Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/6-8/2011

Advice from basketball's Tim Duncan on how to achieve success: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better And your better is best."

Birthdays:
Babe Ruth b. 1896
Smoky Burgess b. 1927
Don Cockroft b. 1945
Richie Zisk b. 1949
Kim Zmeskal b. 1976

2/7/1976:
With six goals and four assists, Daryl Sittler sets an amazing record of 10 points in an NHL game as he leads the Maple Leafs to an 11-4 win over teh Boston Bruins in Toronto. The previous record for points in a game was eight, set by Maurice Richard in 1944 and Bert Olmstead in '54, Sittler's six goals also tie a modern NHL mark set by the Red Wings' Syd Howe (1944) and the Blues' Red Berenson (1968).

Birthdays:
Dan Quisenberry b. 1953
Carney Lansford b. 1957
Rick Neuheisel b. 1961
Juwan Howard b.1973
Steve Nash b. 1974

Packers Fact:
The Packers' first NFL title came in 1929 after the acquisition of three future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Halfback Johnny (Blood) McNally, Tackle Cal Hubbard, and Guard Mike Michalske.

2/8/1936:
The National Football League holds its first draft of college players. At the time, the NFL has nine franchises: two in Chicago and one each in Boston, Brooklyn, Detroit, Green Bay, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia Eagles choose first and select Jay Berwanger, a halfback from the University of Chicago and the first college player to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. Unfortunately, Berwanger believes he can make more money outside of athletics and will never play in an NFL game.

Birthdays:
Joe Black b. 1924
Clete Boyer b. 1937
Marques Johnson b. 1956
Dino Ciccarelli b. 1960
Alonzo Mourning b. 1970

Packers Fact:
Former Packers' star cornerback Herb Adderley was the first player to return an interception for a touchdwon in the Super Bowl. His 60-yard return came in the fourth quarter of Green Bay's 33-14 victory over Oakland in Super Bowl II.

“Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.”

—SAMUEL JOHNSON, 18th-century English writer

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

—CONFUCIUS, Chinese philosopher

“To be challenged is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.”

—GAIL SHEEHY, American writer

ON BIGNESS,
BIG COMMENTARY FROM BIG
JOHN MADDEN ABOUT

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Hey, the offensive linemen are the biggest guys on the field, they’re bigger than everybody else, and that’s what makes them the biggest guys on the field.

NFL commentator John Madden

ON FUNNY, WE WERE THINKING DIPPOLDISWALDE

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Weakest Link host Anne Robinson: What German city is also the name of a type of perfume?

Contestant (thinking hard): Berlin.

(The correct answer, of course, is Cologne.)

ON MICROSOFT PROGRAMMING, TYPICALLY TOP-NOTCH

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Vista Error 10107: A system call that should never fail has failed.

computer error message

THE SCHOOL OF KNOCK-KNOCKS

The Second City comedy school and club has spawned almost all the comic names you can think of, many of whom were interviewed for this volume. The intense camaraderie of geniuses at work and play is lovingly brought to life by Chicago Sun-Times staff writer and avid fan of comedy Mike Thomas, the author of Laugh: Portraits of the Greatest Comedians and the Stories They Tell Each Other.

THE SECOND CITY UNSCRIPTED: REVOLUTION AND REVELATION AT THE WORLD-FAMOUS COMEDY THEATER, by Mike Thomas (Villard, 2009)

PERENNIAL CLASSIC

It’s a happy day that saw Elizabeth Bishop born 100 years ago! And we are also lucky to have Library of America, which has gathered all her poems together, published and unpublished. And her essays and blurbs, her translations of Greek drama and Brazilian sambas. And her glorious letters, of course. James Merrill described her poems as “more wryly radiant, more touching, more unaffectedly intelligent than any written in our lifetime,” and he knew a thing or two about writing.

ELIZABETH BISHOP: POEMS, PROSE, AND LETTERS, by Elizabeth Bishop (Library of America, 2008)