Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/1/2009

4/1/1962:
Boston center Bill Russell scores 29 points, helping the Celtics build up a 23-point lead and cruise to a 119-104 victory over the Philadelphia Warriors for a 3-2 lead in their NBA Eastern Conference final-round series. Emotions between the two arch rivals spill over in the fourth quarter when several skirmishes break out. Celtics guard Sam Jones picks up a photographer's stool to defend himself against Wilt Chamberlain after they collide in the lane. Later, Celtics reserve Carl Braun mixes it up with Philadelphia's Al Attles, and then Guy Rodgers of the Warriors grabs the same stool to fend off Boston's Jim Losccutoff. Veteran referee Sid Borgia doesn't issue any ejections in a "boys will be boys" interpretation of the rules. Boston will win this series in seven games.

Birthdays:
Bo Schembechler b. 1929
Ron Perranoski b. 1936
Rusty Staub b. 1944
Norm Van Lier b. 1947
Scott Stevens b. 1964

Packers Fact:
The Packers' regular-season schedule in 2007 included seven games against teams that made the playoffs in 2006.

MOM, I NEED NEW GENES

What’s going on at BioGen Research? Mad scientists, gene cloning (ever hear of a humanzee?), and greedy capitalists who don’t know when to stop. Michael Crichton cuts between swiftly moving scenes of dark comedy and frightening fantasy, building tension as only he can do. The afterword makes an impassioned and knowledgeable plea for responsibility in DNA research.

NEXT, by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, 2006)

APRIL FOOLS!

When most of western Europe adopted the euro as a standard international currency in 1999, many Europeans feared losing other aspects of their individual cultural identities. On April 1 England’s BBC radio service announced that England was scrapping the national anthem, “God Save the Queen,” in favor of an all-Europe anthem that would be sung in German. “There’s too much nationalism,” a spokesperson for the EU supposedly told the BBC. “We need to look for unity.” (Sorry, England, April Fools!)

SINGER MEAT LOAF IS A VEGETARIAN.

On Is This Guy Meshugga Or What?

* I cried about a steak sandwich one time.
* Drink orange juice, because it's good for you.
* Sometimes I feel like a 3-foot-tall, poverty-stricken, homosexual, handicapped, 50-year-old Muslim woman with AIDS.
* I don't know what the word "urban" means anymore.

random excerpts from actor Macauley Culkin's book Junior

TIME TRAVELING

At Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, meticulous re-creation of the past transports visitors back to the world of Virginians from 1750 to 1775. Other preserved or reconstructed destinations afford a stroll back through these other times:

• 1500s: Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 1600s: Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Massachusetts
• 1800s: Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts
• 1900s: The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California