Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/3-4/2011

2/3/1982:
The Black Hawks' Grant Mulvey scores four goals in the first period and five in all during a 9-3 win over the St. Louis Blues at Chicago Stadium. Mulvey's scoring outburst comes just a few days after his brother Paul's four-year career came to an abrupt end. On January 24, against the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings coach Don Perry ordered Paul onto the ice to fight. Paul refused, angering his coach and resulting in his release. Perry was later suspended and fine for the incident.

Birthdays:
Emile Griffith b. 1938
Fran Tarkenton b. 1940
Bob Griese b. 1945
Fred Lynn b. 1952
Vlade Divac b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Five-time Pro Bowl receiver Sterling Sharpe was forced to retire after only seven seasons (1988-1994) because of a serious neck injury.

2/4/2001:
NBA referee Joe Forte ejects Heat fan Jimmy Buffet from hish courtside seat for using profanity during a 10-100 Miami overtime loss to the New York Knicks at the Great Western Forum. When Forte claims he's never heard of Buffet, Coach Pat Riley tries to fill him in on the singer's identity, including the fact that his followers are known as "parrot heads." Forte then tries to give Riley a technical because he thinks the Heat coach is calling him a parrot head. The bizarre confrontation delays the game for several minutes.

Birthdays:
Bennie Oosterbaan b. 1906
Byron Nelson b. 1912
Lawrence Taylor b. 1959
Denis Savard b. 1961
Oscar De La Hoya b. 1973

Packers Fact:
On this date in 2006: in his first year of eligibility, former Packers defensive end Reggie White (1993-98) posthumously was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“All rising to great place is by a winding stair.”

—FRANCIS BACON, 16th-century English philosopher and essayist

“Keep on truckin’.”

—“BLIND BOY” FULLER, American blues artist

ON TO BE OR NOT TO BE . . . NOT

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Your being of being who you be of this forbidden picture of what you think you’re supposed to be.

pop star Britney Spears, in a concert program

ON PRIVATES, PIQUANT

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• Butter Many Privates

• Thousand Enrich the Special Features Three Texts Cure

• France Many Privates

• The Thin Cow Picks Three Texts Cure

items on a hotel menu in China

THE NEW CLASSICS

SLAVE TIMES

Many critics regard A Mercy as Toni Morrison’s best book since her beautiful and heart-wrenching Beloved. Like Beloved, it looks at slavery and the terrible variety of its consequences. Set in America’s beginning years at the end of the 17th century, A Mercy recounts the story of Jacob Vaark, who is struggling to build a farm in the wilderness of upstate New York. He first buys a 14-year-old American Indian girl, then a 16-year-old wife from England; then he acquires the slave girl Florens as payment of a debt. Their stories sing in prose of extraordinary lyrical power.

A MERCY, by Toni Morrison (Vintage, 2009)

EVERLASTING LOVE

Masterful prose, a hypnotic story set against the backdrop of centuries of European history, and a stunning tale of love and redemption shimmering with supernatural elements . . . it’s all here in this debut novel. The tale begins when our unnamed and originally not very likable protagonist—lost soul, coke addict, porn star—is horribly burned after he veers off the road to avoid a spooky vision. It ends with his being completely seduced (as you will be) by his fellow patient, a schizophrenic sculptress-storyteller named Marianne Engel, and her tale of their first love together, 700 long years ago.

THE GARGOYLE, by Andrew Davidson (Anchor, 2009)