Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 4/15-17/2011

4/15/1952:
For the second time during the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup series with the Montreal Canadiens, Pete and Jerry Cusimano toss an octopus onto the ice at Olympia Stadium. The brothers have decided that the creature's eight legs signify the eight playoff wins necessary to garner the championship. Detroit wins again, 3-0, and a tradition is born. Fans will continue to throw octopuses onto the ice before Red Wings playoff games, even after 16 victories are required to claim the Stanley Cup.

Birthdays:
Evelyn Ashford b. 1957
Dara Torres b. 1967
Jeromy Burnitz b. 1969
Phillippi Sparks b. 1969
Jason Sehorn b. 1971

Packers Fact:
Cornerback Will Blackmon was lost for the rest of the 2009 season after tearing ligament in his left knee against Minnesota in Week 4 that year.


St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean on Pittsburgh Crawfords pitcher Satchel Paige in 1934: "If Satch and I were pitching on the same team, we'd cinch the pennant by July 4 and go fishing until World Series time."

Birthdays:
Dick "Night Train" Lane b. 1928
Rich Rollins b. 1938
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar b. 1947
Bill Belichick b. 1952
Luol Deng b. 1985

Packers Fact:
Aaron Rodgers' passer rating of 93.8 in 2008 ranked sixth in the NFL. San Diego's Philip Rivers was the only quarterback to post a rating of more than 100 that season (105.5).

4/17/1963:
Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers and Alex Karras of the Detroit Lions are suspended indefinitely by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle for betting on games, including those involving their own teams. Both will be reinstated in March 1964, and both will play next season. Hornung will be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Birthdays:
Cap Anson b. 1852
Geoff Petrie b. 1948
Borje Salming b. 1951
Boomer Esiason b. 1961
Theo Ratliff b. 1973

“Hope . . . is not a feeling; it is something you do.”

—KATHERINE PATERSON, American writer

“Let others praise ancient times. I am glad that I was born in these.”

—OVID, Roman poet

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

—Ecclesiastes 9:11 (King James Version)

ON STIFF COMPETITION FOR THE IRS

---

Thank you for your Tax Returns ended 5th April 2006 & 2007, which we received on 20th December. I will treat your Tax Return for all purposes as though you sent it in response to a notice from us which required you to deliver it to us by the day we received it.

the British Revenue and Customs office, in a letter to a customer

ON LET’S NOT
TOUCH THIS ONE

---

Every prime Minister needs a Willie.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (referring to her deputy prime minister William Whitelaw)

ON BUT WE’VE HEARD
THAT JESUS PREFERS
TO USE E-MAIL

---

• I have received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

• I would like a personal call.

BEFORE THE HOUSE BURNED DOWN

Do you remember the madwoman in the attic (Mr. Rochester’s first wife) in Jane Eyre? The brilliant novelist Jean Rhys took the little information Charlotte Brontë provided about Bertha Mason and created the story of a West Indian woman trapped in a loveless marriage and far from the home she loved. The New York Times calls it “a triumph of atmosphere—of what one is tempted to call Caribbean Gothic atmosphere. . . . It has an almost hallucinatory quality.”

WIDE SARGASSO SEA, by Jean Rhys (1966; Penguin, 1997)

THE INSIDE STORY

George Taber, author of Judgment of Paris (2005), brings his journalistic nose for lively detail to the rather obscure topic of the wine-cork industry and cork “taint,” caused by an evil little molecule called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA). Follow this molecule through the streets and alleys of Lisbon and to the great wine brokers’ offices in Brussels and London, and on through the dusty vineyards of America and Europe, where winemakers and bottlers tear their hair out almost daily over the problem. You won’t be sorry you learned the incredible statistics and ins and outs of what goes into and comes out of wine bottles.

TO CORK OR NOT TO CORK: TRADITION, ROMANCE, SCIENCE, AND THE BATTLE FOR THE WINE BOTTLE, by George M. Taber (Scribner, 2007)