judy Kern (Gotham Books, 2006)

IT’S A WEIRD, WEIRD WORLD

LIFE IS FULL OF TWISTS AND TURNS

“For months, 14-year-old David Mossmann constructed a roller coaster in the back yard of his parents’ house in Offenburg, Germany. Now he must tear it down. The roller coaster stands about 325 feet long and 16 feet high, and can reach a speed of 30 mph, but according to city officials, the wood construction does not comply with safety regulations, and it must be demolished.”

—N-TV (Germany)

THE ORCA CAN SWIM AT SPEEDS OF 35 MPH, FASTER THAN ANY OTHER MARINE MAMMAL.

ROLL CALL

ORIGIN OF MERRILL, LYNCH

In 1907 Charles Merrill, a recent college graduate working on Wall Street, happened to meet Edmund C. Lynch, a soda fountain equipment salesman, at the 23rd Street YMCA in New York City. They became friends and when Merrill formed his own brokerage firm, Charles E. Merrill & Co., in 1914, he asked Lynch to join him. After a few months of convincing, Lynch finally agreed. But it wasn’t until 1915 that the firm changed its name to Merrill, Lynch & Co. By 1941 it was the largest brokerage firm in the United States.

FIRST STATE TO LIST ITS WEBSITE ON ITS LICENSE PLATE: PENNSYLVANIA.

GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

Q: The Na Pali Coast, the Hawaii of dreams with vibrant green valleys and thundering waterfalls plunging from cliffs, is a state park on which Hawaiian island?
Answer: Kauai.