Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/26/2009

9/26/1945:
Meeting for the fifth time in less than four years, Sugar Ray Robinson earns a split decision over Jake LaMotta in a 12-round middleweight bout at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In keeping with their usual pattern, Robinson's ring generalship carries more weight with the judges than LaMotta's bullish punching power. Robinson parries LaMotta's onrushing tactics for the entire bout and walks away with the verdict.

Birthdays:
Bobby Shantz b. 1925
Dave Casper b. 1951
Craig Heyward b. 1966
Craig Janney b. 1967
Serena Williams b. 1981

Packers Fact:
Defensive end Reggie White's nickname was "The Minister of Defense".

DARK SIDE OF GENIUS

Do you like your creative geniuses served with some juicy gossip? Try the tabloid bio of Frank Lloyd Wright by architect and architectural historian Harold Zellman and professor of religious studies and sociology Roger Friedland, as they gleefully lick their chops over the sexual indiscretions, carnivorous egos, and dark rituals of Taliesin, the colony Wright founded. Of course, plenty of great art and serious ideas originated there, as well. But what will amaze you is that anyone got anything done at all. Les liaisons dangereuses, American style.

THE FELLOWSHIP: THE UNTOLD STORY OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND THE TALIESIN FELLOWSHIP, by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman (HarperCollins, 2006)