Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/2/2010

1/2/1984:
UCLA quarterback Rick Neuheisel overcomes a bout of food poisoning to throw four touchdown passes and lead the Bruins to a 45-9 rout of Illinois in the Rose Bowl. Neuheisel (22-31, 298) finds Karl Dorrell for two scores and Paul Bergmann and Mike Young for one apiece while the UCLA defense holds Illinois to zero net rushing yards. Following the 2007 season, Neuheisel will be hired as the new head coach of the Bruins, replacing Dorrell, who went 35-27 in five years at the school.

Birthdays:
Gino Marchetti b. 1927
Robbie Ftorek b. 1952
David Cone b. 1963
Edgar Martinez b. 1963
Pernell Whitaker b. 1964

Packers Fact:
Officials removed four inches of snow from the field before the Packers met the Browns for the NFL championship in Green Bay on January 2, 1966. the Packers went on to win the game 23-12.

MASTERFUL ESSAYS

Novelist Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections; The Twenty-seventh City; Strong Motion) again lends his analytical gift to the autobiographical essay, picking up where The Discomfort Zone, which covered his childhood, left off. No matter what his subject—Alzheimer’s, the post office, the modern novel—the essays all have a subtext of the private self developing within society’s noisy engine. How to Be Alone offers the pleasure of Franzen’s finely honed language, his willingness to explore both joy and grief (and the many shades between), and his ability to plant his feet firmly in reality while letting whimsy and imagination soar.

HOW TO BE ALONE, by Jonathan Franzen (Picador, 2003)

SPRINGBOARD ALE

New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colorado

Springboard adds a long list of unconventional ingredients—wormwood, goji berries, and schisandra—to the more familiar Mt. Hood hop. Give this one a chance to breathe a bit and you’ll be rewarded with a pleasant herbal aroma. There’s a hint of minty aftertaste, but no one element dominates; the malt base holds up well in this remarkably drinkable Belgian experimental ale.