Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/5/2011

2/5/2009:
Coach Pat Summitt wins the 1,000th game of her legendary career at Tennessee when the women's basketball team defeats Georgia, 73-43, in front of 16,058 fans in Knoxville. She's the first college basketball coach to reach that figure.

Birthdays:
Hank Aaron b. 1934
Roger Staubach b. 1942
Craig Norton b. 1943
Darrell Waltrip b. 1949
Roberto Alomar b. 1968

Packers Fact:
Linebacker Desmond Bishop led the Packers with 3 forced fumbles in his second NFL season in 2008.

ON TESTIMONY,
TYPICAL

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I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said i said i had no idea about.

political advisor Elliot Abrams, during Congressional testimony about Iran

“Never complain and never explain.”

—STANLEY BALDWIN, English statesman

LIVING HISTORY

Sunday is the Gipper’s 100th birthday! Which makes it a good time to start reexamining his place in American history and especially his contributions to ending the Cold War. James Mann has done a lot of work on the topic and has produced a fascinating account of how Ronald Reagan defied the nation’s foreign-policy establishment, including his own advisers, in his dealing with Gorbachev. Mann is especially comprehensive on the subject of Reagan’s historic “Tear down this wall” speech.

THE REBELLION OF RONALD REAGAN: A HISTORY OF THE END OF THE COLD WAR, by James Mann (Viking Adult, 2009)