Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/17/2009

3/17/1967:
Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scores 41 points to lead the Winston-Salem Rams to the NCAA College Division (later Division II) national title over Southwest Missouri State at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Indiana. Coached by Clarence "Big House" Gaines, the Rams will finish their impressive progression through the tournament draw and finish the year with a 31-1 record. It's astonishing to look back and see that this team, led by the fabulous talent of Monroe, never appeared once in the weekly College Division top 10 poll all season long.

Birthdays:
Sonny Werblin b. 1910
Sammy Baugh b. 1914
Hank Sauer b. 1917
Chuck Muncie b. 1953
Mia Hamm b. 1972

Packers Fact:
The Packers selected running back Brandon Jackson in the second round of the 2007 draft.

LUCK IS FOR THE LUCKY

Multiple points of view are interwoven masterfully in García’s (Dreaming in Cuban; Monkey Love) latest novel, featuring Enrique Florit, his history, and his involvement with Marta and Leila. All three characters struggle with relocation, tragedy, and love and find hope and joy in a world magically delineated by a novelist who just keeps getting better. Booklist starred review.

A HANDBOOK TO LUCK, by Cristina García (Knopf, 2007)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Was William Shakespeare Irish? Because of his use of Gaelic words and phrases (Hamlet swears by St. Patrick, and the name of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is from the Irish word puca, meaning ghost), some European literary scholars in the early 20th century thought so. Around the same time, playwright George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion) was hailed as “the greatest English playwright since Shakespeare.” Ironically, Shaw actually was Irish.

CARL PERKINS WROTE “BLUE SUEDE SHOES” ON AN OLD POTATO SACK.

On Pigginess, Mergence, and All Those Other Important Artistic Things:

The work left me with an undercurrent of pigginess [and] unexpected fantasies of mergence and interspecies metamorphoses began to flicker into my consciousness.

performance artist Kira O'Reilly, on her shoe Inthewrongplaceness-which consisted of a naked woman cradling a dead pig for four hours.

GALWAY

IRELAND

The green and rugged landscape of Galway, where love of Gaelic culture still flourishes, is dotted with ancient castles. Perched on the westernmost edge of Europe, Galway is often called the most Irish part of Ireland.