apckrfan: Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/2-4/4/2009

4/2/1952:
Coming off a pennant-winning season for the New York Giants in which he led the National League in RBIs, outfielder Monte Irvin suffers a broken right ankle while sliding into third base during an exhibition game in Denver. Ironically, the throw from the outfield was cut off and he didn't even have to slide. Irvin will miss over 100 games before returning to the lineup, and his absence will be keenly felt. The Giants will fail to defend their title, losing the 1952 pennant to Brooklyn by the modest margin of four and a half games.

Birthdays:
Luke Appling b. 1907
Carmen Basilio b. 1927
Dick Radatz b. 1937
Don Sutton b. 1945
Linford Christie b. 1960

Packers Fact:
Three rookies were in the starting lineup for the Packers on Kickoff Weekend in 2007. Running back Brandon Jackson, fullback Korey Hall, and wide receiver James Jones.

4/3/2005:
Roger Federer of Switzerland wins his 18th consecutive final-round match, overcoming a two-set deficit to beat 18-year-old Spanish sensation Rafael Nadal in five sets at the Nasdaq 100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. Federer climbs out of a 3-5 hole in the third-set tiebreaker by winning four straight points and runs out the match from there. In subsequent meetings, especially on clay, Nadal will clearly establish himself as Federer's staunchest rival.

Birthdays:
Bernie Parent b. 1945
Pervis Ellison b. 1967
Rodney Hampton b. 1969
Picabo Street b. 1971
Michael Olowokandi b. 1975

Packers Fact:
Defensive tackle Justin Harrell, the Packers' top draft pick in 2007, played only three games his senior year at Tennessee because of a torn bicep injury.

4/4/1976:
Right wing Danny Gare scores a hat trick in the final game of the season to reach the 50-goal plateau, leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-2 win over Toronto at the Aud. Still two goals shy after 40 minutes of play, Gare scores twice in a span of 1:04 during the final period, beating Leafs goalie Gord McRae to achieve his milestone. A real fan favorite of the intensely loyal Buffalo crowds, Gare will score 267 goals for Buffalo in eight seasons before being traded to Detroit.

Birthdays:
Tris Speaker b. 1888
JoAnne Carner b. 1939
Dale Hawerchuk b. 1963
Scott Rolen b. 1976
Ben Gordon b. 1983

Packers Fact:
Rookie Mason Crosby beat out former Packers' player Dave Rayner in a training-camp battle to become Green Bay's kicker on Kickoff Weekend in 2007.

NESSUN DORMA

The tragic story of Puccini’s Turandot is woven into the life and memories of Lila du Cann, an opera singer who returns to her hometown in Scotland after her father’s death. “Morag Joss has been compared to those other two premiere weird sisters in crime, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and Minette Walters. Such compliments are tossed about all too lightly in the publishing world, but this one is so justified that it seems like an understatement.” (Washington Post Book World) High praise indeed.

PUCCINI’S GHOSTS, by Morag Joss (Delacorte Press, 2006)

AWARD WINNER

This marvelous biography illuminates the life and times of Henry Ward Beecher, son of a preacher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and himself an enormously influential and fiery orator and abolitionist with liberal views. His times were no less complicated and contradictory than our own, and Beecher’s popularity and influence in the media and on people (including Abraham Lincoln) eventually gave way to adulterous scandals and celebrity backlash. This is the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, among many other awards.

THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA: THE BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY WARD BEECHER, by Debby Applegate (Doubleday, 2006)

WILD WEST

The long subtitle to this memoir is: The Occasional History of a Child Actress/Tap Dancer/Record Store Clerk/Thai Waitress/Playboy Reject/Nightclub Booker/Daily Show Correspondent/Sex Columnist/Recurring Character and Whatever Else. Believe it or not, that’s not the whole story. For that, you have to experience Stacey Grenrock Woods’s prose—painfully honest, often hilarious, bittersweet, even poetic. (By the way, the author, a comedian and sex columnist for Esquire, is no longer a Playboy reject. An intern found photos of her in the archives and published one in the July 2007 issue.)

I, CALIFORNIA, by Stacey Grenrock Woods (Scribner, 2007)

On Thanks For the Warning, Electric Cattle Prod People!:

FOR USE ON ANIMALS ONLY.

warning label on an electric cattle prod

On Websites, Inadvertently Titillating:

www.whorepresents.com - web address for Who Represents
www.expertsexchange.com - web address for Experts Exchange programmers site

actual domain names (although Experts Exchange has since changed its site's name)

On Slogans Of Strange:

TISSUES OF PUPPY

slogan on a Japanese tissue box - which has a picture of a puppy on it

AN ABSORBING QUESTION

WHY DOESN’T POUND CAKE WEIGH A POUND?

Experts say: The dish was traditionally made with a pound of flour, a pound of butter, and a pound of sugar. (Wouldn’t that make it a three-pound cake?) Interestingly, that same concept explains the name of another dessert: cupcakes. The original recipes called for a cup each of flour, butter, and sugar, not because they’re baked in little paper cups.

A NEWBORN EXPELS ITS OWN BODY WEIGHT IN WASTE EVERY 60 HOURS.

UNCLE JOHN’S SPACE PATROL

Little red country cottages are a common sight in Sweden. Now the country wants to put one on the Moon. The Swedish Space Corporation has conducted a study and determined that it actually would be possible to put such a structure on the Moon, at an estimated cost of 500 million kronor ($73 million), by 2011. A nationwide contest is under way for children to design the cottage, which is required to be incredibly small—to keep down the cost of shipping building materials to the Moon, the cottage can be no more than eight square meters and weigh no more than ten pounds.

ONE POUND OF COFFEE BEANS MAKES ABOUT 50 CUPS OF COFFEE; ONE POUND OF TEA LEAVES MAKES ABOUT 300 CUPS OF TEA.

POT-POURRI

TWO RANDOM LISTS

13 Cigarette Additives
Yeast
Coffee
Honey
Rum
Fig juice
Cognac oil
Chocolate
Carrot oil
Caffeine
Ammonia
Vinegar
Apple skins
Nutmeg powder

5 Types of Cars
4-door sedan
2-door coupe
Station wagon
Convertible
Sports car

ACCORDING TO DC COMICS, BATMAN IS 6'2" TALL AND WEIGHS 220 POUNDS.

NATCHEZ

MISSISSIPPI, USA

Azaleas, camellias, magnolias, and annuals create the perfect setting for the more than 30 private homes that open to the public during the Natchez Spring Pilgrimage for four weeks in March and April. With more than 500 historic structures intact, Natchez is a living museum of antebellum architecture and charm.

ST. LUCIA

LESSER ANTILLES

Gros Piton and Petit Piton, twin pointed volcanic peaks about 2,500 feet high, rise from the surf off St. Lucia, looking like the jagged mountains of Bali Ha’i.