Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/1-3/4/2010

3/1/2006:
After leading the Los Angeles Clippers, 51-47, at halftime at the Staples Center, the New Orleans Hornets go into the deep freeze following the intermission, scoring a new NBA record (post-shot clock) low of 16 points in the last 24 minutes as the Clippers win easily, 89-67. The Hornets score only eight points in the third and fourth quarters, get shut out for over 12 minutes at one stretch and make only one field goal in the last 20 minutes. The Clippers, playing in Buffalo Braves uniforms on retro jersey night, are led by Elton Brand with 25 points and Sam Cassell with 15.

Birthdays:
Harray Caray b. 1914
Pete Rozelle b. 1926
Elvin Bethea b. 1946
Mike Roxier b. 1961
Chris Webber b. 1973

Packers Fact:
From Week 8 in 2007, when he took over as the Packers' top back, through the end of the regular season, Ryan Grant rushed for 929 yards. San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson (947) was the only NFL player with more yards on the ground in that span.

3/2/1999:
Slugging first baseman Orlando Cepeda leads a contingent of four new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, including early-day manager Frank Selee, pitcher Smokey Joe Williams and umpire Nestor Chylak. Cepeda hit 379 homers, drove in 1,365 runs and won the 1958 NL Rookie of the Year Award with the Giants and the 1967 NL MVP award for the world champion Cardinals. Selee won five pennants with the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) in the 19th century and also managed the Cubs before retiring with tuberculosis. Williams pitched 27 years in the Negro Leagues with extraordinary success and a blazing fastball. Chylak was an AL arbiter for 25 years (1954-78).

Birthdays:
Mel Ott b. 1909
Hopalong Cassady b. 1934
Ian Woosnam b. 1958
Terry Steinbach b. 1962
Ben Roethlisberger b. 1982

Packers Fact:
The first Packers' player to lead the league in interceptions was Don Hutson, who had 6 picks in 1940. (He was second in receiving that year to Philadelphia rookie Don Looney.)

3/3/1994:
Pro golfer Phil Mickelson breaks his left leg while skiing in Flagstaff, Arizona, and will be sidelined until late May. Only 23 years old and previously a three-time NCAA individual champion at Arizona State, Mickelson joins an ever-growing list of prominent athletes who've incurred serious injuries partaking of sporting activities that are not within their field of expertise. He'll struggle to regain his form the rest of the year and not win another tournament until next January at a PGA event in Tucson.

Birthdays:
Julius Boros b. 1920
Randy Gradishar b. 1952
Jackie Joyner-Kersee b. 1962
Herschel Walker b. 1962
Brian Leetch b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Don Chandler once unleashed a 90-yard punt. It came in a game against San Francisco in 1965.

3/4/2000:
Jaron Rush hits a baseline jumper with three seconds left in overtime for a 94-93 UCLA victory over top-ranked Stanford at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California, but the basket looks like it was made after the shot clock expired. There's a video review by the officials, and it's determined that the shot clock had not been reset after an earlier UCLA shot grazed the rim. Consequently, the controversial basket counts and UCLA escapes with the upset victory. Rush leads all scorers with 19 points in his first game back from a nine-game suspension for accepting financial stipends "under the table".

Birthdays:
Knute Rockne b. 1888
Dazzy Vance b. 1891
Margaret Osborne duPont b. 1918
"Badger Bob" Johnson b. 1931
Kevin Johnson b. 1966

Packers Fact:
The Packers' No. 2 seed for the 2007 NFL playoffs gave them their first first-round bye in the postseason since 1997.

http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/

Separated By a Common Language
As an American watching a British film, did you ever wish that the movie had subtitles because you could not understand a bloody word they were saying? The blogger at this site understands this predicament, for while both Americans and English speak English, usage can be very different in both countries. At this site you can learn to better navigate both Englishes, learn the origins of many common expressions, and look up terms by topic including food, politics, recreation, and, for those who might be playing with a bunch of British blokes, Scrabble.

http://www.photobooth.net/

Four for a Quarter
The first automated photo booth opened on Broadway in New York in 1925 and has been a staple of amusement arcades worldwide ever since. At this site devoted to every aspect of photo booth culture you can view photo strips uploaded by site visitors, see art created using the photos, learn which movies and TV shows featured photo booths, and get a list of booths all over the world so you can get your picture taken in this ageless and fun medium.

http://www.merzo.net/index.html

Starship Dimensions
In case you've ever wondered how Captain Kirk's Enterprise would stack up against Darth Vader's Death Star, or how big Babylon 5 is compared to the International Space Station, this site has scale drawings of all these vessels, as well as spaceships, space stations, and monsters from Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Forbidden Planet, Alien, and more. With ships and buildings like the Hindenburg or Eiffel Tower to see how the fantasy ships relate to our own world.

DEATH IN VIENNA

In 1902 Vienna a serial killer seems to choose his victims randomly and is murdering them with alarming frequency. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt enlists the help of a Freudian disciple, Dr. Max Liebermann, to bring some insight and understanding into an impossible case. The relationship that develops between the two is the real reading pleasure in this well-plotted whodunit.

VIENNA BLOOD, by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008)

ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Writer Jon Katz takes his initially unwilling wife and daughter away from New Jersey to live in a ramshackle cabin in rural New York State. Turning for inspiration to Thomas Merton, he embraces solitude, makes a new friend, comes to terms with a mountain and a midlife crisis, and finds peace in nature.

RUNNING TO THE MOUNTAIN: A MIDLIFE ADVENTURE, by Jon Katz (Broadway, 2000)

BOOK LOVER’S PICK

This novel, set in the 1920s, is long but oh so satisfying and heartbreakingly funny. Australian father and son Martin and Jasper have, between the two of them, covered an enormous piece of emotional and physical territory in the course of much hard living—which has landed Jasper in prison, writing this epic, crazy, wonderful, brawling, sprawling masterpiece. The Seattle Times says, “Hold on tight because you are about to ride a juggernaut of words . . . and a devastatingly funny outlook on everything human.”

A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE, by Steve Toltz (Spiegel & Grau, 2008)

HE DID WHAT?

The author of Hippo Eats Dwarf and The Museum of Hoaxes takes as his subject strange scientific experiments, many of them attempts to revive the living, exchange or fuse body parts, cross species, and the like. Think Frankenstein written by a surprising number of scientists. Top-notch stuff for lovers of the macabre or, really, almost anyone.

ELEPHANTS ON ACID AND OTHER BIZARRE EXPERIMENTS, by Alex Boese (Harvest Books, 2007)

ALASKAN AMBER

Alaskan Brewing Co., Juneau, Alaska

Good German alt is a rarity these days, but the brewers at Alaskan Brewing Company have the ancient style pegged . . . A hybrid yeast allows for cold conditioning, resulting in a lager-like smoothness with sturdy malt fullness—a great session beer, easy-drinking, refreshingly light. A stoic crop of off-white foam tops this dark orange brew. Sweet malt in the aroma, with some ale-like fruitiness, but the flavor is long, smooth and pure. At the finish, a hint of sweetness gives way to a wine-like dryness. Buy it in the big 22-ounce bombers if you can find it—you’ll want lots.

BEER FACT

In the U.S. or Canada, a “regional” brewery is one that produces between 15,000 and 1,000,000 barrels of beer annually and packages it off-premises. “Large” breweries produce more than 1,000,000 barrels annually. (One American barrel equals 31 gallons, or two standard kegs.)

LA BINCHOISE 1549

Brasserie La Binchoise, Binche, Belgium

This nice, big beer tastes more French than Belgian, with a cellar character that’s earthy in the bouquet, and even more so in the palate. A rich, residual sugar flavor adds a chewy quality. Not much hop action, and even at 7.5%/vol., warmth is quite subdued. The color is a light copper, probably due to all those dark caramel malts.

SUDS SOURCE

At Faubourg Saint Paul, 38, in the Belgian city of Binche, the Binchoise brewery welcomes visitors for guided tours during weekdays and weekends. In the recently renovated tasting room, guests can taste La Binchoise beer with an open-faced cheese sandwich (or “tartine,” if you’re so inclined).

SUMMER LIGHTNING

Hop Back Brewery, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

The UK’s Campaign for Real Ales (CAMRA) has awarded many medals to this bottle-conditioned, unfiltered, and therefore “real” ale. A “hop back,” or “grant,” is basically a sink through which boiled “wort” (not-yet-fermented beer) passes on its way to the fermenters. Whole hops are filtered out so they don’t clog up the works downstream, and the brewer has one more chance to dose up the hop flavor and aroma by adding hops. The result is a fresh, pungent hop character that is very appealing in Summer Lightning. It’s very pale, with a sticky white foam and plenty of English hops in the aroma. Flavor is also quite well spiced with hops, with just enough light malt to provide a base. Finish is dry, with a lovely bitterness that speaks volumes about the hop quality—no clinging, harsh astringency. The stout, stylish bottle and electrifying label aren’t overselling what really is a stellar pale ale.

KAPUZINER SCHWARZ-WEIZEN BAVARIAN BLACK WHEAT ALE

Kulmbacher Brauerei, Kulmbach, Germany

“Dark” isn’t quite accurate for a beer that pours as inky black as a stout or porter, with a startlingly white crop of foam. The hop-free aroma is full of sweet coffee and wheat, and a bit of graininess. The flavor is neutral, lightly smoky, and tart—a surprise. Much lighter in body than it appears, delicate and subtle, too. Not much sweetness, also a surprise, and high carbonation for a dry finish.

BEER QUOTE

“I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night.”
—GREEK PROVERB