The five second rule

Old wives tales, scientific 'facts'. To me, some of the information that my ears hear or eyes read can often amount to a lot of nonsense. Latest being, (but I think I have heard it before) is that if you accidentally drop food on the floor - it must be picked up within five seconds if you are going to still put it into your mouth (washing it or blowing - or directly into the big hole that is your gob). The supposed thinking/theory behind this claim is that pesky germs although quick on the contamination uptake - they are not as quick as the five second 'rule' but, by the sixth second they will be all over that piece of toast or whatever you happened to drop to the ground like a swarm of nasty bees. Six seconds or more then you are in questionable and dangerous territory. Should the item of food still be eaten or not. Remember, the boffins work extremely hard in secret laboratories to come up with these scientific pearls of wisdom so one should respect what they say. They, of course, are the people in the know.

How dis-hearting it is if you are looking forward to getting your lips on a tasty looking piece of food - to then stupidly drop it on the floor. Most people would say: "Yuk!" I would never pick it up and still eat it. And most of them may be telling the gospel truth. Having said this, there are the others who may profess to act in a highly clean way of behaviour - but I more than suspect that  behind closed doors and in open spaces where nobody can see them they do the exact opposite to what they claim. Yes, these people still grab food from the surface that we walk on. Food is food, times are hard. Wasting is not a good trait.

Well, I knew a chap who shall remain nameless for legal reasons. Anyway, this dude bought a lovely piece of cake from a popular coffee shop place, the cake looked most delicious and from what I was told he was really anticipating eating it. But somehow, unwittingly, it slipped and fell from his hand. He was absolutely gutted about this, (so I hear) and felt terrible - because the cake was one of those ones that are very tasty. Normally, if you drop food on the road you would never dream of picking it up and still eating it. However, he quickly picked it up and blew it vigorously before gingerly depositing it into his mouth. His thinking, (I hear) is that he was in a very new shopping complex and the pavement would not be as dirty as say a normal/often trodden on piece of concrete.

Apparently the cake was very nice regardless of the mishap...

Demola, TCC