> I would be, therefore, thankful, in a way, that I've been eating freshly-dropped food off the floor (bathroom floors and many floors in public places excluded) since years before I ever heard the term "Five Second Rule."

Me too. All I have to say here is that the phrase itself is definitely not new--I have known it for years. Like you, however, I was eating foods off the floor long before I heard the phrase. Also, the phrase may be able to enhance cultural acceptance, but I know a lot of people here who, phrase or no phrase, still consider it disgusting to pick up food off the floor.

Another thing I would like to add is that although I have never seen the commercial you refer to with Jeff Goldblum, I used to get one funny commercial all the time. (I think it was for the Passat, but I'm not sure, and whatever car it was for, I won't buy one, so the commercial obviously didn't work, despite being memorable.) There's a young father driving his (Passat) and thinking about how he is not fit to be a father, because his son dropped a cookie on the floor and he told him not to eat it, but inside, he was thinking "Five-second rule. It's still good." The best part of the commercial is the close up of this guy with his face against the floor staring at the cooking, and the baleful look he gives the camera at the end of his monologue.

Also, I would like to submit one more thing related to the five-second rule: a comic strip I modified and printed and put on my fridge in October. I know I've shown this to some Rinkies before.

Don "And that is all that I can think of about the five second rule. Too bad most of it is irrelevant--I just needed to expound" Monkey