the five-second rule

From this NYT blog post

11. Food quickly picked up from the floor is safe to eat. Scientists have put the commonly-cited five-second rule to the test. They found that food that comes into contact with a tile or wood floor does pick up large amounts of bacteria. Food doesn’t pick up many germs when it hits carpet, but it does pick up carpet fuzz.

It cracks me up to read serious debunkings of this “rule.”  It’s a JOKE, people! It always has been!