Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/24-26/2010

Upon losing one of his ballplayers due to academic ineligibility when his latest report card reflected four F's and one D, longtime Texas A&M basketball coach Shelby Metcalf called the young man aside and remarked: "Son, it looks like you're spending too much time on one subject."

Birthdays:
Honus Wagner b. 1874
Alain Prost b. 1955
Eddie Murray b. 1956
Simeon Rice b. 1974
Lleyton Hewitt b. 1981

Packers Fact:
The Packers ranked second in the NFL when they averaged 370.7 total yards per game in 2007. The last time they ranked that high in total offense was in 1983, when they also were second (at 385.8 yards per game).

2/25/1972:
Just to prove a point about owner-ballplayer control in the days before free agency, St. Louis Cardinals owner Gussie Busch refuses to offer left-hander Steve Carlton more than $60,000 per season and trades him to Philadelphia. Carlton wastes no time proving the error of the beer baron's ways when he gets to his new club. He'll compile one of baseball's finest overall seasons in 1972, winning 27 games for a last-place team. Known simply as "Lefty," he'll earn four Cy Young Awards, winning 329 games in all, and amass 4,136 strikeouts.

Birthdays:
Monte Irvin b. 1919
Tony Lema b. 1934
Ron Santo b. 1940
Anders Hedberg b. 1951
Paul O'Neill b. 1963

Packers Fact:
Quarterback Brett Favre (118 games from 1992 to 2007) is the only man to play more than 100 games at Lambeau Field.

2/26/1926:
Tiger Flowers of Atlanta dethrones Harry Greb of Pittsburgh in a 15-round split decision to win the world middleweight boxing title at Madison Square Garden. After losing to Greb two years ago in California, Flowers fights steadily with crisp right-hand leads, while Greb only counters in spurts. The decision is met with applause by the 20,000 attendees, although many boxing scribes thought Greb won the fight. Flowers will outpoint Greb again in an August rematch, another bout that could have been scored either way. The rematch proves to be the last fight of Greb's lengthy career in which he compiled a 260-21-17 record. Flowers' reign is brief; he'll lose the title in December to Mickey "the Toy Bulldog" Walker.

Birthdays:
Preacher Roe b. 1915
Bobby "Bingo" Smith b. 1946
Rolando Blackman b. 1959
Marshall Faulk b. 1973
Jenny Thompson b. 1973

Packers Fact:
Running back Ahman Green is the only player to gain more than 10,000 yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving) in a Packers' uniform with 10,870 yards from 2000 to 2006.


http://omgowned.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/what-happened-to-the-food/

Play with Food
See food come to life like never before at this site, where a roll grabs a knife in its teeth, a tomato leads a flock of cauliflower sheep, and, most impressively, a swimmer emerges out of a watermelon lake.

http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml

Short Shelf Life
Life is too short, the classics are too long, and yet you want everyone to think you went to Harvard. This site has your solution - dozens of classics from Beowulf and Shakespeare to Dickens, Melville, and Tolstoy - all distilled to a few second's reading. Who has the time to wade through a thousand pages of The Divine Comedy when all you really need to know is that "some woman put Dante through Hell." And who can forget the Canterbury Tales when their essence is recounted using the theme song from Gilligan's Island.

http://www.zimm-co.com/PressTheSpaceBar/pressthespacebar2000.html

Press the Space Bar
Keep trying to beat your personal best. So simple and yet so very addicting.

PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE

Asensuous memoir reminiscent of Nabokov’s Speak, Memory and Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander. The author’s father was a well-known minister in Holland who “moved through life with the gusto and the commotion of a wagon train,” but this is really the story of the author’s relationship with his mother. A View of the Ocean is a moving portrait of a woman, a time, a place, and growing up. Jan de Hartog (The Captain and The Peaceable Kingdom), a bestselling novelist and playwright, died in 2002.

A VIEW OF THE OCEAN, by Jan de Hartog (Pantheon, 2007)

IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

If Henry James himself sometimes seems a little old-fashioned, you might try his present-day heir apparent, Ian McEwan. In this short but powerful novel, newlyweds Edward and Florence bring to their 1962 wedding night a crushing weight of fears, inexperience, overanticipation (Edward), and dread (Florence) that they cannot overcome, in spite of awkward and alienating attempts at communication that would make the master proud.

ON CHESIL BEACH, by Ian McEwan (Doubleday, 2007; Anchor, 2008)

AH, YOUNG LOVE

You can lose yourself in this floridly sensuous novel from the Peruvian master Vargas Llosa. It begins in 1950 with the lusty teenagers Ricardo and Lily (who turns out to be a very bad girl) showing up unexpectedly and in many guises. Over four decades of richly painted history, she haunts him, eludes him, consumes him—and gets him into a lot of trouble. As Jonathan Yardley writes in The Washington Post, “Obviously, the novel was written for the sheer fun of it—the fun for Vargas Llosa in writing it, the fun for us in reading it.”

THE BAD GIRL, by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

BARBAR WINTER BOK

Brasserie Lefebvre, Quenast, Belgium

Here’s a Belgian ale twist on a classic German lager—with spices, no less. A beer that chooses not to focus not on the pure malt alcohol and malt of its bock predecessors, bringing spicy, fruity character into an established style—bucking tradition to such an extent that perhaps it’s guilty of false advertising. Soft but intense dark malty aroma and wheaty flavors do take the fore, but added spices and alcohol infuse it with the kind of warm complexity you’d expect from a Trappist ale. The orange peel is amazing, somehow coupled with coriander and some beautiful orange blossom aromas. Finish is long, but the 8%/vol. balances the malty sweetness. A joy to drink—but not too cold or you’ll miss out on a lot. Though it calls itself a “winter” beer, it’s light enough to be enjoyed in any season.

LOWENBRAU ORIGINAL

Löwenbräu AG, Munich, Germany

This is a popular beer the world over, and for good reason. Löwenbräu is not what we think of as a “premium pilsener” style—it has the full malt resonance of a Munich helles, so mass market or not, it deserves a little more respect. Sure, there are a lot of Munich helles styles that will give you craft brewery–like, unfiltered depth of flavor. Sure, they’re much more in keeping with the German Purity Law than this filtered, corporate stuff (even though its label claims adherence to Reinheitsgebot). But who cares? Medium gold, brilliantly clear, with a bit of fine, white lace, Löwenbräu begins with invitingly pure malt. Hops balance and do no more. The finish is long and malty, a tad thin but deliciously dry. Venerable, refined, and occasionally maligned, Löwenbräu is a beer way overqualified for your average pizza guzzler. (Psst—it’s great with pizza!)

WOODCHUCK DARK & DRY DRAFT CIDER

Green Mountain Cidery, Middlebury, Vermont

Yes, we’re stepping off the beaten beer path, for a refreshing and lamentably unfamiliar drink: hard cider. But given our country’s history, cider’s about as American as apple . . . well, you know. Woodchuck is one of the brands trying to elevate hard cider to mainstream status, and it’s doing a good job of it. Gold-amber, with just a touch of carbonation, Woodchuck Dark & Dry is only subtly aromatic of apples, with a touch of caramel. The flavor is lighter than the color, with a nice acidity, and only a hint of tannin to balance the apple sweetness. Just a bit of tartness in the finish, but inviting. A straightforward cider with a bit of caramel color added, but why not? This is a gluten-, wheat-, and lactose-free alternative to beer.