> > Just for fun. What do you think now, 5 years later?
> >
> > Is cheese a topping on a cheeseburger?
>
> Cheese is a topping on a cheeseburger by definition. "Optional" is not part of the meaning of "topping," at least not in my dialect. The only essential thing for the meaning is that a topping go on top of something. Your head's a topping for your body even if you'd not be you without it. Whip cream placed underneath a slice of cake is not a topping. The cheese on the meat of a cheeseburger is a topping.

Nonsense. You are assuming the cheese is on top of the burger, and thus a topping. This isn't true at all: the entity that is the cheesburger consists of both the patty of meat and the cheese.

Your head may be a topping for your body, but it is not a topping for you -- since you include your body and head. Your logic would argue that cheese can be a topping on a hamburger, but never a topping on a cheeseburger.

When you write "The cheese on the meat of a cheeseburger is a topping" you are thus both and wrong and right. The cheese is a topping to the meat, but it is not a topping to the cheesburger since the cheeseburger *must* include cheese to exist at all. You must start looking for toppings to this entity above the cheese.

But your definition is poor anyway because "topping" in this context hardly means "on top of." Is the top half of the bun a topping? Of course not, it's part of the burger. Bacon is rightly considered a topping, even though it goes inside the cheeseburger and not on top of it.

Stephen