According to popular belief—passed down from generation to generation via late-night dorm-room chat—it’s impossible to eat six saltine crackers in a minute. When we at Slate heard about this bit of folklore, we were determined to find out whether it was true. And so we brought a few packages of saltines and a video camera into our New York office so that 16 brave staffers could take the “saltine challenge.”
It was harder than we thought it would be—a mouth stuffed with saltine crumbs produces astonishingly little saliva—and the demonstrated aptitude for downing the crackers varied extensively among us. Did anyone succeed at swallowing six saltines in the allotted 60 seconds? Watch the above video to find out.
