Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) is known for keeping a list of several hundred birthdays of current and former colleagues, staffers and others and for dialing them on that day to wish them well.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) was a physicist on the small team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known form of matter.
Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-IL) struck up a friendship with Boston Celtics basketball star Ray Allen when the Celtics visited the White House in September 2008. Allen said his son acquired Type 1 juvenile diabetes along with a cluster of other youths in Boston's affluent suburbs; Johnson's father is a diabetic. According to Boston magazine, Johnson promised to help have the Centers for Disease Control look into the matter.
California wine enthusiasts Mike Thompson and George Radanovich are co-chairs of Congressional Wine Caucus. Rep. Thompson also grows organic sauvignon grapes and Rep. Radanovich had his own vineyard until it closed in 2003. Speaker Nancy Pelosi owns a vineyard in Thompson's hometown and Rep. Devin Nunes is part owner of the Alpha Omega winery.
The son of a longtime Georgia state senator, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) use to give up his bedroom when his father's colleague Jimmy Carter from Plains would visit Athens.