Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/26-27/2011

After attributing the poor play of the Red Sox in 1914 to the "automobile craze that has taken hold of the players," Boston sportswriter Tim Murnane observed: "The player-speed merchants can be seen flying all over the Greater Boston speedways night and day, a sure handicap to a ballplayer's effectiveness."

Birthdays:
Preacher Roe b. 1915
Bingo Smith b. 1946
J.T. Snow b. 1968
Marshall Faulk b. 1973
Jenny Thompson b. 1973

Packers Fact:
In addition to the Packers, whom he guided in the NFL from 1921 to 1949, Curly Lambeau also coached the Chicago Cardinals (1950-51) and the Washington Redskins (1952-53).

2/27/1927:
Four men are arrested in Greenville, South Carolina, for golfing on a Sunday. A state law prohibits the playing of golf on the Christian Sabbath, and Governor John Gardiner Richards has ordered a crackdown on offenders. Released on their own recognizance, the four golfers will motor to Biltmore, North Carolina, and finish their game.

Birthdays:
Raymond Berry b. 1933
John Davidson b. 1953
James Worthy b. 1961
Duce Staley b. 1975
Tony Gonzalez b. 1976

ON WE DON’T EVEN
WANT TO THINK ABOUT
WHAT PROMPTED
THIS WARNING LABEL

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Warning label on a curling iron:

FOR EXTERNAL
USE ONLY

ON OSCAR-WORTHY
SCREENWRITING

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Dance the lion for others for some stinking money! it’s like razing my brows with the kung-fu I taught you.

English subtitle in a Hong Kong kung-fu movie

“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.”

—THEODORE ROOSEVELT, U.S. president

“We need hope.
We need change.
We need experience.
We need pens.”

—JACK DONAGHY (ALEC BALDWIN), on 30 Rock

A LIFE

Who was Madame Tussaud? Born in 1761, Marie Grosholtz became the apprentice of a medic and showed enormous talent in learning his secrets of wax modeling. After an unsatisfying marriage, she moved to England in 1806 and took her exhibits on the road for almost 30 years. She became a sharp-eyed businesswoman in the bizarre milieu of royalty, con men, and entertainers. A fascinating study of an unusual woman and her times.

MADAME TUSSAUD: A LIFE IN WAX, by Kate Berridge (Harper Perennial, 2007)