THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Fifty facts about John Kerry
Fri Jul 30, 2004 00:55
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Fifty facts about John Kerry
July 29 2004 at 3:41 PM
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Kerry a cyclist, Skull-Bones member, ex-D.A.

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
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Fifty facts about John Kerry.

1. The second of four children and the eldest son, John Forbes Kerry was born on Dec. 11, 1943, in Denver.

2. He spent part of his childhood in Europe - his father, Richard Kerry, was in the Foreign Service. At 11, John was sent to boarding school in Switzerland.

3. His mother, Rosemary Forbes Kerry, was part of the Forbes shipping family and a member of Boston's high society.

4. John played hockey and lacrosse at New Hampshire boarding school St. Paul's; both teams were captained by current FBI chief Robert Mueller.

5. At St. Paul's, he founded the John Winant Society, which debates current issues.

6. His great-aunt, Clara Winthrop, who had no children of her own, paid for his prep-school education, which cost more than his father's government salary could afford.

7. He's ridden a motorcycle since he was 14.

8. He plays hockey, snowboards, cycles and windsurfs.

9. His father taught him to sail while wearing blinders so he could navigate in the fog.

10. During senior year at St. Paul's, he dated Janet Auchincloss, Jackie Kennedy's half- sister, and he met President John F. Kennedy at her family's summer home.

11. A parody issue of the Yale Daily News during his senior year lampooned his Kennedy worship, referring to him as: "John Fitzgerald Kerry, former president of the Yale-New Haven Chapter of the Mickey Mouse Club."

12. He got a car during his freshman year at Yale, when freshmen weren't supposed to have cars.

13. He had a pet parakeet in college that he taught phrases in English, Italian and French.

14. During summers, he loaded trucks in a grocery warehouse and sold encyclopedias door-to-door.

15. He was in Yale's Skull & Bones, the secret society that counts the presidents Bush and other influential politicians as past members.

16. His favorite movie is "Animal House."

17. His first wife, Julia Thorne, nicknamed him "Pterodactyl" because his long face resembled a dinosaur's.

18. His soccer teammates at Yale called him "Camel" because of his height and how he ran.

19. He and Yale roommate Harvey Bundy spent the summer of 1963 touring England in a rented sports car. Bundy said the one thing Kerry had to do in London was make a speech at Hyde Park Corner.

20. He enlisted in the Navy during his senior year at Yale and cut classes to take flying lessons.

21. While his barracks mates played cards and traded scuttlebutt at Officer Candidate School, he kept busy reading William Styron and John O'Hara.

22. While attending the Naval Training Center in San Diego, he rented an apartment near the water to be free of military-housing regulations and so he could surf.

23. The crew aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile cruiser that protected aircraft carriers in the China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin, called him "The Beatle" because of his bangs.

24. His favorite album "by far" is The Beatles' 1969 classic, "Abbey Road."

25. He takes classical guitar lessons and relaxes on the campaign trail by strumming his six-string.

26. Aboard the Swift patrol boat he commanded in Vietnam, he had a mongrel puppy named VC as a ship- board mascot.

27. His service brought him three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, and he still has a piece of shrapnel embedded in his leg.

28. He protested against the war on his return from Vietnam; in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971, he famously asked, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

29. He says he smoked marijuana a few times, but he hasn't touched it since 1972.

30. For good luck, he keeps a laminated four-leaf clover in his pocket and his Navy dog tags from Vietnam in his leather briefcase.

31. He lost his first congressional race in 1972.

32. After earning his law degree from Boston College, he joined the Middlesex County, Mass., District Attorney's Office. As first assistant, he introduced specialized units that focused on white-collar crime and domestic violence.

33. He and his first wife, Julia, separated in 1982 and divorced in 1988. "After 14 years as a political wife, I associated politics with anger, fear and loneliness," she wrote in her 1996 book, "A Change of Heart."

34. His daughters, Alexandra, 30, and Vanessa, 27, talk with their father at least once a day. Alexandra is a film- maker, and Vanessa is a medical student. Stepsons Chris and Andre Heinz will join them onstage at the convention this week.

35. He was Massachusetts' lieutenant governor under Michael Dukakis from 1982 to 1984, when he became known nationally in the fight against acid rain.

36. In 1984, he was elected to the Senate, where he made his mark leading a series of congressional inquiries - into alleged drug-running by Nicaraguan Contra rebels, the fate of POWs and MIAs in Vietnam and the corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

37. In his Senate office, he has a picture of himself standing with John Lennon at an anti-war demonstration in New York and a picture of himself in military fatigues in the Mekong Delta.

38. He and fellow Vietnam veteran Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., became friends in the 1990s when they worked to normalize relations with Vietnam under President Clinton.

39. In 1995, he married Teresa Heinz, wealthy widow of John Heinz III, Pennsylvania senator and ketchup heir.

40. He wears $15 reading glasses bought off a drug- store shelf.

41. He leaves $20 in the morning for the hotel maid.

42. He regularly wolfs down peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches from an emergency stash kept by his personal assistant.

43. He has a weakness for chocolate cupcakes.

44. On the road, he carries a rosary, a prayer book and a medal with the image of St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers, that he wore during the Vietnam War.

45. He has said he believes life begins at conception, but opposes federal restriction on a woman's right to choose to have an abortion.

46. He subscribes to Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated and likes to read biographies of former presidents.

47. His favorite novel is "Trinity" by Leon Uris.

48. He writes speeches in longhand, then cuts and pastes pieces, using old-fashioned scissors and glue, to reorganize his thoughts.

49. His handwriting is sloppy, "like hieroglyphics," and only a few of his aides can decipher it.

50. His favorite philosopher? Yogi Berra. "How can you beat 'I came to a fork in the road, and I took it'?"

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/32015.php 

• KERRY-BUSH WHICH ? BOTH SKULL and BONES — Bob Rose, Fri Jul 30 18:44

• Forgot to Mention — Anonymous, Fri Jul 30 02:44
• Re: Forgot to Mention ... — David Howard, Fri Jul 30 10:02
• 'Credible' Kerry pledges to heal wounds — AFP, Fri Jul 30 02:14
• Skulls and Bones stuff. — TruthSeeker24, Fri Jul 30 11:27