Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/13-14/2012

2/13/1982:
New York Islanders center Bryan Trottier scores five goals, four of them on power plays, during an 8-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers at Nassau Coliseum. He also scores four times in the second period, tying an NHL record. Trottier's first goal is scored at 9:02 in the first period. The four-goal flurry in the second period comes at 1:04, 8:41, 9:10, and 18:32. Mike Bossy assists on all five goals. Trottier was a part of seven Stanley Cup champions, as a player with the Islanders in 1980, '81, '82, and '83, and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and '92, and as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997, his first year of eligibility.

Birthdays:
Patty Berg b. 1918
Eddie Robinson b. 1919
Mike Krzyzewski b. 1947
Mats Sundin b. 1971
Randy Moss b. 1977

2/14/1988:
At the Daytona 500, 50-year-old Bobby Allison finishes first in his Buick Regal while his 26-year-old son Davey, in a Ford, drives right behind him in second. Bobby leads for 70 laps, including the last 18, and beats Davey by about 2-1/2 car lengths. At 50, Bobby becomes the oldest driver ever to win a Daytona 500. It is also the first NASCAR race run with carburetor restrictor plates, designed to slow the cars in the interest of safety. With an average speed of 137.531 miles per hour, it is the slowest Daytona 500 since 1960. The race is best remembered, however, for a spectacular crash on Lap 106 in which Richard Petty rolls over seven times before landing on his wheels. Petty is tagged by Phil Barkdoll, then hit by Brett Bodine's car. The wreck also involves A.J. Foyt, Eddie Bierschwale, and Alan Kulwicki. Fortunately, all of the drivers walk away without serious injuries.

Birthdays:
Woody Hayes b. 1913
Mickey Wright b. 1935
Jim Kelly b. 1960
Drew Bledsoe b. 1972
Steve McNair b. 1973

FABULOUS FICTION

Attorney Tim Farnsworth seems to have a happy, successful life, a good marriage, children he loves. But he is helpless in the grip of a mysterious illness that causes him to go out walking, for hour upon hour, until he falls into exhaustion. His wife’s efforts to support and protect him only serve to drive them further apart. A chilling fable of modern life that Time calls “rich and profound.”

THE UNNAMED, by Joshua Ferris (Reagan Arthur Books, 2010)

SOCIAL HISTORY

Marital strife has been a given throughout human history, but counseling couples for it is a uniquely 20th-century innovation. Has it helped at all? Starting with the rise of marriage counseling in the 1930s and progressing through the feminist movement of the 1960s, Rebecca Davis explores the uniquely American obsession with connubial perfection. The result is thought-provoking, “astute, engaging and disturbing” (The New Yorker).

MORE PERFECT UNIONS: THE AMERICAN SEARCH FOR MARITAL BLISS, by Rebecca Davis (Harvard University Press, 2010)