Last Call: What's Your Secret Snack Vice That's Almost Too Embarrassing For Work?

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By  Aimee Levitt

A life in politics isn't always glamour and excitement. Sometimes there are long stretches of boredom, like during tedious debates or when someone else is making a really long and self-indulgent speech and you're stuck on the legislature floor can't leave because it's Important. In times like these, politicians, like their constituents, need something to get them through, like snacks.

And so yesterday, just before the State of the State address (the definition of long and self-indulgent), Tennessee state rep Kent Calfee took a moment to fortify himself with a long swig of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, straight from the bottle. The moment was captured by a photographer from the Nashville Tennesseean and quickly streaked across the internet.

There was some debate on Twitter about what Calfee was holding in his other hand. It looks like crackers, possibly the cheesy peanut butter ones that are a vending machine classic. Maybe this was Calfee's way of making a Reese's cup in his mouth? What creativity!

Unfortunately, the Tennesseean had to spoil this great story with the truth. Calfee told reporter Natalie Allison that the syrup bottle contained nothing but water. He and his wife Marilyn are very into recycling, he said, and he didn't see the point in investing money in a reusable water bottle that he would just leave somewhere. "I was fixing to put it in the plastic recycling one day at home, and I thought, shoot, I can put water in that," he explained.

And Calfee isn't even a Hershey's Syrup drinker! He claims to be more of a Nesquik man, a habit he has passed on to his grandchildren.

Why, then, did he have a Hershey's Syrup bottle in his house to begin with? Why did he choose that particular item to use as a makeshift water bottle? These questions remain unanswered.

But, just supposing Calfee is trying to cover up an embarrassing predilection for taking chocolate syrup straight, what is the oddest snack choice you have ever made at work?

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