Last night, I was reading a review of Kathleen Collins' book "Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows," when I came across this passage regarding the author's research of Julia Child's PBS series, "The French Chef."

"[Collins] has even tracked down the truth behind the slippery story of the chicken (or was it a turkey?) that landed on the kitchen floor. Rather anticlimatically, Child never scooped a large bird off the ground and plopped it back onto a platter; instead, it was a small piece of potato pancake, flipped with endearing maladroitness onto the stove top, that provoked her legendary remark, "If you're alone in the kitchen, who is going to see?"

I wondered just that Sunday night, when our annoying new dog, who has a thing for bread products, managed to jump high enough to steal half a loaf of just-baked bread from the counter. By the time she was caught in the act, she'd eaten a goodly portion. So, what did I do? I cut away the half-eaten part, "kissed it up to heaven" (as we used to say when I was a kid) and made toast out of the rest.

Crazy, you say? That loaf took eight minutes to prep,14 hours to proof, two hours to rise and an hour of baking time. What's more, it came out golden and gorgeous -- unlike the loaves I made for that Memorial Day potlock I was telling you about last week.

So, I'm wondering: Are you with me and Julia? Do you evoke the "five-second rule" when things hit the deck? Or would you not be caught dead eating something off the floor, concerned that if you do, you may be taking your life -- or the lives of the people you feed -- into your hands? P.S.: Have you ever "rescued" something you're loathe to admit? Do tell: we won't breathe a word of it.