Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/6/2009

1/6/1941:
A women's match introducing four-time U.S. national champion Alice Marble to the professional ranks upstages a New York stop on a barnstorming tour pitting Don Budge against Bill Tilden. The hard-hitting Californian is pushed to the limit by Mary Hardwick of Great Britain before escaping, 8-6, 8-6. Miss Marble's rousing triumph offers the 12,000 fans at Madison Square Garden a good deal more excitement than 25-year-old Budge's tepid 6-3, 6-4 win over Tilden, 22 years his senior.

Birthdays:
Early Wynn b. 1920
Lou Holtz b. 1937
Nancy Lopez b. 1957
Keenan McCardell b. 1970
Gilbert Arenas b. 1982

Packers Fact:
The Packers won five road games (out of eight) under new coach Mike McCarthy in 2006. That's the most under a first-year coach in club history.

CURL UP BY THE FIRE

“That was how Tucker Coulter first saw her—standing toe-to-toe with a man twice her size.” She is Samantha Harrigan, and she is trying to save a horse from its abusive owner. Tucker takes her side, and so begins another Catherine Anderson love story—a reliable mixture of sweetness and emotional vacillation, with a pinch of suspense, horses, of course, and a happy ending. A very cozy romance for a cold winter’s night.

SUN KISSED, by Catherine Anderson (Signet, 2007)

A STRANGE INVENTION

BOVINE URINE NEUTRALIZER

Cow urine is very high in soil-damaging nitrates, and farmers must regularly treat entire fields with expensive chemicals to neutralize it. A New Zealand agricultural company, Summit-Quinphos, has developed a device that fits under a cow’s tail and automatically sprays a nitrate-inhibiting compound onto the ground every time she urinates. The device, which is activated when the cow lifts her tail, could save farmers a lot of money and labor.

IRELAND’S LONGEST PLACE NAME: MUCKANAGHEDERDAUHAULIA (TRANSLATES TO PIG MARSH BETWEEN TWO SALTWATER INLETS).

VERBIER

VALAIS, SWITZERLAND

With some of Europe’s steepest and best off-piste skiing and a very lively nightlife, Verbier is a magnet for young, adventurous ski buffs and one of the Alps’ great winter destinations.

I scare nothing! Even you become napkins!

*English subtitle in a Hong Kong kunk-fu movie.