50 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About President Elect Obama

* He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics* He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball* His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili* His favorite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini* He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father* He is left-handed - the sixth post-war president to be left-handed* He has read every Harry Potter book* He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali* He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream* His favorite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars* He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia* He can speak Spanish* While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead* His favorite drink is black forest berry iced tea* He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president - he didn't* He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia* He can bench press an impressive 200lbs* He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name* His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville* He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived* His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy* He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books* His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest* He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck* He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.* His favorite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees* He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date* He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker* He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol* He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician* As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine* His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)* He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside* He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal* His house in Chicago has four fire places* Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita* He says his worst habit is constantly checking his Blackberry* He uses an Apple Mac laptop* He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300* He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits* He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes* He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)* His favorite fictional television programs are Mash and The Wire* He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers* He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother* He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds* His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso* His speciality as a cook is chilli* He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"* He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life* His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government