10 things you may not know about … Yanis, or John V. (photos+videos)

Intricate details that you might not know about the life of Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

1. He writes his first name with one “n” (Γιάνης) instead of two (Γιάννης) because of a conflict, as he tells it, with a teacher in primary school. He liked seeing it with one n, she kept insisting on two. Once she marked down an exam from 10/10 to 8/10 for this reason. When he was 13, he saw a book by an author named Yianis Kordatos, who also prefered the one n spelling and that was the end of it… Yiannis, by the way, is the shortened version of Ioannis (Ιωάννης), which is Greek for “John”.

YANIS

2. In 1983, he lived in London and had … hair on his head!

VAROUFAKISNOW1

3. He always enjoyed holidaying on the large island of Crete, and especially preferred nudist beaches. There are no beach photos as yet.

NUDIST

4. Everyone now knows of his career as an academic, but few people know that he had his own radio show in Australia. The show had a cult following and he soon became known as the “Greek Idol” — no relation with the Greek TV version of “American Idol”.

RADIO

5. He is a fanatic radio collector and has many rare albums in his extensive vinyl collection.

YANIS1

6. Apart from his own blog, he has written a number of articles for the Greek press, including for free press Lifo, the electronic website that was begun by centrist Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis. Here he is dressed up as a hooligan to promote the site.

7. He blogs, uses Twitter frequently — and without a certified account — but has no personal Facebook page. He is an Instagram user. Here is an Instagram photo with his daughter, Xenia.

DAUGHTER

8. He told Stern that he moved to the great state of Texas after receiving death threats on the life of his son because he was helping journalists in efforts to investigate Greek banks at the time.

DEATH

9. He inspired the Varoufunky cocktail…

10. A “face expert” claims that his big eyes show confidence and decisiveness, his large elbow purportedly show that he is quite impulsive and perceptive. The shape of his ears represents a need to be different (?) and at the center of everything. A stubborn nose and decisive mouth show energy and drive. No word by the “expert” on what the bald head represents.

VAROUFAKISNOW