Now that the conventions are over, and everyone's done reading speeches other people wrote for them, we can look forward to some interesting debates where the candidates are going to have to think on their feet and show us, a little bit, what they're really like.

Sarah Palin is the new kid on the block, and I was curious about her - not so much about her philosophies, but some of the mundane things an old reporter like me might ask in a first interview.

Like, I know she was a point guard on her high school basketball team that won the Alaska state championship in 1982, but how tall is she? Answer: 5'7".

And her team nickname, I presume for her ferocious play, was Sarah Barracuda.

She was born in Idaho, but has lived in Alaska since she was 3 months old, and her husband is a native Alaskan. So is he a Native American? Answer: Yes. He's a Yup'ik Eskimo. They were high school sweethearts, but not at the same school. Why? Answer: Because he was home schooled.

They eloped when she was 24 and her public pet name for him, at least since she's been governor, is "First Dude."

She's been mayor of Wasilla, but how big a place is it? Answer: 7,025, says the Wasilla municipal home page.

And how big in population is the biggest state in the Union that she now governs? Answer: 670,000.

That compares to 574,000 people in Boston and 180,000 in Providence.

Rhode Island, by the way, the Union's smallest state, has a population of just over a million.

We know she was Miss Wasilla and a runner-up in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest, losing to the first African-American Miss Alaska, but what was her talent? Answer: She played the flute in both contests. And won the title of Miss Congeniality in both, too.

One final question: As governor, how much did she give every Alaskan as a "rebate" to help with high fuel costs? Answer: $1,200.

And a final observation: I was amused to discover Ms. Palin and I share the same birth date, Feb. 11.

And an article on the website of the Anchorage Daily News called her the Joan of Arc of Alaska. Regular readers know that Joan of Arc is my family's matron saint.

This is the kind of stuff that makes her more real to me.

Let the debates begin.

Quote of the week

"Time is the school in which we learn, / Time is the fire in which we burn." - Poet Delmore Schwartz.

Thanks for the papers

"I hope you still have the time and desire to browse through these newspapers," writes former local resident Peter Couming, who was a Delaware delegate to the DNC. "They may be good souvenirs and as such may be of value to Attleboro's schools if you can't use them. Thank you for your service to democracy." He sent me the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, and papers printed only for the convention.

"We picked this up during our last day of vacation in Montreal last week," write Mark and Mary Ann Ambrose of Attleboro. They describe Montreal as "a city of old-world charm with a cleaner subway (metro) system than Boston."

Thanks for the cuddlers

Thanks to Nicole and Meghan Lewis of Attleboro for 30 teddy bears and other assorted stuffed creatures for Bears on Board.

The bears, new please, go to Bears On Board, a program of the Attleboro Area Council for Children. They are given to local police officers, firefighters and ambulance crews to give to children in crises.

Our teddy bear total to date is 5,324.

See you next frakking week.