Sponsored by Smarties

When you work 14-15 hour shifts you do a lot of snacking. It seems that we are always trying something new. One of our 'care packages' a few months ago had some Smarties in it and they immediately became our favorite.

Now let me say the thing that most people over here miss in the summer months is chocolate. You simply cannot ship it in without it becoming a liquid. One August day last summer I found a rare Hershey bar at the Post Exchange. I thought, here is an unusual treat, so instead of eating it all, I took just one bite. I then stuck it in the cargo pocket of my uniform so it could be enjoyed back in my hooch while watching a movie. This was a mistake.

I headed directly back to my room which is about a 10 minute walk. The temperature outside was 135 degrees. No, you cannot possibly comprehend how hot that is. I thought I could before I got here, but it defies all expectation. At any rate, when I arrived at my room I reached in my pocket to get out the candy bar only to realize my hand was immersed in liquid chocolate. My camera was also in that pocket, now also chocolate coated. This was not good. Not only was it coated, but every little plug in was filled. This was a bad day. After hours of licking the camera was as good as new, and I had enjoyed the chocolate if a completely different way than I thought I would. (just kidding, but I had to throw that in there)

Sorry, I digress.

As I have established, chocolate anything is rare, so we had to go to something more solid. Thus the fascination with Smarties.

We found ourselves going through a bag of Smarties every couple of days. Maintaining the supply became a challenge. So we decided to contact the Smarties company, specifically the Vice President of marketing. We simply let him know that we here at the Media Operations Center live off of Smarties, that their product is having an impact on morale over here. He responded with a case of the candy. And not only did the case have the traditional Smarties, but also experimental kinds like tropical fruit, and super sour. Smarties heaven!

We here at the press desk are now content. We have our case of Smarties - we are munching away like little squirrels. In addition to that the weather has cooled to the point I can put a Hershey bar in my pocked without it becoming liquid. My camera is safe.