Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 10/11/2011

10/11/1931:
The Toronto Maple Leafs send Art Smith, Eric Pettinger and $35,000 to the Ottawa Senators for King Clancy. To obtain the cash sum necessary to complete the transaction, Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe borrowed part of the money from friends and bet it on his own filly, Rare Jewel, who came in for a high payoff. While in Toronto, Clancy will be a first- or second-team All-Star four times.

Birthdays:
Maria Bueno b. 1939
Steve Young b. 1961
Chris Spielman b. 1965
Dmitri Young b. 1973
Jason Arnott b. 1974

Packers Fact:
Aaron Kampman entered 2009 ranked fourth on the Packers' career list with 50.5 sacks. The only players ahead of him were Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (74.5), Reggie White (68.5), and Tim Harris (55.0).

“The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.”

—HUGH LATIMER, 16th-century bishop 

 

ON SPEECHES, REALLY CONFIDENCE BUILDING

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One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.

President George W. Bush

TWO NEW FROM EDWARD HUMES

Edward Humes’s Pulitzer Prize in 1989, for his investigative reporting on helicopter crashes in the military, established him as a force to be reckoned with. His nonfiction has taken on such subjects as grade inflation in high schools, infant emergency medicine, and the juvenile court system; his true-crime stories are acclaimed, as well. These recent titles have garnered a roar of praise, and Eco Barons in particular has been hailed as one of the few hopeful—even inspiring—notes in climate-change news.

ECO BARONS: THE DREAMERS, SCHEMERS, AND MILLIONAIRES WHO ARE SAVING OUR PLANET, by Edward Humes (Ecco, 2009)

MONKEY GIRL: EVOLUTION, EDUCATION, RELIGION, AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA’S SOUL, (2007)