Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/18/2012

Former Marquette coach and broadcaster Al McGuire on gamblers who befriend college athletes: "You must try to teach your players that if there are creeps hanging around, there are reasons. It's like when you bring flowers home to your wife and say there's reason. There's a reason."

Birthdays:
George Gipp b. 1895
Dick Duff b. 1936
Manny Mota b. 1938
Judy Raskin b. 1945
Andy Moog b. 1960

LIVING HISTORY

Benjamin Franklin landed in Paris in 1776 to seek foreign aid for America’s freedom bid, and he stayed for years, wangling countless millions to bolster the fledgling U.S. In Stacy Schiff’s adroit hands—she won the 2000 Pulitzer for her biography Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)—18th-century Paris bursts into colorful life. It’s like eavesdropping on the canny negotiations of the fascinating Franklin and his ally Jefferson; you’ll feel the burn from Franklin’s frequent nemesis Adams.

A GREAT IMPROVISATION: FRANKLIN, FRANCE, AND THE BIRTH OF AMERICA, by Stacy Schiff (Holt Paperbacks, 2006)