Can you eat a nostril?

i would say no.
unless you can also eat empty space

This is hilarious. The things you can’t eat sub group is hard. Basically it only consists of orifices or concepts. Everything else tactile, you could technically eat. Right?

is size an issue?
ex: I cannot eat the hoover dam-because it’s too big

@pat: But you could eat a chunk of the Hoover Dam. A cow is too big, but you can eat it.

Ah~Touch´e

what about something you cannot chew or digest?
does the thing have to go through or just silde down your gullet?

@Les: not exactly. the sun is tactile, but you cannot eat the sun. the ocean is made of many parts which are edible, but you cannot eat the ocean. the rules are ambiguous. the point is to make fun of an academic exercise. it’s arguing for fun about something that absolutely does not matter.

In my opinion, the nostril consist of the two little flaps of the nose that surround the empty space. The flaps of nose-meat are totally edible!

I’m not so sure about the flaps thing. Why aren’t the flaps just “nose”? What would you call the area that people pick?

i think they actually pick the debris in the hair that rests in the nostril, but is attached to the nose…

Yeah, I was thinking what La chica gomela said about the nostril flaps. I suppose it calls for a rigorous anatomical definition of nostril.

Merriam-Webster declines to give a complete win to either side, with two definitions:

1: either of the external nares ; broadly : either of the nares with the adjoining passage on the same side of the septum
2: either fleshy lateral wall of the nose

Mmm, fleshy lateral walls.

I’d say you can’t eat your own nostrils without the aid of a knife.

Some people define “nostril” as being the small bits of skin that encompass the nasal holes (which are actually the nostrils). So, according to that definition, yes you could eat a nostril.

How about the hole in the middle of a ring donut? It exists when the donut is complete, and by eating the donut the hole ceases to exist, thus by that that broken logic one can eat a donut hole.

So what about color? You can eat things that are a color, but you can’t eat pure color.
You can’t eat a rainbow.

If a = c and b = c, then a = c.

If both the nostril and the doughnut hole are nothing but empty space, then they are the same, and a doughnut hole equals a nostril.

We could go from there to think about a lot of other things that are really nostrils. If a nostril is only a hole.

“Nostril” is one of those peculiar words that always sound weird to me and look strange. If I think about nostrils for more than a moment, I start to want to sneeze.

Can you eat any emptiness at all? Can you eat space?

Someone remind me again—why are we discussing this???

If all is emptiness, then we must eat it.

And most of what we perceive as solid is actually empty space, is it not?

Having trouble making up my mind here whether to go with the physicists or the philosophers, understanding, of course, that in essence they are the same thing.

Which means that everything is a nostril, or is made up mostly of nostrils.

Atchoo!

oh god, @Jeruba, you are killing me!!!

@Jeruba. Everything cannot be nothing; nothing is nothing.

@daloon: You cannot eat empty space; there is nothing to eat.

If nothing is nothing, then everything is something…

stop me if you’ve heard this before

I have not.

I don’t think you can eat any orifice, but I suppose you can try.

@Jeruba, big lurves.

Seriously…

Whatever you decide to do, I’d make sure you give it a good clean first.

I learned that if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. So, that indicates to me that if you can eat a nostril, you can eat anything.

Buuuut…. If you eat an entire nose, aren’t you also eating nostrils?

Hmm. I know that you can’t eat a mouth, nor can you eat an asshole, but I’ve eaten several glazed doughnut holes before.
Weird.

So, @toleostoy, was this the kind of answer you were looking for?

yes. yes it was. i think elijahsuicide actually had a good point that may have actually answered my question.

I ‘ave a ‘ole in me pocket.

Of course, we missed entirely the question of whether air is nothing and what “eat” actually means. We could keep this up for a while if you like.

I don’t believe you can literally eat time, nor space. Or, Banquet frozen chicken.

go for it. just keep adding “good questions.” Today is my first day on fluther, and I want my points!

Applies to both nostrils and doughnut holes:
You just got to swallow it whole and hope you don’t choke.

Yay what do I win? A nostril sandwich?

A T-shirt showing a closeup of a nostril.

And I want you to know that it was out of consideration for you guys’s delicate sensibilities that I didn’t choose the image of the simplified nostril instead.

Welcome to fluther, @toleostoy. I think you’ve been shown a pretty good sampling of what we have to offer.

”...nor can you eat an asshole…”

… Welllllllllll…

I can’t believe I missed out on this fun… thanks for the laughs, people!