Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/7-4/8/2009

4/7/1979:
Ken Forsch of the Houston Astros throws a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves, 6-0, at the Astrodome. Forsch joins his brother, Bob, who tossed a no-no for the Cardinals just last April, as the only brothers to each hurl big league no-hitters. Ken Forsch gets 14 ground ball outs, doesn't really surrender a tough chance and walks only two. He retires Rowland Office, Jerry Royster and Glenn Hubbard without incident in the ninth inning to record the sixth no-hitter in Houston's 18-year franchise history.

Birthdays:
Bobby Doerr b. 1918
Gail Cogdill b. 1937
Tony Dorsett b. 1954
Ricky Watters b. 1969
Ronde and Tiki Barber b. 1975

Packers Fact:
Rookie kicker Mason Crosby's first career field-goal attempt in the 2007 game opener against the Eagles was 53 yards. He made it.

4/8/2006:
Enjoying a home-ice advantage, the Wisconsin Badgers edge Boston College, 2-1, to win their first NCAA men's hockey championshiph since 1990. Tom Gilbert scores the winning goal, and Wisconsin's defense holds BC to only four third-period shots. With the victory, the Wisconsin men's team duplicates the national crown won two weeks ago by the Wisconsin women's hockey team, 3-0, over Minnesota. It's the first time in history that one school has won both titles in the same year.

Birthdays:
Turk Farrell b. 1934
John Havlicek b. 1940
Jim "Catfish" Hunter b. 1946
Gary Carter b. 1954
Ricky Bell b. 1955

Packers Fact:
When San Diego visited Green Bay in week 3 of the 2007 season, it marked the first time that the Chargers played at Lambeau Field since 1996.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

Marianne Wiggins uses her own name and personality to create a character who pitches a screenplay idea about Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), iconic photographer of Indians and the West, and then realizes the filmmakers would only botch the story. She then takes off on a road trip to find out the truth about Curtis, in a sprawling, epic tale full of dreams and surprises and gorgeous images (including some of Curtis’s photographs). A powerful blend of fact and fiction, nature and art.

THE SHADOW CATCHER, by Marianne Wiggins (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

AN UNFORGETTABLE YEAR

While his wife is in the hospital giving birth to twin boys, fiction writer Anthony Doerr (The Shell Collector, 2003) learns he has won a fellowship from the American Academy in Rome. Hustled into so many new experiences at once and too dazed to do much work on his novel, Doerr instead extracts a burnished, poetic meditation on the beauties of the Eternal City, the chaotic blessings of fatherhood, and the perennial delights of Pliny’s Natural History. Just as the year ends, he is treated to the extraordinary funeral of John Paul II.

FOUR SEASONS IN ROME: ON TWINS, INSOMNIA, AND THE BIGGEST FUNERAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, 2007)

TOILET TECH

Product: Fresh-Air Breathing Device (a.k.a. Toilet Snorkel)
How it works: The biggest cause of fire-related injury and death isn’t the flames—it’s the smoke. In 1982 William Holmes received a patent for a device designed to access a source of “fresh” air during fires in high-rise buildings, where help may be slow to arrive. Snake this slender breathing tube down through any toilet and into the water trap, and access air from the sewer line’s vent pipe. At the user end, the breathing tube is connected to a strap-on mask. Good news: The Toilet Snorkel comes with an odor-eating charcoal filter.

ZAGAZIG IS A CITY IN EGYPT; WAGGA WAGGA IS A CITY IN AUSTRALIA.

GOVERNMENT WASTE

TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

• The Hindustan Times reported in 2005 that the city of New Delhi employs 97 paid rat-catchers. What’s odd about that? They haven’t caught a single rat since 1994. (And, according to the Times, there are a lot of rats in New Delhi.)

• In October 2005 the Department of Homeland Security awarded a $36,300 grant to the state of Kentucky. Purpose of the grant: to prevent terrorists from using bingo halls to raise money.

UNTIL 2004, CAFFEINE WAS ON THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE LIST OF PROHIBITED SUBSTANCES.

On Moonlighting, U.S. Cabinet Members And:

The Iraqi prime minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday that he hoped to form a government within a week after meeting two of Iraq's more powerful clerics, Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

from the International Herald Tribune


On Things We Hope We Never Hear On A Date, Bad-Film Style:

If I didn't really work for the government, if I was just a guy who accidentally killed his parents, would you still love me?

arsonist Anthony Perkins, to schoolgirl Tuesday Weld, in the 1968 movie Pretty Poison

FRASER ISLAND

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

On Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, you can swim in freshwater lakes, explore rocky outcroppings and oceanside cliffs, join rangers to track down some of the 350 species of birds, or spend the day in a jeep, cruising the 75 miles of broad coastal beach.

TRAVELER IN THE KNOW

If you’re ever invited to ride a camel, it’s helpful to know which ship of the desert will be your mount. The most common camel in northern Africa and the Arab lands is the dromedary, calling for a saddle that usually rests astride its single hump. The Bactrian camel, like these in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, has two humps, creating a natural spot between them where a saddle can sit.