Paul Newman's First Acting "Gig" Was As The Court Jester In Robin Hood

Paul Newman was one of the greatest actors to ever live. Sadly, he died at the age of 83 on September 26, 2008. I remember the first time I saw a movie featuring Newman. I was just a kid when I remember watching Cool Hand Luke. As a kid, I thought Newman was so cool. As an adult, I still watch that movie every time I see it on TV.

Later, as a teenager, I remember watching Newman and Tom Cruise in The Color of Money. He was just as prolific in this movie as he was in Cool Hand Luke.

In celebration of Mr. Newman's life, here are 50 things about Paul Newman as well as my favorite part of Cool Hand Luke.


50 Things About... Paul Newman

1. Paul was born on September 26, 1925 in Shaker Heights, OH (a suburb of Cleveland)
2. His father (Arthur Samuel Newman) was Jewish and his mother (Theresa Newman) practiced Christian Science.
3. Arther Newman owned a profitable sporting goods store and his mother also worked in the store.
4. Newman's first acting "gig" was at the age of seven when he played the court jester in his school's production of Robin Hood.
5. Newman graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1943.
6. He briefly attended Ohio University in Athens, OH.
7. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
8. Newman was color blind.
9. He found out he was color blind when he was sent to Navy V-12 training at Ohio University and was not able to go to pilot training because of his color-blindness.
   
10. Since he couldn't be a pilot, he was sent to boot camp and became a radioman and gunner.
11. Newman cheated death when he served aboard the USS Bunker Hill during the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. He was ordered to the ship, but his pilot had an ear infection, so he was held back for a while. Everyone in his detail died during the battle.
12. After the war, Newman finished his college degree at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH where he graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Economics.
    
13. He also studied acting at Yale University and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio in New York City.
14. Before he became a full-time actor, Paul actually managed his father's sporting goods store.
    
15. Newman's first movie was 1954's The Silver Chalice, which also starred Virginia Mayo and Jack Palance among others.
16. Newman was so ashamed of his performance in the Silver Chalice that he took out an ad in a Los Angeles newspaper apologizing for his performance and asking people not to go see it.
17. His ad backfired and the movie received good reviews.
18. Newman called it the worst motion picture made during the 1950's.
19. In 1956, Newman starred as Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Like Me.
20. In 1958, he starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.
21. Newman's first marriage was to Jackie Witte. They were married from 1949 - 1958.
22. He and Jackie had one son named Scott and two daughters named Susan Kendall and Stephanie.
23. His son Scott died of an accidental drug overdose in November 1978.
24. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse Prevention in memory of his son.
25. Before his death, Scott appeared in the movies Breakheart Pass, The Towering Inferno and 1977's Fraternity Row.
26. In 1968, Newman traveled the U.S. stumping for Eugene McCarthy during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
27. Because of this, he was #19 on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
28. Paul described his political views as "pretty left of left."
29. Newman married actress Joanne Woodward on February 2, 1958.
30. Newman and Woodward have three daughters: Elinor "Nell" Teresa (1959), Melissa "Lissy" Stewart (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965).
31. Newman and Woodward are the only married couple to win Academy Awards while still married to each other at the time of the award.
32. Newman won the Best Actor award at the 1986 Academy Awards for his role as Fast Eddie in The Color of Money opposite Tom Cruise.
33. Paul was voted the sixth Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
34. Paul is the owner and founder of The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, which is a summer camp for children with cancer and other blood-related diseases in Ashford, Connecticut.
35. Paul and Joanne lived far away from the Hollywood lifestyle in Westport, Connecticut.
36. Newman once said about infidelity, "Why go out for hamburger, when you can have steak at home."
37. Newman was an auto racing enthusiast and became interested in driving while training for his 1969 film, Winning.
38. Newman's first professional race was in 1972.
39. Over his lifetime, he won numerous racing championships.
40. He drove in the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans in Dick Barbour's Porsche 935 and finished second in the race.
41. Newman competed in races all the way up until 2005.
42. Newman was a strong supporter for gay rights and same-sex marriages.
43. He and a partner (A.E. Hotchner) founded the Newman's Own brand of products in the 1980's.
44. In June of 2007, Newman donated $10 million dollars to his alma mater, Kenyon College, to establish the school's largest scholarship fund.
45. Newman said that the sound he loves the most is that of a V-8 engine.
46. Newman, a former chain smoker, had been undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer earlier this summer. According to sources, he told his wife that he wanted to die at home and had left the hospital and returned to their home in Connecticut.
47. He died at the age of 83 on September 26, 2008 surrounded by his family and close friends.
48. One of my favorite quotes from Newman was, "Once you've seen your face on a bottle of salad dressing, it's hard to take yourself seriously."
49. Newman's last acting role was that of Narrator in the 2007 film, Dale.
50. Newman Day has been celebrated at Kenyon College, Bates College, Princeton University, and other American colleges since the 1970's.

Sometimes it's hard to find 50 unique things about someone, but not for Paul Newman. I could have gone on for quite some time. If you'd like to contribute to this list, please leave your comments. If you'd like to express your feelings about Mr. Newman, please feel free to do so as well.

Paul Newman was an American icon and he will be sorely missed. But, as you can see from the above 50 things, he lived a wonderful life. R.I.P. Paul....

Paul Newman as Cool Hand Luke

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*The 50 facts above were chosen after reviewing countless websites featuring information about Paul Newman. If I have featured something above that is untrue, please let me know. I strive to provide accurate information, but I am by no means perfect. Thanks!

Facebook's Founder Still Sleeps On The Floor

Do you have a profile on Facebook? Odds are you do considering the social network had over 132 million unique visitors in June of 2008 according to ComScore. Like a lot of 30-somethings, I resisted joining Facebook as long as I could, but eventually, I gave it a look. And, like the other 131.999 Facebook visitors, I'm hooked. It's a great networking tool and it's an awesome site to reconnect with friends from high school and college. I've connected with some friends from high school that I haven't seen in 20 years. That's pretty cool. If you don't have a profile yet, I suggest you give it a look yourself.

Because of it's popularity, I decided to do some in-depth research about the website and company that calls itself Facebook, Inc. One of the 50 things I learned is from the title of this post. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg says he still lives in a one bedroom apartment and sleeps on a mattress on the floor. That's just one of the interesting things you'll learn from today's 50 things about Facebook.

50 Things About... Facebook

1. Facebook officially launched on February 4, 2004.
2. The site was founded by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a sophomore at Harvard University.
3. Initially, the membership was limited to only Harvard students.
4. The original name of the site was "The Facebook".
5. "The" was dropped from the name after the company purchased facebook.com for $200,000 back in 2005.
6. Half of the undergraduate student population of Harvard University were members of The Facebook within one month of launching the site.
7. By March 2004, Zuckerberg opened the site up to Stanford, Columbia and Yale and shortly thereafter to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada.
8. By June 2004, Facebook moved to Palo Alto, California.
9. The high school version was launched in September 2005.
10. The high school version was invitation only.
11. On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to anyone with a valid e-mail address and 13-years of age or older.
12. Currently, the site has over 90 million active users worldwide.
13. In June 2004, just three months after starting the site, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel gave Facebook it's first investment of $500,000.
14. In 2005, the company received $12.7 million from Accel Partners, a venture capital firm and $27.5 million from Greylock Partners.
15. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft confirmed it had purchased a 1.6% share in the company for $246 million.
16. Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $60 million on November 30, 2007.
17. Over 100 new applications are created for the Facebook platform every day.
18. According to ComScore, in June 2008, Facebook received 132.1 million unique visitors.
19. Competitor MySpace received 117.6 million unique visitors during the same period.
20. Facebook is currently the 5th most popular website on the internet according to Alexa as of today.
21. Facebook is also the most popular website in the world for posting photos with over 14 million uploaded on a daily basis.
22. Even though it's the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook only has 36 million users in the U.S. compared to Myspace's 73 million.
    
23. Facebook was tied with beer as the second most popular thing among undergraduate college students according to a 2006 study by Student Monitor, a NJ research company. The iPod was #1.
24. A movie about the founders of Facebook is reportedly in development by Song Pictures and West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin.
25. Facebook is one of the most often "blocked" websites among companies in the U.S.
26. Facebook has been banned in Iran for fears that opposition groups were organizing movements on the site.
27. The name Facebook refers to the paper "facebooks" that college kids are given at many schools as a way to get to know other people on campus.
28. Many analysts list the companies valuation around $8 billion.
29. If the privacy settings are not configure correctly, anyone can view a user's profile information.
30. Microsoft is the exclusive advertising provider on the site.
31. One of the biggest concerns of Facebook users is the inability to permanently delete your account from the site. You can deactivate your account, but your information is still kept on the Facebook servers.
32. According to reports, the only way to permanently delete all your information is to delete each line of information one by one.
33. According to the site, the company has 600+ employees as of today.
    
34. The key people in the organization as of today are Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Co-founder's Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, Sheryl Sandberg, COO and Matt Cohler, VP of Product Management.
35. The site is available in the following languages: Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Welsh.
36. According to Forbes.com, founder Mark Zuckerberg's net worth is over $1.5 billion.
37. Forbes magazine also called Zuckerberg, "the youngest billionaire on earth and possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever."
38. According to Zuckerberg, he still lives in a one bedroom apartment in California with a mattress on the floor. Why?
39. Co-founder Chris Hughes is still a consultant for the site, but now focuses most of this time as the coordinator of online organizing within the Barack Obama presidential campaign on My.BarackObama.com.
40. Before becoming the COO, Sheryl Sandberg was V.P. of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google.
41. At the age of 38, Sandberg holds the distinction of being the youngest female to be listed on Fortune Magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women of 2007
42. Facebook's revenue stream comes from online advertising.
43. Along with Myspace, Facebook is one of the websites that employers check before interviewing potential employees.
44. BusinessWeek magazine confirmed that Facebook employees will be able to sell stock at a valuation of no more than $3.75 million.
45. Co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation, Marc Andreessen, reportedly joined Facebook's board of directors in July 2008.
46. Facebook Fatigue is a commonly used term referring to the fatigue of receiving too many invitations on the site.
47. In 2007, Zuckerberg reluctantly agreed to sell Facebook to Yahoo for a reported $1 billion, but the deal fell through when Yahoo's stock plunged last year, and Yahoo dropped the bid to $800 million.
48. Before Zuckerberg launched The Facebook, he created Facemash.com, which was similar to HotorNot.com, which compared pictures of Harvard students side-by-side.
49. Facemash only lasted a month after Harvard administration threated him with disciplinary action.
    
50. My profile can be found here.
    
    
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    *The 50 facts above were chosen after reviewing countless websites featuring information about Facebook. If I have featured something above that is untrue, please let me know. I strive to provide accurate information, but I am by no means perfect. Thanks!

Rafael Nadal Is Naturally Right-Handed, But Plays Tennis Left-Handed

While I'm posting today's 50 things about Rafael Nadal, Nadal is currently playing a fourth round match against American Sam Querrey at the 2008 U.S. Open. Nadal has taken the tennis world by storm over the last few years, and he just surpassed the great Roger Federer as the #1 player in the world a few weeks ago.

If you missed Nadal's epic battle against Roger Federer at Wimbledon this summer, you can watch the entire fifth set over at the Tennis Video of the Day blog.

The fact that Nadal plays left-handed although he's naturally right-handed is just one of the 50 things you'll learn about Nadal. If you're a tennis fan, I think you'll enjoy today's edition featuring 50 Things About... Rafael Nadal!




50 Things About... Rafael Nadal

1. Nadal was born on June 3, 1986 in Manacor, Majorca.
2. He is 6' 1" and weighs 187 lbs.
3. He is naturally right-handed, but he plays tennis left-handed.
4. As a child, he excelled at both football (soccer) and tennis.
5. Rafa's uncle Toni, who is a professional tennis player as well, introduced Nadal to tennis at the age of three.
6. At the age of eight, he won the regional tennis championships for the 12 and under age division.
7. At the age of 14, his father, Sebastian, made him pick either tennis or football because his grades were suffering.
8. The Spanish Tennis Federation wanted Nadal to move to Barcelona to continue his development, but Nadal's parents declined.
9. Nadal's uncle Toni has been his coach ever since he was three years old.
10. By the time he reached 16, he was ranked in the top 50 among the world's junior players.
11. Nadal trained for two summers at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida during his early teens.
12. In 2001 at the age of 14, Nadal defeated Wimbledon champion Pat Cash in an exhibition match.
13. At the age of 15, Nadal won his first ATP tennis tournament in 2002 defeating Ramon Delgado.
14. This win made him the 9th youngest player to win an ATP match.
15. In 2003, Nadal won two Challenger level tournaments and was ranked in the top 50 by the end of the year.
16. In 2004, Nadal made it to the third round at Wimbledon, making him the youngest man to do so since Boris Becker back in 1984.
17. In 2004 at the Miami Master tournament, Nadal played Roger Federer for the first time and won the match.
18. That same year, Nadal suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle, which prevented him from playing the French Open.
19. In 2005, Nadal won 24 consecutive matches during the clay-court season.
20. In 2005, he won eight clay court titles and three hard court titles.
21. He finished 2005 as the #2 ranked player in the world.
22. He won the French Open in 2005 on his first try, which was the first time that had happened since Mats Wilander won on his first try back in 1982.
23. In the 2005 French Open final, he beat Mariano Puerta, 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5.
24. In route to the win, he beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
25. 2005 wasn't a good year for him though at Wimbledon (2nd round loss) and the U.S. Open (3rd round loss)
26. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award in 2005 for winning twelve 6-0 sets in the year.
27. Nadal missed the 2006 Australian Open due to foot injury.
28. In 2006, Nadal broke Guillermo Vilas' 29-year record of 53 consecutive clay court victories after he won his first round match at the French Open.
29. Nadal defeated Federer to win the 2006 French Open.
30. His win over Federer at the '06 French Open was the first time Federer had been beaten in a Grand Slam final.
31. At Wimbledon in 2006, Nadal defeated Andre Agassi in his last career match at Wimbledon 7–6(5), 6–2, 6–4.
32. He lost the '06 final to Federer. Their match was the first time in the Open era that the same two players had met each other in the Wimbledon final after playing in the previous French Open final.
33. At the 2006 U.S. Open, Nadal was seeded #2, but he lost in the quarterfinals to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets.
34. During 2007, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of the Surfaces" exhibition match in Majorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.
35. Nadal won his third French Open title in 2007 defeating Roger Federer again.
36. Nadal lost in five sets to Federer in the 2007 Wimbledon final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001.
37. At the U.S. Open in 2007, Nadal was again seeded #2, but he lost in the fourth round to David Ferrer.
38. Nadal suffered a knee injury at Wimbledon in 2007, and he suffered with the problem for the rest of the year.
39. Nadal won his fourth French Open final beating Roger Federer once again for the title.
40. With his 2008 French Open title, he tied Bjorn Borg's record of four straight French Open titles.
    
41. Nadal won his first Wimbledon title in what most tennis historians believe is the best match ever played at Wimbledon.
42. Their Wimbledon final was the longest match in Wimbledon history because of rain delays. Nadal won the fifth set tiebreaker 9-7.
43. Nadal won a Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics defeating the 2004 Gold medal winner Fernando Gonzalez becoming the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.
44. At the 2008 U.S. Open currently going on, Nadal is the #1 seed. This is the first time he has been seeded #1 at a Grand Slam event.
45. Nadal has been dating María Francesca Perelló, who is also from Majorca for three years as of 2008.
46. Nadal is the global ambassador for Kia Motors.
47. As of today, Nadal has career earnings over over $19.9 million dollars and 31 career wins.
    
48. Nadal uses a Babolat AeroPro Drive tennis racket.
49. As of today, his shoes display his nickname "Rafa" on one shoe and a logo specifically designed by Nike featuring a stylistic bull head on the other.
50. Lastly, according to sources on tour, despite his aggressive and "angry" disposition on-court, Nadal is actually very humble and nice off-court.
    

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*The 50 facts above were chosen after reviewing countless websites featuring information about Rafael Nadal. If I have featured something above that is untrue, please let me know. I strive to provide accurate information, but I am by no means perfect. Thanks!

Joe Biden Encouraged John McCain To Run As John Kerry's Running Mate In 2004

Yesterday, I featured 5o things about Sarah Palin. Today, I want to look at the Democratic candidate for Vice President, Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. Even though I have seen his face for many, many years, I honestly didn't know that much about him until I started researching his life. I didn't know he encouraged John McCain to run as John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 Presidential election.

Like Palin, I feel that since there's a possibility he could end up being our next Vice President, I need to know as much about him as I can. And, since this is one of the most important Presidential elections in my lifetime, I feel it's extremely important that everyone is as informed as possible about all the candidates. I'll be featuring both Obama and McCain in the coming weeks as well.




50 Things About.... Joe Biden

1. Biden was born in Scranton, PA on November 20, 1942.
2. Biden's father, Joseph Biden, Sr. is of English decent and his mother, Catherine Finnegan is of Irish decent.
3. Biden has two brothers and one sister. He is the oldest of the Biden siblings.
4. When Biden was ten years old, the family moved to Claymont, Deleware.
   
5. His father, Joseph Biden, Sr., took a job as a car salesman in Claymont, DE.
   
6. Biden graduated high school from Archmere Academy in Claymont.
7. He was active in sports at Archmere and was president of his class.
   
8. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 with a double major in History and Political Science.
9. He received his J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968.
10. He was admitted to the Delaward Bar in 1969.
11. While in law school, Biden married Neilia Hunter on August 27, 1966.
12. Biden graduated 76 out of 85 in his law school class.
    
13. Neilia and Biden had three children (Joseph R. Biden III, Robert Hunter and Naomi Christina)
14. Sadly, Neilia was in a car accident with all three kids in 1972 while in the family station wagon traveling to get a Christmas tree. They were broad-sided by a tractor-trailer. Neilia and Naomi were killed and Joseph III and Robert were seriously injured, but made recoveries.
15. This accident happened shortly after Biden was first elected to the Senate.
16. He was sworn into office at his boys bedside.
17. Biden married his current wife, Jill Tracy Jacobs in 1977.
18. He and Jill have one daughter named Ashley.
19. Biden is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
20. In February, 1988, Biden almost died from two brain aneurysms, but underwent lifesaving surgery which corrected the problem.
21. His son, Joseph Biden "Beau" III was elected Delaware Attorney General in 2006.
22. Joseph III is also a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard and is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq in October, 2008.
23. His other son, Robert Hunter is a lawyer in the D.C. area.
24. When Biden was first elected to the Senate back in 1973, he was only 30 years old, which made him the fifth youngest Senator in the history of the office.
25. In 1974, he was named one of the 200 Faces for the Future by Time magazine.
26. Biden is currently serving his sixth consecutive term as a U.S. Senator.
27. He is the longest serving Senator in Delaware's history.
28. He is running for re-election to the Senate this year.
29. His net worth is reported to be between $59,000 and $366,000, which makes him one of the least wealthy members of the Senate.
30. Biden is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
31. Biden has been involved with drafting many different crime laws including the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, also known as the Biden Crime Law, and the landmark Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA).
32. Biden has made two unsuccessful attempts at the Presidency (1988 and 2008).
33. Biden encouraged John McCain to run as John Kerry's running mate back in 2004 believing the cross-party ticket would help heal America's political party troubles.
34. Biden announced his Presidential campaign on Meet The Press with the late Tim Russert back on January 7, 2007.
35. On January 31, 2007, Biden infamously stated about Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that's a storybook, man."
36. Biden has often been criticized for statements like the above and this one from 2006 speaking about the support he gets from Indian-Americans , ""I've had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."
37. Another great one-liner from Biden from the campaign trail this past year during a debate and referring to Rudy Giuliani, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11."
38. Barack Obama announced Biden was his running mate on August 22, 2008.
39. If elected, Biden would be the first V.P. from Delaware and the first Roman Catholic to hold the position.
40. In 2002, Biden said that Saddam Hussein was a threat to national security and that threat should be eliminated.
41. Biden is famous for calling Servian leader Slobodan Milosevic a "war criminal."
42. Biden's nickname in high school was "Dash" because he stuttered so much that his classmates said he sounded like he was talking in Morse code.
43. December 18 is the date of his first wife's fatal accident, and Biden to this day will not work on that date.
44. Biden's critics assert that his biggest challenge has always been his inability to hold his tongue in public. This video from 20 years ago is an example.
45. Another memorable quote from Biden remarking while attending the 2004 Davos conference in Switzerland, ""You Europeans use George Bush's excesses as an excuse for your own lack of commitment. You've been reluctant to do anything apart from criticize America---get over it."
46. Biden's wife Jill is currently an English Professor at Delaware Technical Community College.
47. Biden's daughter Ashley is a social worker.
48. One of Biden's most famous statements comes from the current Presidential campaign when he said, "I am not running for vice president. I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I'd rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president," And he said Obama was "not yet ready" to be president."
49. Biden has been taking an Amtrak train back and forth from Delaware to D.C. ever since he was sworn into office during his first term as a Senator.
50. Finally, if Obama/Biden win, Joseph Biden, Jr. will be the first Vice President to serve with an African-American President.

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*The 50 facts above were chosen after reviewing countless websites featuring information about Joe Biden. If I have featured something above that is untrue, please let me know. I strive to provide accurate information, but I am by no means perfect. Thanks!

Sarah Palin's Nickname In High School Was Sarah Barracuda

As I launch this blog, Sarah Palin was just introduced yesterday by John McCain as his vice presidential candidate for the 2008 election. Like millions of other Americans, I'm not very familiar with her. In fact, I didn't know anything about her until I heard her speech yesterday. That's when the idea for this blog hit me. For someone who may become the first female vice president of the United States and who possibly could end up becoming the President of the United States, I figured I should at least know 50 things about her.

For instance, did you know her nickname in high school was Sarah Barracuda because of her intense style of play on the basketball court? That's just one of the 50 things you'll learn about Sarah below.

And, after researching her life online, I thought how cool it will be to feature a new person, place, company, etc. every day. So, please visit often to find out 50 more Things About....

50 Things About... Sarah Palin

1. Sarah was born in Sandpoint, ID on February 11, 1964.
2. Her mother worked as a school secretary and her father worked at the same school as a science teacher and the track coach.
3. She is of English, Irish and German ancestry.
4. Her family moved to Alaska when she was just an infant.
5. She attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, AK.
6. In high school, she was head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school.
7. She was a point guard on the Wasilla High women's basketball team and she was captain of the team.
8. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982.
9. During the championship game, with only seconds left, she hit the free throws that won the game despite playing with an ankle stress fracture.
10. Her nickname in high school was Sarah Barracuda because of her intense style of play.
11. In 1984, she won the Miss Wasilla beauty contest.
12. She finished as the runner-up in the Miss Alaska contest.
13. She won a college scholarship as a result of her runner-up finish.
14. She attended the University of Idaho and holds a B.S. in Communications-Journalism and she minored in Political Science.
15. She spent a brief time after college as a sports reporter for an Anchorage, AK station.
16. She served two terms on the Wasilla City Council from 1992 - 1996.
    
17. In 1996, she was elected Mayor of Wasilla, a town of about 9,000.
18. Palin ran for mayor under the promise of lowering her salary and reducing property taxes by 40%. She followed through on both.
19. In 1999, she ran and was re-elected Mayor and was elected President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.
20. During Pat Buchanan's failed run for President in 1996, Palin wore a "Buchanan for President" button.
21. In 2002, Palin made an unsuccessful run for the Lieutenant Governor position in Alaska.
22. In 2003, Palin was appointed Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
    
23. She served in this position until 2004 when she resigned due to what Palin called "lack of ethics" among other Republican leaders.
24. In 2006, Palin was elected Governor of Alaska running on a clean-government campaign.
25. The three cornerstone's of her administration were education, public safety, and transportation.
26. Palin is the first women to be elected governor of Alaska and the youngest at 42 years old to be elected.
27. She is the first Alaskan governor who was born after Alaska became a state.
28. She bucked the trend and had her inauguration in Fairbanks rather than Juneau.
29. Her approval rating in 2007 was above 90% in many polls.
30. Her approval rating for this year is above 80% in some polls and above 70% in almost all.
    
31. In response to high oil and gas prices, Palin proposed to give all Alaskans a $100 a month energy debit card. Later, she dropped this idea in favor of sending them $1,200 directly from the state.
32. She's been instrumental in the plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope.
33. On August 29, 2008, Palin was announced by John McCain as his running mate for the 2008 Presidential election.
34. If elected, she will be the first female Vice President of the United States.
35. Only one other woman has been on the ballot as a vice presidential candidate: Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984.
36. Palin is pro-life and supports the death penalty.
37. Palin is a Christian who stands behind her faith and her ethics.
    
38. Palin is a member of Feminists for Life and a life member of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
39. Palin has friends who are gay, but she opposes same-sex marriage.
40. She is married to Todd Palin, her boyfriend since high school on August 29, 1988.
41. They eloped shortly after Palin graduated from college.
    
42. Todd is a world champion snowmobiler having won the 2,000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times.
43. They have five children. Track (19), Bristol (17), Willow (14), Piper (7) and Trig (4 months).
    
44. Track is in the Army and will be deploying to Iraq on September 11, 2008.
45. Trig was born with Down's Syndrome. Sarah and Todd knew he had Down's from prenatal genetic testing, but they elected to have him anyway, a decision that pro-life advocates applauded.
46. Van Halen's Right Now was the song chosen to play in the background when John McCain announced Palin to the world.
47. McCain reportedly was going to pick Lieberman as his running mate until he personally met with Sarah the night before her announcement.
48. It was reported back in 2007 that if former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani had won the Republican nomination for President, he was going to choose Palin as his running mate.
49. She returned to the governor's office just three days after giving birth to Trig.
50. She's very athletic. She has ran a marathon, likes to ride snowmobiles and owns a float plane, and She's definitely not your average politician...

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P.S. After writing this article yesterday, I have received a lot of emails thanking me for the information, but I also received a link to a very interesting fact that I didn't know about Palin: She is briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter-terrorism because of Alaska's role in our national defense regarding nuclear weapons and because of Alaska's close proximity to Russia. Thanks to BlackFive.net for the heads-up.

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*The 50 facts above were chosen after reviewing countless websites featuring information about Sarah Palin. If I have featured something above that is untrue, please let me know. I strive to provide accurate information, but I am by no means perfect. Thanks!