Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), 4th District

What is your guilty pleasure?

Rep. McCarthy: Once a month, I buy a package of Häagen-Dazs dark chocolate ice cream. That is my guilt.

Proudest moment?

Rep. McCarthy: My proudest moment probably was … probably [last] Monday, when the president signed my bill for gun control. Not every legislator gets a bill passed.

Favorite musician or musical group?

Rep. McCarthy: I’d probably go back to the Beatles. I’m still stuck in the old times.

Finish this sentence: My favorite place in the whole world is …

Rep. McCarthy: Sitting on a beach. Jones Beach. It’s out on Long Island and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I used to get there often. Unfortunately, being in Congress, you don’t get much free time. But I still get down there, and I take my grandchildren down there.

Tell me something no one knows about you.

Rep. McCarthy: I have been in the same house 56 years. I bought my parents’ house from them. It seems in this transient world, people don’t stay in one place, but I have.

Craziest constituent request?

Rep. McCarthy: Oh, this is a good one. Usually, all my mayors and stuff, they’re always looking for help, and we do everything we can. …We had a new trustee come in to see me because every January we send out to the mayors and the board a letter saying, “If you need help from the federal government, let us know.”

They came in and … when they finally got to the point where they were asking for money to build a pool, I looked at them and said, “Uh, we don’t do that. We don’t build pools.”