[Ads-l] Eating food that has fallen onto the floor

[Benjamin M Brainard]

And actually researched by some folks at Clemson:

http://newsstand.clemson.edu/clemson-researcher-5-second-rule-means-food-is-safe-right-dont-bet-your-life-on-it/

...ben

On Dec 25, 2017, at 3:38 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM<mailto:hwgray at GMAIL.COM>> wrote:

That you can eat food that has fallen onto the floor, if you pick it up
within some random number of seconds, seems to be a widespread "rule." Or
not. I first heard it in Boston ca. 1996. My personal experience is that,
in general, people eat food that's fallen onto floor or they don't, without
saying anything about it

IAC, during Christmas (Eve) dinner, this "rule" was applied, motivating me
to note that, among black East Texans, people say that "a little grit is
good for your craw." One of my sisters-in-law remarked that she had grown
up [in NE PA] with the expression,

"You'll eat a pound of earth before you die."

That's a new one on me.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org