Sports Fact of the Day 3/6-3/7/2009

3/6/1977:
More than 12,000 fans show up at 11:00 A.M. for the first-ever women's college basketball doubleheader at Madison Square Garden, and they see two of America's finest performers at their very best. In the opener, Carol Blazejowski scores 52 points to lead Montclair State to a 102-91 victory over Queens College. In the second game, Lusia Harris scores 31 points and grabs 15 rebounds to lead two-time defending AIAW national champion Delta State (Mississippi) to a 79-62 win over Immaculate .The Lady Statesmen will make it three straight national titles later this month.

Birthdays:
Willie Stargell b. 1940
Dick Fosbury b. 1947
Sleepy Floyd b. 1960
Shaquille O'Neal b. 1972
Erik Bedard b. 1979


Packers Fact:
Green Bay's 17-9 victory over Detroit in week 15 of 2006 marked the Packers' 16th consecutive home victory over their NFC NOrth rival.

3/7/1988:
The Calgary Flames deal forward Brett Hull and Steve Bozek to St. Louis for defenseman Bob Ramage and goalie Rick Wamsley. Somehow tagged as an underachiever with Calgary, Brett Hull (hockey immortal Bobby Hull's son) goes on to a legendary NHL career. The Blues pair him with playmaking center Adam Oates, and the "Golden Brett" goes on to ring up a frnachise record 527 goals in St. Louis before leaving as a free agent in 1998.

Birthdays:
Franco Harris b. 1950
Lynn Swann b. 1952
Joe Carter b. 1960
Ivan Lendl b. 1960
Jeff Kent b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Cornerback Frank Walker played college football at Tuskegee (in Alabama).

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

“The tender precariousness of The Road’s human relationships is what finally makes it such a beautiful, difficult, near perfect work,” Mark Holcomb wrote in The Village Voice about Cormac McCarthy’s tale of a father and son in postapocalyptic America. The two travel a road to nowhere, eking out a life in an anarchic, soul-destroying landscape. “Why read this? . . . Because in its lapidary transcription of the deepest despair short of total annihilation we may ever know, this book announces the triumph of language over nothingness.”—Chicago Tribune

THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage Books, 2007)

MOTHER WAS A SPY

Ruth Gilmartin, who leads a rather uneventful life teaching English at Oxford, learns that her mother was not merely her mum, Sally Gilmartin, but actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré and British spy who worked in America in the early 1940s to help lure the U.S. into the war. Eva’s story is as sexy and duplicitous as any spy yarn you’re likely to read. Ultimately it involves ordinary Ruth in some of its quite unordinary, dangerous, unfinished business.

RESTLESS, by William Boyd (Bloomsbury USA, 2007)

GO WITH THE FLOW

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS . . .
. . . MAKE LIMONCELLO

In 2006 Danny DeVito appeared on ABC’s morning talk show The View . . . drunk. He’d been out with friend George Clooney all night. Their drink of choice: limoncello, an Italian liqueur made out of lemons and grain alcohol. Making the most of an embarrassing situation, a few months after the incident, DeVito introduced Danny DeVito’s Premium Limoncello.

MARLON BRANDO EARNED $14 MILLION FOR HIS CAMEO APPEARANCE IN SUPERMAN.

IT’S A GAS!

In 2003 an unidentified man from Tegelen, Netherlands, called an ambulance because he felt sick, but he died before paramedics arrived. The man’s home was full of dozens of pet parrots. Cause of death: asphyxiation due to overpowering parrot flatulence.

NORTH DAKOTA IS THE ONLY STATE IN THE U.S. NEVER TO HAVE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE.

On Alternatively, You May Leave the Theater:

Alternatively, you must follow my advice whenever I say "Maltose."

English subtitle in a Hong Kong kung-fu movie

On Yeah, Let's Stop Science:

I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here. ... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.

Sen. Simon Cameron, on the Smithsonian Institution, 1861

HANOI’S OLD QUARTER

VIETNAM

The mazelike old Quarter of Hanoi has been a shopping venue since the 15th century, and today every square inch vibrates with activity. Noodles, flowers, antiques, and handicrafts are yours for the bargaining.

GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

See the answer tomorrow.

Q: This small island in the Atlantic Ocean claims to have more golf courses per square mile than any other place in the world. The oldest course was established in 1922. What is it?

a) Bermuda b) Dominica c) Grand Cayman d) Puerto Rico