5 THINGS: Books, Basketball, and Constantinople Is Not Istanbul

Here are Five Things for Wednesday, December 14, 2011:

1. Book it! At 1 p.m. at the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library, the Afternoon Book Club will be discussing The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. The club is free, and open to the public. For some info on the book and some discussion questions, click here. If you haven't read it though, relax – just pick up the next selection. Rogue Island will be discussed by the appropriately-named Evening Book Club .
2. Boys' Basketball Trying for 2-0. The Narragansett Mariners will have a tough task ahead of them Wednesday night, as they try to play falconer against Division I Cranston West. Junior varsity is at 5:15 p.m., followed by varsity at 7 p.m. Narragansett , against South Kingstown, on Friday. However, the Rebels finished last year 2-16 in Division I; in contrast, West went 15-3, and beat to start this year.
3. Prout Boys' Basketball Starts League Slate. In contrast, the Prout School's squad is already into regular season play. The Crusaders will host Moses Brown in the Division III opener for each. Like Narragansett's game, junior varsity is at 5:15 p.m., and varsity is at 7 p.m. Prout is 1-1 to start the year, losing 81-66 to Division I Classical on Dec. 9 and beating Division II Ponaganset 58-25 on Dec. 10. Moses Brown hosted Hope on Dec. 10, but results have not been posted on the RIIL website.
4. Istanbul was Constantinople, and Constantinople once had an earthquake. On this day in 557, Constantinople had an earthquake. It was still Constantinople at that point, not Istanbul. If you had a date in Constantinople, she would be waiting for you in Istanbul, unless the earthquake pushed her into Egypt somehow. For more on this, please refer to the scholarly work of They Might Be Giants, Flood album, “Istanbul.”
5. Roll Tide! Today is Alabama Day. I've never been to Alabama, but I've heard it's nice. I have no other pithy comments about Alabama – sorry.

Have recommendations for today's Five Things, or a future one? Shoot an e-mail to narragansett@patch.com, or leave your remarks in the comments below. Want to be e-mailed when there is a new Five Things posted? Click the follow-up link below!