50 Facts You Might Not Know About Barack Obama

1. He collects Spider-Man and Conan
    the Barbarian comics.
2. He was known as "O'Bomber" at high
    school for his skill at basketball.
3. His name means "one who is blessed"
    in Swahili.

 
4. His favorite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini.
5. He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams
    From My Father.
6. He is left-handed; the sixth post-war president to be left-handed.
7. He has read every Harry Potter book.
8. He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali.
9. He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now
    can't stand ice cream. read more

10.  His favorite snacks are chocolate-
      peanut protein bars.
11.  He ate dog meat, snake meat, and
      roasted grasshopper while living in
      Indonesia.
12.  He can speak Spanish.
13.  While on the campaign trail he 
      refused to watch CNN and had
      sports channels on instead.
14.  His favorite drink is black forest
      berry iced tea.
 
15.  He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president,
      "he didn't".
16.  He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia.
17.  He can bench press an impressive 200lbs.
18.  He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed
      by his full name.
19.  His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
20.  He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-
      sister's fiancées but left when a stripper arrived.
21.  His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy.
22.  He and Michelle made $4.2 million (ֲ£2.7 million) last year, with much
      coming from sales of his books.
23.  His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
24.  He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging
      to a soldier in Iraq for good luck.
25.  He applied to appear in a black
      pin-up calendar while at Harvard
      but was rejected by the all-female
      committee..
26.  His favorite music includes Miles
      Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The
      Fugees.
27.  He took Michelle to see the Spike
      Lee film Do The Right Thing on
      their first date.
28.  He enjoys playing Scrabble and
      poker.
29.  He doesn't drink coffee and
      rarely drinks alcohol.
30.  He would have liked to have been
      an architect if he were not a
      politician.
31.  As a teenager he took drugs
      including marijuana and cocaine.
32.  His daughters' ambitions are to go
      to Yale before becoming an
      actress (Malia, 10) and to sing
      and dance (Sasha, 7).
 
33.  He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside.
34.  He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book
      deal.
35.  His house in Chicago has four fire places.
36.  Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita.
37.  He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry.
38.  He uses an Apple Mac laptop.
39.  He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler
      300.
40.  He wears $1,500 (ֲ£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits.
41.  He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes.
42.  He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who
      charges $21.
43.  His favorite fictional television programs are Mash and The Wire.
44.  He was given the code name
      "Renegade" by his Secret Service
      handlers.
45.  He was nicknamed "Bar" by his
      late grandmother.
46.  He plans to install a basketball
      court
      in the White House grounds.
47.  His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso.
48.  His specialty as a cook is chilli.
49.  He has said many of his friends in
      Indonesia were "street urchins".
50.  He keeps on his desk a carving of
      a wooden hand holding an egg, a
      Kenyan symbol of the fragility of
      life.
51.  His late father was a senior
      economist for the Kenyan
      government.
 
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