5 ms·

US Senate Candy Desk

128 points by akubera 8y ago

notatoad 8y ago
This article made me really hopeful and happy until i got down the the bit about the democrats candy desk and realized that even the senate candy desk is partisan. The two parties can't even agree on a shared love of sweets, and have to have separate candy desks?
- r00fus 8y ago
  I don't know that it's partisan... perhaps there are different tastes for which multiple locations make sense?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- chickenfries 8y ago
  I think you’re reading too much into it... the candy desk is always a republican because it is on the republican side of the chamber. Perhaps democrats just wanted to be able to grab candy on their side of the chamber. Or they wanted different candy than the one that the republican member had selected for the desk. Either way, it’s candy, who cares? We’re talking about a workplace candy drawer.
  - Waterluvian 8y ago
    I mean if the Dems win enough seats they could occupy the candy desk? :) Something insane like 80.
- microcolonel 8y ago
  Well, the original one was coincidentally on the Republican side. Maybe a new receptacle can be constructed in some neutral location, but that would be less authentic.
- the_watcher 8y ago
  Given that it's on the Republican side of the chambers, near an entrance, I'd argue this is actually a positive sign: the other side of the aisle saw a good idea and adopted it. The partisan response would have been demagoguing it.
- urda 8y ago
  You're reading too far into a drawer full of candy. It's just on that side of the room, nothing further to dig up.
  - dingaling 8y ago
    To a non-USian, the fact that the Senate has 'sides' allocated to the two major parties is revealing and alarming. Where are the sides for the Greens, or the Monster Raving Looney Party?
- dsr_ 8y ago
  ... and the Republican desk is stocked by contributions from donor companies in their districts, and the Democratic desk is stocked by a fund paid into by Senators who want candy. It's emblematic, that's for sure.
  - beatgammit 8y ago
    Is it though? I think the Republicans just made it a tradition first, so companies want to be a part of that. I don't think it means anything, it's just how it happened.
    - uneekname 8y ago
      ...but the result is emblematic.
  - hueving 8y ago
    Emblematic of the false sense of superiority from a party that accepts corporate money just like the evil sponsored candy party.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    If you check the article again, it addresses this: the desk is stocked from donor companies in the Senator's district because it has to be, due to Senate gift rules.
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      They could buy it themselves... I am sure they can afford it.
      - Johnny555 8y ago
        They could "afford" it, but it's not cheap, the Wikipedia article said that Hershey was sending 400 lbs of chocolate a year. The cheapest price I could find online (after a very brief search) for Hershey's kisses is $5.79/lb, so that's over $2000/year - that's a lot of money to pay to feed your colleagues just because you happened to sit at a particular desk.
- rsynnott 8y ago
  And Bernie Sanders, being an independent, presumably has to supply his own candy.
jancsika 8y ago
How secure is the candy desk? Also-- can you imagine being all excited about your first day at the NSA and they tell you your job is securing the candy desk?
- adventured 8y ago
  The US Capitol Police would be in charge of reviewing security for the Candy Desk (if there is any consideration for such a thing, might be surprised that there isn't).
  - jancsika 8y ago
    And the NSA would be in charge of whispering to the U.S. Capitol Police when something needs to be reviewed. Sorry, I set you up for that one. :) (Should have left a little hash of this comment in the original comment.)
wild_preference 8y ago
What I love about Wikipedia is how it'll go a step further with the trivia, like the Tenants section. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Desk#Tenants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Desk#Tenants
apo 8y ago
From the article: In 1965, California's George Murphy joined the Senate, and kept candy in his desk to offer his colleagues, and for himself, though eating is not allowed on the Senate floor. When he left the Senate after a six-year term, other Republican senators maintained the custom. ... Murphy replaced Pierre Salinger, who himself was was appointed to serve the remainder of a deceased senator's term: In 1964, he [Murphy] was elected as a Republican to the Senate, having defeated Pierre Salinger, the former presidential press secretary in the Kennedy White House, who had been appointed several months earlier to serve the remainder of the late Clair Engle's unexpired term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy The deceased senator, Clair Engle, is best known for having participated, although paralyzed and unable to speak because of a brain tumor, in the vote to break the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act: On June 10, 1964, during the roll call for the historic, successful effort to break the filibuster on what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when the clerk reached "Mr. Engle", there was no reply. The tumor had robbed Engle of his ability to speak. Slowly lifting an arm, he pointed to his eye, thereby signaling his affirmative vote ("aye").[6] The cloture vote was 71–29, four votes more than the two thirds required to end the filibuster.[7] Nine days later, the Senate approved the Act itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Engle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Engle
2bitencryption 8y ago
This type of article is why I love Wikipedia so much. Really, this article has no place in any physical encyclopedia. It's essentially an anecdote. A footnote, at best. But it's human interest, and it's fascinating, if inconsequential. And because of the collaborative power of Wikipedia, we can have a multi-paragraph informative article like this, maintained by regular people, down to the current contents of the candy desk, with links to the articles for the specific candies... Of course, we all already know this about Wikipedia, we've known it since the start. But sometimes I forget this feeling, and then I'm especially struck by it when I read an articles like this.
- clubm8 8y ago
  When space is free (well, very cheap) it makes sense to document these things if they bring joy to the reader.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    It's not free! Every article in Wikipedia imposes a human cost on the editors and maintainers of the project. That cost dwarfs any conceivable storage cost now, at the inception of the project, or even in the decade before the project. (This is a great article and does illustrate something Wikipedia does better than conventional encyclopedias. At this point, I think the comparison to Britannica has become unhelpful; WP is sui generis, and one of the great (maybe the great) intellectual accomplishments of the Internet.
    - ceejayoz 8y ago
      I think you're missing the point, though. This article simply couldn't be justified in a printed encyclopedia - there's a finite number of pages you can reasonably expect people to shell out for (and Britannia used to be a status symbol even at that limited number; being able to personally own it meant you were quite well off financially, as it cost well over a thousand dollars).
      - jacobolus 8y ago
clubm8 8y ago
How are withdrawals from this desk tracked? How is it's assignment handed out? Do these "candies" influence the votes of those who take them - maybe senators are less likely to vote against the "Candy Man" After all, even small gifts from reps have been shown to influence doctors: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/health/research/19beha.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/health/research/19beha.ht...
Yhippa 8y ago
I need to start this tradition at work. Different teams have their own candy but not one has them for everyone.
- AstroJetson 8y ago
  I have one at work that is open to the 120+ people on my floor. Stop by to have Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Milkyway, red licorice, Hershey's kisses and my fav, peanut butter cups. I do a pound a week. People take and a few put a 5 or 10 under the jar sometimes. I'm overflowing now with Halloween candy donations. But overall I spend about $50 a year on candy. It's a good trade for goodwill and the daily scuttle butt.

128 points by akubera 8y ago

This article made me really hopeful and happy until i got down the the bit about the democrats candy desk and realized that even the senate candy desk is partisan. The two parties can't even agree on a shared love of sweets, and have to have separate candy desks?

r00fus 8y ago
I don't know that it's partisan... perhaps there are different tastes for which multiple locations make sense?
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chickenfries 8y ago
I think you’re reading too much into it... the candy desk is always a republican because it is on the republican side of the chamber. Perhaps democrats just wanted to be able to grab candy on their side of the chamber. Or they wanted different candy than the one that the republican member had selected for the desk. Either way, it’s candy, who cares? We’re talking about a workplace candy drawer.
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  I mean if the Dems win enough seats they could occupy the candy desk? :) Something insane like 80.
microcolonel 8y ago
Well, the original one was coincidentally on the Republican side. Maybe a new receptacle can be constructed in some neutral location, but that would be less authentic.
the_watcher 8y ago
Given that it's on the Republican side of the chambers, near an entrance, I'd argue this is actually a positive sign: the other side of the aisle saw a good idea and adopted it. The partisan response would have been demagoguing it.
urda 8y ago
You're reading too far into a drawer full of candy. It's just on that side of the room, nothing further to dig up.
- dingaling 8y ago
  To a non-USian, the fact that the Senate has 'sides' allocated to the two major parties is revealing and alarming. Where are the sides for the Greens, or the Monster Raving Looney Party?
dsr_ 8y ago
... and the Republican desk is stocked by contributions from donor companies in their districts, and the Democratic desk is stocked by a fund paid into by Senators who want candy. It's emblematic, that's for sure.
- beatgammit 8y ago
  Is it though? I think the Republicans just made it a tradition first, so companies want to be a part of that. I don't think it means anything, it's just how it happened.
  - uneekname 8y ago
    ...but the result is emblematic.
- hueving 8y ago
  Emblematic of the false sense of superiority from a party that accepts corporate money just like the evil sponsored candy party.
- tptacek 8y ago
  If you check the article again, it addresses this: the desk is stocked from donor companies in the Senator's district because it has to be, due to Senate gift rules.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    They could buy it themselves... I am sure they can afford it.
    - Johnny555 8y ago
      They could "afford" it, but it's not cheap, the Wikipedia article said that Hershey was sending 400 lbs of chocolate a year. The cheapest price I could find online (after a very brief search) for Hershey's kisses is $5.79/lb, so that's over $2000/year - that's a lot of money to pay to feed your colleagues just because you happened to sit at a particular desk.
rsynnott 8y ago
And Bernie Sanders, being an independent, presumably has to supply his own candy.

jancsika 8y ago

How secure is the candy desk? Also-- can you imagine being all excited about your first day at the NSA and they tell you your job is securing the candy desk?

adventured 8y ago
The US Capitol Police would be in charge of reviewing security for the Candy Desk (if there is any consideration for such a thing, might be surprised that there isn't).
- jancsika 8y ago
  And the NSA would be in charge of whispering to the U.S. Capitol Police when something needs to be reviewed. Sorry, I set you up for that one. :) (Should have left a little hash of this comment in the original comment.)

wild_preference 8y ago

What I love about Wikipedia is how it'll go a step further with the trivia, like the Tenants section. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Desk#Tenants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Desk#Tenants

apo 8y ago

From the article: In 1965, California's George Murphy joined the Senate, and kept candy in his desk to offer his colleagues, and for himself, though eating is not allowed on the Senate floor. When he left the Senate after a six-year term, other Republican senators maintained the custom. ... Murphy replaced Pierre Salinger, who himself was was appointed to serve the remainder of a deceased senator's term: In 1964, he [Murphy] was elected as a Republican to the Senate, having defeated Pierre Salinger, the former presidential press secretary in the Kennedy White House, who had been appointed several months earlier to serve the remainder of the late Clair Engle's unexpired term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Murphy The deceased senator, Clair Engle, is best known for having participated, although paralyzed and unable to speak because of a brain tumor, in the vote to break the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act: On June 10, 1964, during the roll call for the historic, successful effort to break the filibuster on what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when the clerk reached "Mr. Engle", there was no reply. The tumor had robbed Engle of his ability to speak. Slowly lifting an arm, he pointed to his eye, thereby signaling his affirmative vote ("aye").[6] The cloture vote was 71–29, four votes more than the two thirds required to end the filibuster.[7] Nine days later, the Senate approved the Act itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Engle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Engle

2bitencryption 8y ago

This type of article is why I love Wikipedia so much. Really, this article has no place in any physical encyclopedia. It's essentially an anecdote. A footnote, at best. But it's human interest, and it's fascinating, if inconsequential. And because of the collaborative power of Wikipedia, we can have a multi-paragraph informative article like this, maintained by regular people, down to the current contents of the candy desk, with links to the articles for the specific candies... Of course, we all already know this about Wikipedia, we've known it since the start. But sometimes I forget this feeling, and then I'm especially struck by it when I read an articles like this.

clubm8 8y ago
When space is free (well, very cheap) it makes sense to document these things if they bring joy to the reader.
- tptacek 8y ago
  It's not free! Every article in Wikipedia imposes a human cost on the editors and maintainers of the project. That cost dwarfs any conceivable storage cost now, at the inception of the project, or even in the decade before the project. (This is a great article and does illustrate something Wikipedia does better than conventional encyclopedias. At this point, I think the comparison to Britannica has become unhelpful; WP is sui generis, and one of the great (maybe the great) intellectual accomplishments of the Internet.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    I think you're missing the point, though. This article simply couldn't be justified in a printed encyclopedia - there's a finite number of pages you can reasonably expect people to shell out for (and Britannia used to be a status symbol even at that limited number; being able to personally own it meant you were quite well off financially, as it cost well over a thousand dollars).
    - jacobolus 8y ago

clubm8 8y ago

How are withdrawals from this desk tracked? How is it's assignment handed out? Do these "candies" influence the votes of those who take them - maybe senators are less likely to vote against the "Candy Man" After all, even small gifts from reps have been shown to influence doctors: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/health/research/19beha.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/health/research/19beha.ht...

Yhippa 8y ago

I need to start this tradition at work. Different teams have their own candy but not one has them for everyone.

AstroJetson 8y ago
I have one at work that is open to the 120+ people on my floor. Stop by to have Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Milkyway, red licorice, Hershey's kisses and my fav, peanut butter cups. I do a pound a week. People take and a few put a 5 or 10 under the jar sometimes. I'm overflowing now with Halloween candy donations. But overall I spend about $50 a year on candy. It's a good trade for goodwill and the daily scuttle butt.