The Popcorn Stand: How long is too long?

Uber Eats conducted a survey of 1,000 people to understand the eating habits of Americans and it turns out half of those in the survey admit to adhering to the 5-second rule, in other words they admitted to eating food off the floor.

I believe that percentage is higher as I think there are those in the survey who do eat food off the floor, but just don’t admit it. I admit I adhere to the 5-second rule and actually then some. If I’m at a Major League Baseball game and I’ve just spent like $15 for a hot dog and a coke and a I drop the hot dog — let’s just say I’m not wasting $15.

But there is also one trend that’s no longer a trend and that’s brunch, which apparently is on it’s way out. That’s fine with me as I never really understood what brunch was supposed to be. If you eat late in the morning either have a late breakfast or an early lunch.

I’ve even heard there’s actually Thanksgiving brunch which makes absolutely no sense to me. It never made sense to me why we eat at about 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving, but eating at 10 or 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving really makes absolutely no sense.

I do remember an episode of “The Simpsons” in which a man who wants to have an affair with Marge invites her to brunch and March doesn’t know what brunch is. “It’s not exactly breakfast, it’s not exactly lunch, but it comes with a cantaloupe at the end.” Enough said.

There’s also the great debate on if it’s OK to eat food that’s expired and I know people who go to each extreme on this issue. There are those who say “I saved your life” then toss out something that’s five seconds past the expiration to those who say hey it’s only been a couple of weeks past the expiration, it’s still good.

I have to say I’m somewhere in the middle on this issue although I probably lean more to the past expiration side basically because for the same reason why I eat something I’ve dropped, I just don’t like wasting food. Especially when it cost an arm and a leg.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed admit to eating something they know has expired, which doesn’t surprise me.

Now I’m going to eat my leftover chicken and macaroni cheese for lunch and I hope I don’t drop it. Actually it doesn’t matter if I drop it.

— Charles Whisnand