Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/15-4/16/2009

4/15/1989:
The favored Calgary Flames stave off elimination by defeating the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3, in overtime in the seventh game of their Stanley Cup Smythe Division semifinal series at the Saddledome. Calgary goalie Mike Vernon makes several scintillating saves to hold Vancouver in check, robbing Stan Smyl and moments later stoning Tony Tanti. Joel Otto receives credit for the game-winning goal with 39 seconds left in the first overtime session, deflecting a shot from Jim Peplinski past Kirk McLean in the Vancouver net. Having dodged a major bullet, the Flames won't waste their good fortune. They'll proceed to knock off the Kings, the Blackhawks and the Canadiens to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Birthdays:
Evelyn Ashford b. 1957
Kevin Stevens b. 1965
Jeromy Burnitz b. 1969
Phillippi Sparks b. 1969
Jason Sehorn b. 1971

Packers Fact:
Donald Driver earned the second Pro Bowl berth of his career in 2006 after catching a career-best 92 passes.

4/16/1967:
One of the original Baltimore "Baby Birds," left-hander Steve Barber carries a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Angels before Jim Fregosi breaks it up with a double. Barber will close out a one-hit, 3-0 victory. Two weeks from today, Barber's chronic control problems will produce one of baseball history's strangest games. He'll pitch no-hit ball for eight and two-thirds innings against Detroit but walk 10 men, including 3 in the ninth when the Tigers push over two runs without benefit of a base hit to beat Barber and the Orioles, 2-1.

Birthdays:
Dick "Night Train" Lane b. 1928
Rich Rollins b. 1938
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar b. 1947
Bill Belichick b. 1952
Luol Deng b. 1985

Packers Fact:
Fullback Korey Hall played college football at Boise State.

YOU, ME, AND THE SEA

The Maytrees are a loosely bound family. Lou and Toby—who are sometimes married—and Pete, their only child, live on Cape Cod. And you will find much here of what one looks for in Annie Dillard’s work: the wonders of nature (especially the sea); the intersection of the particular, the universal, and the timeless; and the inscrutable ways of love. The storyline cannot convey Dillard’s mastery of prose, the real hero here.

THE MAYTREES, by Annie Dillard (HarperCollins, 2007)

ABOUT TIME

This large, thorough biography of Andrew Mellon (1855-1937) constitutes a minicourse in American history. Author David Cannadine gives the man and his times a stately narrative arc, from the Scots-Irish family’s beginnings in Pittsburgh (and the importance of the “rust belt” to the American economy) to Mellon’s building of Alcoa and Gulf Oil and a dynasty in real estate, his stint as secretary of the treasury under Warren Harding, his importance as an art collector and founder of the National Gallery. This is the most compelling biography of this titan who stood shoulder to shoulder with Gould, Morgan, Frick, and Rockefeller.

MELLON: AN AMERICAN LIFE, by David Cannadine (Knopf, 2006)

On Right People Wrong:

The really right people know how to dodge taxes anyway.

President George W. Bush, on Sen. John Kerry's (D-Massachusetts) proposal to rescind tax cuts for the wealthy


On Sequiturs, Non:

I love England, especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.

model Naomi Campbell

IT’S TAX DAY!

Do you worry about being audited? Actually, the odds you’ll be audited are pretty low: In 1994 the IRS audited about 93,000 individual income tax returns out of 114 million submitted, or about .08% of all returns filed. That’s way down from 1914, when every single one of the 357,598 tax returns submitted was audited. The IRS didn’t take any chances with the signatures that year, either: all taxpayers were required to sign their return in the presence of an IRS official.

FBI STATISTIC: 74% OF THREATS AGAINST FEDERAL WORKERS ARE DIRECTED AT IRS EMPLOYEES.

UNCLE JOHN’S DICTIONARY OF WORD ORIGINS

Invest

Meaning: Put money into a financial plan with the expectation of profit
Origin: It’s from the Latin word investire, which means “to clothe.” It became a financial word in the 17th century and it is thought to have come from the idea of “dressing up” money in different “clothes” by putting it into a business or a stock.

OHIO IS THE ONLY U.S. STATE WHOSE FLAG IS NOT RECTANGULAR OR SQUARE.

SIDI BOU SAID, TUNISIA

“There is no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign.”
—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

IL DUOMO

ORVIETO, ITALY

The perfect centerpiece of its ancient Umbrian hilltop town, the Duomo was constructed over three centuries starting in the late 13th century. Among the artworks inside, its greatest treasure is a cycle of frescoes begun by Fra Angelico and completed by Luca Signorelli in 1503.