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Great Debates?

Hotdogs, cereal, GIF. We issue rulings. Send them to whoever is wrong. 25 questions and counting.

• 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 any…
• 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…
• 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, and…
• 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…
• 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 side…
• 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 vegetables…
• 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…
• Should you tip on takeout?Something small, in the 10 percent range, when someone assembled and packed the order, and nothing is genuinely acceptable…
• Does the five-second rule actually work?No. Bacteria transfer on contact, essentially instantly, and the amount depends far more on the food's moisture and the…
• Should you wash raw chicken before cooking?No. Rinsing does not remove bacteria, it sprays them around the sink and counter in droplets that can travel a couple of…
• 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 cereal a soup?No. Soup is defined by cooking and intent: liquid as the unified dish. Cereal is dry solids meeting cold milk seconds before…
• 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 Hot…
• 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…
• 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 head…
• 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 interaction…
• Is water wet?Wetness describes a liquid adhering to a solid, so water makes things wet rather than being wet itself. Fire is not burnt…
• 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…
• 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 are…
• 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 a straw have one hole or two?One, on the mathematical definition most people end up agreeing with. A straw is topologically a tube, equivalent to a…
• Is it rude to call someone without texting first?For non-urgent matters, texting first is now the courteous default, and the generational split on this is real rather than…
• Is it acceptable to take your shoes off on a plane?Shoes off is fine on a long flight, socks stay on, and bare feet are not acceptable anywhere outside your own seat. Never go…
• 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…