Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/12-13/2011

1/12/1992:
Troy State has good reason to celebrate. Last year, the Trojans beat DeVry Institute of Atlanta, 187-116, setting an NCAA record for most points by one team and most points in a half (103). Tonight, they shatter their own records when they crush DeVry, 258-141. The game also sets a record for most points in a game by two teams with 399. Troy leads 123-53 at halftime, then does even better in the second half with 135 points. Junior forward Terry McCord has 41 points, and Chris Gresham's three-pointer with 7:57 remaining eclipses last year's 187 total.

Birthdays:
Mac Speedie b. 1920
Joe Frazier b. 1944
Tom Dempsey b. 1947
Dominique Wilkins b. 1960
Dontrelle Willis b. 1982

Packers Fact:
In his first season as a starter in 2008, quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted a passer rating of more than 100 in eight of the Packers' 16 games.

1/13/1905:
The Ottawa Silver Seven win Game 1, 9-2, in their best-of-three Stanley Cup series with the brave but travel-weary Dawson City Klondikers. To reach Ottawa, some 4,400 miles from their home in the Yukon, the Klondikers had trekked 400 miles south to Skagway, Alaska, on foot and by dogsled in temperatures as low as 20 below, then made their way by boat to Vancouver before making the cross-country trip to Ottawa by train. Game 2 will go to the Silver Seven, 23-2, thanks mainly to 14 goals scored by Frank McGee.

Birthdays:
Tom Gola b. 1933
Bob Baffert b. 1953
Mark O'Meara b. 1957
Kelly Hrudey b. 1961
Kevin Mitchell b. 1962

Packers Fact:
Wide Receiver Donald Driver was the longest-tenured player on the Packers' Kickoff Weekend roster in 2009. He was in his 11th season with the club.

ON MICHELIN–WORTHY MENUS

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• Lawyer Shrimps salad

• Courgette Fart with tomato puree

• Nordic Salad: tomatoes, rice, salmon pish, grawn, superhuman

menu items, France

ON PRAISE, NOT SO ARTICULATE

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I am so glad that you showed a beautiful vulnerability and it—you are a great—in front of the guitar, and leaving it down. That—I—you know, there’s something—first of all, let’s give– all the guys—you’re great so far, great job!

American Idol judge Paula Abdul

“The illusion that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.”

—HORACE GREELEY, American newspaper editor

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.”

—ANTONIO GRAMSCI, Italian political theorist

KNIT ONE, PURL TWO, EAT ONE, TALK TOO

Georgia Walker runs a yarn shop while raising her biracial 12-year-old daughter, Dakota. She and Anita, a widow in her 70s, decide to start a knitting club. Club members include Darwin Chiu, whose marriage is unraveling, and Lucie, a single 42-year-old who has just become pregnant. Georgia’s ex, Dakota’s father, shows up wanting to try again—and there are other crises in the making. At first it’s all a bit slow, but it’s worth persevering, because some dandy plot twists develop and the reader ends up quite involved in these characters’ dilemmas and vexations.

THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, by Kate Jacobs (Putnam, 2007)

BULL’S-EYE!

Award-winning author of Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring sets his sights on the history of the rifle in America and the history of America in the rifle. They are inextricably linked, from the innovations of Eli Whitney and Samuel Colt to Daniel Boone’s “Kentucky” rifle. And then there’s the bottle of ginger beer that exploded in “Old Reliable” Bodine’s hand yet failed to make him miss his shot during a match. The incident resulted in a craze for target shooting and spawned the rifle clubs that went on to form the basis of the NRA.

AMERICAN RIFLE: A BIOGRAPHY, by Alexander Rose (Delta, 2009)