# You have just dropped a cookie on the floor
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 22, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553 "2004-10-22T04:03:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/1 "2004-10-22T04:03:10Z")
What are you going to do about it?
Eat it?
Pick it up and throw it away?
Let your four legged vacuum cleaner with the waggily tail clean it up?
Drop a glass of milk on it?
Buy a new house?
I sincerely want to know. What you do with a cookie on the kitchen floor says a lot about you ya know.
Me? I’d pick it up and eat it. No reason to be distressed about a dropped cookie as far as I’m concerned. The chances of it killing me or making me sick are so thin I imagine, that they’re probably not even worth considering. Who ever died from eating a cookie that fell on the floor?
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/2 "2004-10-22T04:07:11Z")
If it’s warm and gooey, throw it away since it’ll pick up more dirt. If it’s dry and relatively hard or firm, wipe it off and eat it.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/3 "2004-10-22T04:07:30Z")
Assuming it’s still intact, I quickly blow on it (which my rational brain knows does nothing substantial), and eat that sucker.
Mmmmm…cookie…
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### Author:  [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/4 "2004-10-22T04:08:14Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#):
>
> Mmmmm…cookie…
Agreed.
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### Author:  [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/5 "2004-10-22T04:08:46Z")
> [@JoeSki](#):
>
> Who ever died from eating a cookie that fell on the floor?
Famous last words…
😛
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/6 "2004-10-22T04:09:49Z")
Assuming it didn’t fall into one of the pet’s dishes, I’d eat it. Even if it did fall into a pet’s dish, by the way, I’d pick it up and throw it out rather than let the dog eat it. I’ve spent too much time and effort teaching him not to eat found items to let him start with things I drop.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/7 "2004-10-22T04:45:50Z")
Cookies are the _perfect_ junk food. Sweet, delicious, portable. What could be better?
Gooey or not, I’d eat that puppy as long as it didn’t land in the dog food. That’s assuming that it fell on MY floor. I’m not so sure I’d eat someone else’s dirt on my cookie. Some how my dirt is cleaner than everyone else’s dirt. 😛
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### Author:  [@Sharky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sharky)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/8 "2004-10-22T04:59:25Z")
If the dog is nearby, the cookie would never hit the floor. Snarf!
If I get to the cookie first, it’s mine. 😃
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### Author:  [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/9 "2004-10-22T05:15:17Z")
Five second rule (usually).
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### Author:  [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/10 "2004-10-22T05:16:04Z")
5-second rule applies. 😉
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### Author:  [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/11 "2004-10-22T05:17:23Z")
It really depends on if I was feeling motivated enough to pick off the cat hair. Cookie lust knows no obstacles insurmountable, however.
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### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/12 "2004-10-22T06:06:06Z")
I don’t have a problem with applying the 5-second rule to periods of time much closer to 10 or 20 seconds. You just go “five second rule!” and if anyone points out that it was more than five, you ignore them and quietly eat your cookie.
[irrelevant but important hijack]
BUT, don’t let your dog have it if there’s chocolate in it. Chocolate is apparently really dangerous for dogs.
[/hijack]
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/13 "2004-10-22T06:15:33Z")
Five-second rule, depending on the floor. I mean, a restroom floor would warrant an 0.0005-second rule, right?
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### Author:  [@Keapon\_Laffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keapon_Laffin)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/14 "2004-10-22T06:33:19Z")
> [@rjung](#):
>
> Five-second rule, depending on the floor. I mean, a restroom floor would warrant an 0.0005-second rule, right?
Depends whether the cookie hit water or not.
:eek:
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### Author:  [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/15 "2004-10-22T06:38:53Z")
The kinds of cookies that I tend to eat usually smash into a million pieces if they hit a hard floor, rendering them inedible to me. If they hit carpet, I don’t eat them either, because well…eeuuww. It just seems gross to me.
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### Author:  [@Cinnamon\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Girl)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/16 "2004-10-22T06:48:02Z")
> [@TJdude825](#):
>
> [irrelevant but important hijack]
>
> BUT, don’t let your dog have it if there’s chocolate in it. Chocolate is apparently really dangerous for dogs.
>
> [/hijack]
Oh well, hey, if you’re talking chocolate, cat hair be damned!
😃
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/17 "2004-10-22T07:11:04Z")
> [@aeropl](#):
>
> Five second rule (usually).
Ditto on the usually. Depends on the cookie and the floor. I keep my kitchen floor pretty darn clean, so even a gooey cookie (unless falling apart gooey) can be safely rescued.
If the floor isn’t my floor and it’s just a dry cookie? Why bother? Come to think of it, I don’t eat desserts unless they’re totally decadent. I don’t waste my free day calories on anything but the best.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/18 "2004-10-22T08:22:35Z")
No problem with eating it. We don’t have pets and we’re pretty good about keeping the floor clean, so unless it landed in a far corner under the garbage bag, I wouldn’t have any qualms about eating it.
Spaghetti’s another thing entirely.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/19 "2004-10-22T09:26:17Z")
If you saw what my floor looks like, you wouldn’t want to eat it, either. I’d let the dog eat it. (The dogs are one of the reasons you wouldn’t want to eat off the floor.)
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-just-dropped-a-cookie-on-the-floor/270553/20 "2004-10-22T10:16:58Z")
> [@Ruby](#):
>
> Gooey or not, I’d eat that puppy as long as it didn’t land in the dog food.
The…the…COOKIE, right? RIGHT!?
There is no question. If the cookie falls that means I was going for it to begin with. Like a shark at a diver, baby! I’m on that cookie.
Unless \*\*SatOnCookie \*\* is around. Because, you know.
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