Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 9/17-18/2011

9/17/1961:
After a nine-year career in the Canadian Football League, Sam Etcheverry makes his NFL debut as a quarterback with the St. Louis Cardinals. He has six fumbles but recovers four of them as the Cards defeat the Giants, 21-10, at Yankee Stadium.

Birthdays:
George Blands b. 1927
Maureen Connolly b. 1934
Phil Jackson b. 145
Rasheed Wallace b. 1974
Alex Ovechkin b. 1985

Packers Fact:
In 2008, the Packers' Aaron Rodgers became only the second quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 4,000 yards (he had 4,038) in the season that he first started an NFL game. Kurt Warner for the Rams in 1999 was the other.

Bowler Don Carter, four-time U.S. Open champion: "One of the advantages bowling has over golf is that you seldom lose a bowling ball."


Birthdays:
Scotty Bowman b. 1933
Darryl Sittler b. 1950
Rick Pitino b. 1962
Toni Kukoc b. 1968
Lance Armstrong b. 1971

“Serenity of mind and calmness of thought are a better enjoyment than anything without us.”

—BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE, Puritan clergyman

“The road up and the road down are one and the same.”

—HERACLITUS, Greek philosopher

ON HOW TRUE,
HOW TRUE

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You can’t teach an old leopard new spots.

Wife swap reality show participant

LIVING HISTORY

The work Jonathan Lopez has done to bring master art-forger Han van Meegeren to life is like his subject’s great tributes to Vermeer—painstaking, perfect in every detail, and a thing of beauty in itself. Each new layer Lopez adds to the extraordinary story enchances the richness and glow of the portrait: the history of Holland and its unique dance with the fascists in World War II; van Meegeren’s own sympathies (collaboration) with the Nazis—reflecting their aesthetic in his painting style—even while he gleefully duped them; the unbelievable scope of his success; his devilish conceit. There are several recent biographies of the master forger out there; we believe this is the most authentic one and has the best documentation.

THE MAN WHO MADE VERMEERS: UNVARNISHING THE LEGEND OF MASTER FORGER HAN VAN MEEGEREN, by Jonathan Lopez (Mariner Books, 2009)