Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 7/26/2010

7/26/1970:
At age 35, Australian Ken Rosewall outlasts 23-year-old Texan Cliff Richey, 7-9, 9-7, 8-6, in the finale of the Western Open tennis championships in Cincinnati. Trailing 2-5 in the deciding set on a rain-soaked clay court surface, Rosewall abandons his baseline strategy to charge the net, knocking off several volley winners to draw even and run out the nearly three-hour-long match. In September, he'll capture his second U.S. Open championship, 14 years after winning his first in 1956, setting a record for the interim between winning two titles at the same Grand Slam event.

Birthdays:
Bob Waterfield b. 1920
Hoyt Wilhelm b. 1923
Tommy McDonald b. 1934
Bob Lilly b. 1939
Dorothy Hamill b. 1956

Packers Fact:
Don Hutson caught 99 touchdown passes from 1935 to 1945. Steve Largent was the first NFL player to notch 100 scoring recpetions. He reached that mark 44 years after Hutson last played an NFL game.

http://www.seattledreamhomes.com/PageManager/Default.aspx/PageID=1352444&NF=1
Fun House
Pop surrealist artist Lisa Petrucci lives among the many objects that inspire her paintings. Her house is a museum to pop culture where you can see dolls of every description, B-movie posters, kitchy porcelain cats, tiki bobble-heads, a wall of reproductions of Margaret Keane's "Big Eye" paintings, and a fifties-style room of dollhouse furniture complete with turntable and console TV. After your tour, follow the link to Lisa's website to see how many of these things you can find in her work.

RAISING THE BARRE

Raised in poverty in a tiny rural village with five siblings, dancer Li Cunxin was plucked from obscurity by scouts for Madame Mao’s cultural rehabilitations, rigorously trained in the Beijing Dance Academy, and at age 18 awarded a scholarship to train with the Houston Ballet. In 1981 he defected in a dramatic scene at the Chinese consulate in Houston, a move just as audacious as the 1961 defection of Rudolf Nureyev at a Paris airport. There’s much more after that, too, as Li became a principal dancer in Houston and Australia. A remarkable story and a remarkable man.

MAO’S LAST DANCER, by Li Cunxin (Putnam, 2004)

SMALL CRAFT WARNING UBER PILS

Clipper City Brewing Co., Baltimore, Maryland

A pale lager that might be construed as a thematic essay on the pilsener style, this Über Pils starts with a light body and an attractive foam. The chewy drink is bursting with malts, which are followed by an herbal Hallertau-hop character in the finish. Satisfying, with Old World, European nuances—though it would certainly complement a serving of Maryland crab cakes.

FROM THE BREWERY:

“Our brewery is named for the famed clipper ship—a symbol for a strong nautical and maritime heritage with a commitment to craftsmanship of the highest caliber.”