Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/10-2/11/2009

2/10/1933:
Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf in the 13th round at Madison Square Garden. Taken to the Polyclinic Hospital across the street with a brain hemorrhage, Schaaf undergoes cranial surgery but dies four days later. It's likely that he should never have been licensed for this fight after being knocked senseless by Max Baer last August. New York governor Herbert Lehman calls for an investigation into the tragic ring death and floats the idea of abolishing prizefights. In the end, however, there is too much money to be made in the sport. Schaaf is forgotten and Carnera ends up as heavyweight champion.

Birthdays:
Bill Tilden b. 1893
Mark Spitz b. 1950
Greg Norman b. 1955
Lenny Dykstra b. 1963
Lance Berkman b. 1976

Packers Fact:
Center Scott Wells was on the field for the Packers' offense for more plays than anyone else in 2006. He missed only two snaps all season when he lost a shoe.

2/11/1995:
Last year's Horse of the Year, Holy Bull, is pulled up during the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida, and Cigar wins the race by five and a half lengths. Winner of the 1994 Metropolitan Handicap, Travers and Woodward, Holy Bull seemed to be steadily getting better and expectations were high for his four-year-old campaign. Alas, after only 16 lifetime starts (and 13 wins), the stylish gray colt will be retired in order to allow proper healing of a strained tendon in his left front leg.

Birthdays:
Eddie Shack b. 1937
Sammy Ellis b. 1941
Ben Oglivie b. 1943
James Silas b. 1949
Brian Daubach b. 1972

Packers Fact:
Before Mason Crosby's winning three-pointer against the Eagles in 2007, no rookie had won a game on Kickoff Weekend with a field goal since Pittsburgh's Matt Bahr in 1979.

EPIC BATTLES

In the third of the Saxon Chronicles series, set in A.D. 878, the Saxons, Christians, and Scots are in the thick of the battle for what will become Great Britain. You will cheer for the young Saxon warrior Uhtred, as valiant in love and war as anyone could wish and imbued with complexities of doubt and mercy by master storyteller Bernard Cornwell.

LORDS OF THE NORTH, by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins, 2007)

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

Alain de Botton, (How Proust Can Change Your Life) believes that “buildings speak. . . . They speak of democracy or aristocracy, openness or arrogance, welcome or threat, a sympathy for the future or a hankering for the past.” He has been listening to what buildings say, and the result is a passionate, learned, yet very personal conversation about how architecture, both private and public, interacts with people, cities, and societies. The widely traveled and erudite author is the perfect companion for this unusual and eye-opening tour.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF HAPPINESS, by Alain de Botton (Pantheon, 2006)

On You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do:

"I'm really antifur and my daughter is as well. But leather - I'm rock. I have to do leather."
rocker Courtney Love

On Well, We're Sure Not Going to To Trespass:

KEEP OUT:
TRESPASSERS WILL BE VIOLATED

sign by a gas station in Warrenville, Illinois (thanks t Terry Cassidy)

Claptrap

Meaning: Nonsense
Origin: In the world of 18th-century theater, a claptrap was any bit of humor, acting, or stage business designed to “trap claps,” or invoke applause. A comic actor had dozens of these at his disposal, from slurping his coffee to taking a pratfall, that never failed in getting audience reaction. In the hands of master comedians, such trickery can be high art; in lesser hands it’s simply a nonsensical diversion or . . . claptrap.

EX-LAX WAS ORIGINALLY CALLED BO-BO’S.

THE BARE FACTS

Police at Los Angeles International Airport arrested Neil Melly, 31, of Canada, after he stripped naked, scaled the airport fence, ran across the airfield, and climbed into the wheel well of an airplane as it was backing away from the departure gate. Reportedly, Melly was mad at Qantas Airlines because it refused to sell him a ticket when he tried to pay for it with a credit card receipt instead of his actual credit card. Airport officials say they “will look into improving the fence.”

AVERAGE LIFESPAN OF AN NBA BASKETBALL: 10,000 BOUNCES.

MOTHER EARTH

HARBOUR ISLAND, ELEUTHERA ISLAND GROUP, BAHAMAS

Shallow seas and deeper trenches alternate in the area of the Great Bahama Bank, a limestone formation that serves as the platform for Eleuthera Island. Harbour Island, an offshore cay of Eleuthera Island, is known for its pink sand, colored by fragments of red coral.

CHUUK LAGOON

CHUUK, MICRONESIA

The ghost ship Shinkoku Maru lies in Chuuk (aka Truk) Lagoon, part of a fleet sunk by American bombers in 1944. For the divers who explore shipwrecks, this concentration of sunken ships, the largest in the world, is the standard by which all other dives are measured.