Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 7/30/2010

7/30/1962:
Bringing to an end the brief (four-year) experiment of playing two All-Star Games each year, the American League easily beats the National League, 9-4, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Leon Wagner and Pete Runnels homer for the AL, and Rocky Colavito's three-run homer in the seventh inning proves to be the game's decisive moment. Baseball fans never really warmed up to the idea of a second ASG, and interrupting the regular season twice played havoc with scheduling, so the pension-revenue-producing ploy will be shelved permanently.

Birthdays:
Jim Mandich b. 1948
Billy Pauliz b. 1948
Bill Cartwright b. 1957
Chris Mullin b. 1963
Kate Starbird b. 1975

Packers Fact:
Packers' receiving star Antonio Freeman posted three consecutive 1,000-yard pass-catching seasons in the late 1990s (1997-99).

http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html
Paper Dinosaurs
Wasting time doesn't always have to mean killing virtual villains in cyberspace. It can also happen in real space, at your desk, with the help of scissors and Scotch tape.

FLIES DIED LIKE PEOPLEAn 84-year-old Russian hero of the war and survivor of Stalin’s Gulag tells the story of himself; his half-brother, Lev; and Zoya, the beautiful Russian Jewish woman they both loved. The brothers end up in a Siberian labor camp, and the depiction of the inhuman depravity of the Soviet Gulag becomes the compelling center of the novel. Martin Amis’s talent for the keen and concise turn of phrase is always delectable: “In the Gulag, it was not the case that people died like flies. Rather, flies died like people.” The Times (London) calls House of Meetings “Amis’s best novel since London Fields.”

HOUSE OF MEETINGS, by Martin Amis (Knopf, 2007)

TRIPEL KARMELIET

Brewery Bosteels, Buggenhout, Belgium

This tripel’s bouquet is full of orange blossom and honey, with a hint of light malt. The palate is light and sweet, in keeping with the style’s best, fiinishing dry at 8%. (That alcohol is actually subtler than you’d think.) Brewed with wheat, oats, and barley, and bottle-fermented in the third pass, this is a wonderful tripel, balanced, fruity and warming. Nutrition for the soul.

FROM THE BREWERY:

“Brewed after the Carmelite (Carmelite Monks) tradition dating back as far as 1679, this Belgian Abbey Style Triple ale has a robust smooth, fruity, three-grain (oats, barley, and wheat) character.”