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Great Debates?

Hotdogs, cereal, GIF. We issue rulings. Send them to whoever is wrong. 20 questions and counting.

Is a hotdog a sandwich?Merriam-Webster says yes; the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council formally ruled no, declaring it its own category. We …
Is cereal a soup?No. Soup is defined by cooking and intent: liquid as the unified dish. Cereal is dry solids meeting cold milk seconds be…
Does pineapple belong on pizza?The Hawaiian was invented in 1962 by a Greek immigrant in Canada, sweet-plus-salty has centuries of culinary precedent, …
Is water wet?Wetness describes a liquid adhering to a solid, so water makes things wet rather than being wet itself. Fire is not burn…
How do you pronounce GIF?The format's creator insists on JIF, peanut butter and all, but usage surveys show the hard G winning decisively, and cr…
Should you tip on takeout?Something small, in the 10 percent range, when someone assembled and packed the order, and nothing is genuinely acceptab…
Is it rude to recline your airplane seat?You paid for a seat that reclines, so it is not rude to use it, but it is rude to slam it back without looking. The real…
Should toilet paper hang over or under?Over, and there is a patent to prove it. The 1891 patent drawing shows the paper hanging over the top. Over is also more…
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?Botanically a fruit, legally a vegetable in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that tomatoes are vegetab…
Do you really need to wait 30 minutes after eating to swim?No. There is no evidence linking eating to drowning or dangerous cramps. The advice appears to trace to a 1908 Boy Scout…
Is ketchup on a hot dog actually wrong?No, eat what you like. The rule is a Chicago regional tradition that got treated as universal law, and even the National…
Are there actually rules about which foods belong to which meal?No, and the categories are surprisingly modern and local. Breakfast food is a cultural convention, not a nutritional one…
Is it better to shower in the morning or at night?Night has a slight edge for sleep and clean sheets; morning wins for alertness and for people whose hair needs it. Both …
Is it rude to use speakerphone in public?Yes. You are conscripting everyone nearby into a conversation they did not choose, and unlike ambient noise, speech is u…
Should you take your shoes off in someone else's house?Take them off unless told otherwise, and the hygiene evidence backs the habit. Studies find substantial bacteria on shoe…
Does it matter whether milk goes in the tea before or after?It genuinely changes the chemistry. Adding tea to milk warms the milk gradually; pouring milk into hot tea heats it in s…
Is it better to idle or turn the engine off when waiting?Turn it off past about ten seconds. The old belief that restarting burns more fuel than idling was true for carbureted e…
Is it rude to decline a wedding invitation?No. Declining promptly and warmly is a normal, respected answer, and it saves the couple real money since they pay per h…
Are open offices actually better than cubicles?No, on the evidence. Harvard research tracking employees before and after a move to open plan found face-to-face interac…
Do you have to tip at a counter with a screen?No, and the pressure is by design. Tipping norms expanded to counter service through default screen prompts, not through…