Since everyone south of Juneau seems to be relying on their trusty Nexis accounts for more information on the surprise Republican vice-presidential candidate, I'll do the same. A brief sampling of her pre-gubernatorial career:
-Forbesmania! Palin was an Alaska cochair of Steve Forbes' 2000 presidential campaign.
-Float for change! Palin's float won first prize in the political category at the 1999 Alaska State Fair.
-Gay marriage, no; Wal-Mart marriage, yes! As mayor of Wasilla, Palin once presided over a wedding in a Wal-Mart.
-A cessna in every garage! Mayor Palin successfully eliminated her city's tax on boats, planes, and snowmobiles.
-No Juneau! Palin pushed to move the seat of Alaska's legislature to greater Anchorage.
-She can run, but can she ever run! Palin finished 119th in the 1995 Alaska Run for Women 8k, finishing in 37:55. The same year, she finished sixth in the Father's Day Fun Run, at 25:34. And in 1996, she finished second in the Iditarod Days 10k footrace, at 45:32.
-Ivanarama! And as this brilliant April 3, 1996 piece from the Anchorage Daily News makes clear, Palin also doesn't share her running mate's recent disdain for celebrities:
Sarah Palin, a commercial fisherman from Wasilla, told her husband on Tuesday she was driving to Anchorage to shop at Costco. Instead, she headed straight for Ivana.
And there, at J.C. Penney's cosmetic department, was Ivana, the former Mrs. Donald Trump, sitting at a table next to a photograph of herself. She wore a light-colored pantsuit and pink fingernail polish. Her blonde hair was coiffed in a bouffant French twist.
''We want to see Ivana,'' said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, ''because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture.''
Ivana Trump, the former Czechoslovakian Olympic skier who found fame and wealth as the wife of the New York tycoon, came to Anchorage Tuesday to push her line of perfume.
-Michael Schaffer